Sic transit gloria mundi is a common phrase present throughout art history and literature that signifies the awareness of one’s mortality and the fragility of this world’s reality. The musical content of this piece largely draws from the Gregorian chant settings of a Requiem mass, specifically the movements that do not appear in the Mass of the Ordinary. The extra Latin text refers to existing themes of death and the transience of life. The musical narrative is traced by a live-looping of the mode II Requiem Aeternam chant, followed by a destructive force of sound taking control back from the vocalist in a harrowing Dies Irae. After the glory of this world passes, a voice crying out in the wilderness interjects, inspiring a modulating chorus of angels leading us to a desolate “Paradise Lost."
This project was developed throughout our residency at the University of Richmond as a means to explore the far stretches of vocal processing in a timely setting of the End of Worlds.

In ictu oculi
memento mori
sic transit gloria mundi

In the blink of an eye
Remember (that you have) to die
Thus passes the glory of this world