Has it really been five years since the Ehime Maru tragedy? Time passes, and life moves on, but tragedy endures, undiminished.

Words, memorials and ceremonies nibble at the edges of tragedy but rarely reach into its emotional abyss the way music can.

At its "Tribute and Remembrance" concert on Friday, the Honolulu Symphony commemorated the five-year anniversary with the premiere of Donald Reid Womack's "After," for shakuhachi, koto and orchestra, which traced an emotional journey through tragedy's wake.

"I wanted to make it a human piece," Womack explained, "I tried to understand what the people were going through." Although he studied the popularized five stages of grief, Womack concluded that grief is more complex than that and strove to overlap the emotions in his music, creating a one-movement integrated structure.

"After" opened with the shock of the event: nine fortissimo, crashing chords symbolizing the nine who died and representing the emotional and physical impact when the submarine USS Greeneville collided with the Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru.

What followed was an intense passage of chaos and turmoil of the kind that so often makes listeners uncomfortable, yet so perfectly captures the immediate aftermath of tragedy. Tragedy, after all, is not pretty. From that chaos, Womack sorted out various emotions, punctuating sections with passages featuring koto and shakuhachi, ever so gradually wending a way toward reconciliation and ending in quiet acceptance.

Womack's "After" demanded of its audience more than just a wish to be entertained: it demanded a willingness to remember, to relive, and truly to commemorate the tragedy, but it also offered a comforting path to healing.

The passages for koto and shakuhachi were particularly moving, in part because the music was so intensely personal, but mainly because of the soloists' exceptional skill. Reiko Kimura (koto) and Seizan Sakata (shakuhachi) were, simply put, outstanding in a way that defies succinct description.

The second half of the concert featured "Cantata Tengai" (The Prayer of a Free Person) by the well-known Shigeaki Saegusa, whom Joan Landry, the Honolulu Symphony's associate conductor, described as "the John Williams of Japan."

Composed in eight movements on a libretto by Masahiko Shimada, "Cantata Tengai," too, grappled with coming to terms with death and offered another, more peaceful path to healing, unified by the theme "God made this Earth round, so that those apart can meet again."

The most striking element of the piece was the soloist: boy soprano Takaaki Ozawa, whose high, clear voice and angelic demeanor completely entranced the audience. From the moment he began singing, a standing ovation was a foregone conclusion. Few vocal timbres can rival that of a boy soprano, and it is a shame we hear them so seldom.

"Cantata Tengai" also starred the Roppongi Japanese Male Chorus, a group of businessmen, doctors, politicians and academics who gather frequently for the sheer pleasure of making music together. Composer Saegusa (baritone) and librettist Shimada (tenor) performed as well, as members of the choir. The choir was joined in the final movement by the men of the Honolulu Symphony Chorus.

Friday's concert offered audiences an unusually rich experience: two new works, including a world premiere; composers Womack and Saegusa and librettist Shimada present to discuss their works; a boy soprano soloist and two renowned instrumental soloists; a visiting choir; a guest conductor ... The experience was likely unprecedented in Honolulu, and certainly one to remember.

The Roppongi Japanese Male Chorus, left, made its American debut Friday night at "Tribute and Remembrance," the Honolulu Symphony's Halekulani MasterWorks concert remembering the Ehime Maru tragedy at its fifth anniversary. The concert features new compositions with Japanese ties that take audiences on an intense emotional journey. An exceptional boy soprano soloist and two renowned instrumental soloists heighten the experience.