Carey Tan’s Symphony No. 2, The Cries of War, looks beyond the battlefield. It asks what happens after destruction, when human beings must face memory, responsibility, and the difficult search for peace.

This excerpt is from the third movement, The Pact. The music imagines political leaders gathered after a ceasefire, locked in urgent debate. Each instrument becomes a different voice: one shouting in anger, one thinking in silence, others whispering, interrupting, or negotiating in private.

Through these vivid instrumental dialogues, Carey portrays the fragile process of compromise — the struggle to balance power, fear, grief, and hope, until the possibility of peace slowly begins to appear.