Orchestration
electric guitar and violin

Commissioned by
Kylan Hillman

Program Notes
This piece is inspired by Plot E of the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in northern France. This is a little-known, unofficial section reserved for 94 American soldiers executed for capital crimes during World War II. Unlike the cemetery’s main plots, visitors are discouraged, no flags fly overhead, and the tombstones bear numbers rather than names. One employee described Plot E as a “perfect anti-memorial," which embodies a stark contradiction: to not memorialize something is to forget it, yet the design of Plot E ensures that these men are remembered.
 
Musically, the work explores this paradox through contrasting textures. Dense, heavy sound clusters reflect the severity of the crimes committed, while the more delicate passages evoke the care with which the cemetery maintains this hidden plot, capturing the tension between dignity and disgust.