V'lamnios

Introduction
“V’lAmnios” is the last known composition of Lady Valeria Selrieen Garist, the noted Rebel sympathizer and musical genius. Lady Garist was an Alderaanian composer who was off-world when the Death Star arrived. She had been famous for her concertos since before the founding of the Empire, but she had not written a single symphony since the Republic fell. Her Symphony Number 3 was dedicated to Palpatine and was premiered two months after the start of the Clone Wars. After a twenty-year abstinence from the genre and the wild success of her latest opera, Lady Garist announced that she intended to write one more symphony. She was heavily pressured by the Imperial Council for the Arts to conform to strict standards of composition. Under their direction, she completed the last movement at her summer home on Chandrila on the same morning that Alderaan was destroyed. This critically acclaimed piece is a triumph of Imperial creativity, but was heralded and condemned by some as a Rebel anthem. It is now on the Empire’s list of banned compositions. The more common name of Garist’s Symphony Number 4 is “V’lAmnios.” This is a term taken from the composer’s native language of Taiald and means “To the Unforgotten.”

Composer biography
In the early years of the Empire, the fine arts all but stopped. Many of the artists opposed the new regime and either refused to produce works in honor of their new Empire or were imprisoned for their seditious acts.

One of the most memorable composers of the late-Republic era was Lady Valeria Selrieen Garist. The sister of the late Lady Palpatine, she had enjoyed her debut with the Republican Symphony Orchestra at the age of 22, when she performed her own Concerto for Kloohorn and Orchestra. By the time she turned twenty-five, she had premiered three symphonies, the last of which was called the "Just" symphony. It was dedicated to Chancellor Palpatine, who was fighting for the preservation of the Republic in the midst of the Clone Wars.

Only two months later, the Chancellor became Emperor and Lady Garist's sister disappeared. She and her husband, a former speechwriter for the Chancellor, retired to Alderaan, where he took a position of press secretary for the Royal Family.

Garist's music seemed to go through a mourning phase, with her melancholy "Patriot's Requiem" honoring those who had fallen in the name of justice. Her operas, which comprised the bulk of her work after the fall of the Republic, recalled the heroes of old and mythology rather than extolling Imperial virtues. She was wildly popular, but frowned upon by the Imperial Council for the Arts. They even went so far as to cut the third act of her sixth opera because it spoke against tyrants.

Composition of the Symphony
As she neared her forty-second birthday, Garist announced to the ICA and the musical community that she intended to write one final symphony before abandoning that form of composition for others. The ICA demanded samples of the manuscript and proposals, but made it clear that they would ban it from Imperial concert halls if it had any anti-Imperial leanings.

No one world can claim to be the home of this Symphony. Garist spent the next year traveling to over twenty worlds. They ranged from the affluent centers of commerce such as Thyferra to the barren wastelands of Naboo. She traveled alone, but could be found writing in almost any environment. It is reported that the highly-acclaimed "Supplication" theme from the third movement was based on the morning prayers of refugees in the Ghorman camps.

Eventually, she retreated to her family's summer home on Chandrila. Her diary records that "I came here for the memories I had of simpler times. The effort of writing this symphony has troubled my soul and I cannot find peace even at Aldera.  Perhaps I can find my faith here again."

Word came while she was there of the death of Princess Leia Organa. Her notes on the original manuscript mark off the middle section of the last movement as "Prayer for a Fallen Angel." Three days later, she had finally finished the composition and commed her husband to deliver the news. The signal did not go through and it was not until hours later that word of Alderaan's destruction came to her.

First movement
The symphony opens with a reverent woodwind chorale that gives way to an agitated, chromatic main theme that is dominated by the strings. It is a movement that seems to argue with itself, demanding attention for the conflict while yearning to return to the more peaceful themes. Finally, the main theme wins out, racing between octaves while the chorale accompanies it, biding its time. In the midst of the middle section, a kloohorn takes up a countermelody that embraces both styles and soars above the turmoil of the main theme. The movement ends in a martial tone with the chromatic melody driving it forward inexorably to its minor-key conclusion.

Second movement
This is the only symphonic movement to be comprised entirely of percussion. The war drums of the opening pages herald the might of the syncopated rhythm that seems ill at ease with itself. Snare drums call other elements of the percussion section to arms, but they enter reluctantly. Eventually, a set of handbells introduces a more steady beat that draws the other instruments in. It is not quite in step with the dominant war drums, but gradually, it calms the tone of the movement until all of the elements are either united or complementing each other.

Third movement
The shortest of the movements requires a children's choir. It is at a sedate tempo with a gentle ostinato in the strings and a complementary theme in the brass that sounds more like the strains of a lullaby than a symphony. Finally, the choir dominates the movement with the text of B'la'ti'mena's "Supplication." A disturbing element is a resurgence of the first movement's melody in the lower strings, working against the message of peace. It is overcome by the choir's cooperation with the brass.

Fourth movement
This incorporates all of the themes from the previous movement while being driven by a military march that is bolstered by the war drums of the second movement and runs in counterpoint to the first movement's chromatic melody. The movement grows chaotic and agitated towards the middle, but it is the theme of the "Supplication" that triumphs in the end, trailing elements of the woodwind chorale and the cooperative percussion. These elements combine for the somber, pleading tones of "Prayer for a Fallen Angel." It soars to a climax with the handbells taking up the theme of the "Supplication." Finally, the military march is converted into a dance melody in anticipation of the piece's final triumph.

Premiere and Public response
The symphony was premiered by the Center Philharmonic six months to the day after the destruction of Alderaan. The composer refused to conduct it, yielding the baton to a fellow survivor of Alderaan. Instead, she participated as the kloohorn soloist in the third movement.

Imperial publicity of the piece hailed it as a triumph of cooperative spirit that embodied the best of Imperial virtues. It was approved unilaterally by the ICA.

Most of those in attendance at the premiere had lived through the rise of the Empire and in spite of the tone of the piece, it was received in an emotionally charged atmosphere. Many wept through the third movement, including the conductor. In the fourth movement, people stood, not in protest, but in support of what the Symphony stood for. The applause at the conclusion went on for a full ten minutes.

Public criticism emerged when Rebel propaganda videos began using the "Prayer for a Fallen Angel" as their anthem. The composer spoke out in support of their understanding and was censured for her sedition. By the time of the Battle of Endor, so many people had recognized the anti-Palpatinistic tendencies of the symphony that it was banned in the Empire.

When the New Republic was formed, the third movement was performed for the first time since its ban at the celebration of the conquest of Coruscant.

Behind the Scenes

 * This symphony is inspired by Shostakovich's 5th Symphony. Written during the Stalin regime, it was expected to be a pro-communist masterpiece, but instead was a tribute to those people who had been murdered or imprisoned in the name of the state.  The public response as described at the premiere is inspired by the story of the 5th Symphony's premiere.