Memento Mori

Been thinking of devoting a notebook - a physical one - to death and grief. But for now, this will suffice.

MEMENTO MORI, MEMENTO VIVIRE

I. MORS VITAE PRAECANTOR

• Danse Macabre, Op. 40 by Saint-Saëns
  IMSLP | YouTube
• The Hearse Song
  • Brillig: YouTube | Bandcamp
  • Rusty Cage: YouTube | Bandcamp

  And the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out
  They'll eat your guts and then shit them out
  And when your bones begin to rot
  The worms remain, but you do not

II. OMNES UNA MANET NOX

• Genesis 3:19

  For dust you are and to dust you shall return.

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• Death the Leveller by James Shirley

  There is no armour against Fate;
  Death lays his icy hand on kings:
  Sceptre and Crown / Must tumble down,
  And in the dust be equal made

• Song of the Worm by Eliza Cook

  Oh! The worm, the rich worm, has a noble domain,
  For where monarchs are voiceless I revel and reign;
  I delve at my ease and regale where I may;
  None dispute with the worm in his will or his way.
  The high and the bright for my feasting must fall--
  Youth, Beauty, and Manhood, I prey on ye all:
  The Prince and the peasant, the despot and slave;
  All, all must bow down to the worm and the grave.

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• Passacaglia della vita by Stefano Landi
  YouTube

INTERIECTURA: SPIRARE ULTIMO

There is only one liberty, to come to terms with death, thereafter anything is possible.

III. VITA FUIT, PERDURAT MAEROR

Grief is the love that endures.

• A Grief Observed by CS Lewis

  It is hard to have patience with people who say, ‘There is no death’ or ‘Death doesn’t matter.’ There is death. And whatever is matters. And whatever happens has consequences, and it and they are irrevocable and irreversible.

• After My Brother's Death, I Reflect on the Iliad by Elisa Gonzalez

  Mischief companion. Brother. Listen to me

  plead for your life though even in the dream I know you’re already dead.
  How do I ensure my desire for grief is never satisfied?

Funeral Marches

• Mozart: Little Funeral March in C minor (K453a)
  IMSLP | YouTube
• Liszt: Funeral Prelude and Funeral March (S206)
  IMSLP | YouTube
• Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, 'Death and the Maiden': II. Andante con moto
  IMSLP | YouTube
• Schubert: Piano Trio in E flat major (D929): II. Andante con moto
  IMSLP | YouTube

Music for the Requiem Mass

• Mozart: Requiem in D Minor (K626): Sequence No. 6: 'Lacrimosa dies illa' arr. piano
  ISMLP | YouTube

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• The Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet VIII: Lament for Enkidu
  YouTube

  He was the axe at my side in which my arm trusted.
  He was the sword in my belt and the shield in front of me.
  He was my festive robe, and the whole of my delight.

• My Immortal by Evanescence
  YouTube

  There's just too much that time cannot erase

• Mirror Reaper by Bell Witch (Full Album)
  YouTube | Bandcamp
• Moonlight Kissed by Poets of the Fall
  YouTube

  New day comes again / And it laughs in your face
  Whispering secrets of pain / By all its names
  What flame could burn out the stain / Of a life misplaced?

• Paint it Black by The Rolling Stones, Bardcore cover by Hildegard von Blingin'
  YouTube

SEORSUM: CEDE TENEBRIS

The desire to drown and never resurface.

• Fade to Black by Metallica

IV. AVE ATQUE VALE

• In Blackwater Woods by Mary Oliver

  To live in this world

  you must be able / to do three things:
  to love what is mortal; / to hold it

  against your bones knowing / your own life depends on it;
  and, when the time comes to let it go,
  to let it go.

• Nothing Else Matters by Metallica
  YouTube

• Going Home by Shiro SAGISU (Bleach OST)

• Here to Stay by Shiro SAGISU (Bleach OST)

NON OMNIS MORIAR

aaron schwartz, on the other side of grief with ocean vuong

• In a way, grief is a marker of time. There was this, and then there wasn't this, but you're still here

To speak the name of the dead is to make them live again.