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REQUIESCANT ('Let them rest') is a predominantly calm and quiet lament (marked 'doloroso') based on a very limited store of musical elements: (1) a melodic fragment (initially for the two stringed instruments, later extended to the woodwinds), (2) static bass pedal points (in the piano), and (3) a short chorale, the three stanzas of which are gradually shared by the entire sextet. The piece is laid out in five continuous sections. Ornamental flashing figures first heard in the woodwinds, louder piano interjections, and a few declamatory pizzicati and trills all offer momentary animation during the overall placid time-span of the work. The chorale is borrowed from an earlier composition of mine - SERENATA OSCURA (1998) - and eventually finds some repose in a brief quotation from Claudio Monteverdi's 1608 Lamento d'Arianna: "Lasciate mi morire" ('O, let me now die!) REQUIESCANT is approximately eleven minutes in duration and is scored for three 'duos': flute and clarinet; violin and violoncello; piano, vibraphone and gongs. It was completed in October of 2001 while traveling to Rochester, New York and Evansville, Indiana. The score was written as one composer's reaction to, and as a memorial for those deceased following, the horrific events of September Eleven, and bears a Wm.Shakespeare inscription: "How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea?" The first performance was given by members of Proteus 5 at the Aspen Colorado Music Festival in the summer of 2002.