MOTET: memento mori was composed between February and April of 1988 and is dedicated to the memory of the composer’s grandmother, Veronica Klein. The work is essentially an asymmetrical tripartite arch-structure (the closing section being a simultaneous progressive and retrogressive encapsulation of the opening), though divisions within and between sections are often obscured by the nearly continuous metamorphosis of musical material. Textual materials consist of isolated phonemes in various combinations, which coalesce into brief moments of quasi-semantic coherence. Transformations of rhythmic density, shifting temporal relationships, and the expansion/contraction of the pitch spectrum result in varying degrees of contrapuntal interplay throughout the work.

MOTET: memento mori was first performed by members of the Indiana University Contemporary Vocal Ensemble on 25 October 1988.