Reflection

Reflection

As I sat with my mom by the water, I remember feeling like I saw the theme, "Water Rising," in the shape of the tides. Minute by minute, the waves rolled in, bigger and smaller, bigger and smaller. The ocean held a certain power and looked almost like she was reaching out to us, asking us to understand and think about her more than as just a body of water beside the sand. When I arrived back home, I sat down with my cello and began to reimagine the waves. What did the ocean carry? Why did she want us to feel her, to see her? I imagined her pain and sorrow at the state of her waters: constant abuse with only small remedies, Band-aids on mortal wounds. My mind then went to the composer, Fauré, and his Elegy, which was produced during a state of anguish following a great war in his home country. The slow, sad, and heavy melody reminded me of the weight of the waves, reaching out to our ankles on the beach. I used his piece as inspiration in composing mine. As I researched about the ocean, I was truly horrified by the atrocities (pollution, overfishing, global warming) being committed to the sea and its billions of inhabitants. It is their sorrow that I wanted to convey through my song. I hope that every listener is able to empathize with the struggles of the sea and feels motivated to make a difference in any way they can.