Memento mori is a solo piano work written in 1992. Its title, traditionally translated as “remember that you must die,” gives the piece its philosophical frame: not death as an ending only, but death as the shadow that changes the meaning of memory, play and adulthood.

The three-part design moves through a ritual opening, a return to childhood and a final confrontation with adulthood. The second part’s title, Back to Childhood · Let’s Play Grownups · Childhood, gives the work its psychological hinge: childhood is not nostalgia alone, but a place where future masks are rehearsed.

• Form Three-part solo piano work.
• Duration Approximately 12 minutes.
• Forces Solo piano.

Memento mori belongs to the early layer of Auerbach’s piano catalogue, alongside works such as Fantasia and Images from Childhood. Its subject matter already points toward themes that recur throughout her later work: remembrance, childhood, mourning, ritual and the fragile border between innocence and knowledge.

The internal subtitles create a miniature life-arc. The opening is liturgical and memorial; the center turns toward childhood and role-play; the close names adulthood and mortality together. The work’s drama is not theatrical in an external sense, but inward: a memory structure compressed into twelve minutes.

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