Dystopia and Transcendence: Tavener's Music for Children of Men

Among the selections used for the score to Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men are two works by John Tavener: Eternity's Sunrise (1997) and Fragments of a Prayer, written, as the composer says, "in response" to the film. The pairing of Tavener's music with scenes of dystopian violence articulates spiritual processes of witness and grief, processes which find fulfillment in the final scene of the film.