In this paper, I analyzed an original musical composition, Mora Mortis, that I wrote, recorded, and edited. It is based on the tenth epistle of Ovid's Heroides, a first-person narrative from the perspective of Ariadne after she has been abandoned. Through Ariadne’s telling of her own experience, Ovid imitates sound and manipulates time to create a compelling story. By using language in this way, Ovid’s interpretation of Ariadne’s story invites a musical retelling through the manipulation of these same components, which I attempted through a composition for piano, vibraphone, violin, four vocalists (SATB) and digitally manipulated sound.
