A! - Sigrún Gyða - Song Cycle of Disappointments: River Requiem

SCOD is a hymn for rivers, glaciers, and the fragile space between grief and hope. The work draws inspiration from the Catholic Mass for the Dead, Icelandic folklore, and the collective force of people moving through the day, unaware that together they form a river.

The song cycle journeys from source to sea, flowing through personal loss, the surreal tenderness of loving the unpredictable, and a river of strangers at sunset. Ultimately, it asks what a voice can become when it joins with others.

Through the work, I reflect on what it truly means to be disappointed, not as a sign of failure, but as a testament to having cared about what ultimately let us down. We have all experienced disappointment at some point, whether in ourselves or in someone we care about.

I remember, at least, my father standing in the doorway of my teenage bedroom the morning after he had picked me up, rather drunk, from a country dance. I could almost physically feel his disappointment as he shook his head in dismay, compounding my pounding hangover. I want to think of disappointment as the space between what we hoped would be and what came to pass.

What does it mean to live on the threshold of irreversible change, and still keep going?