Three Songs

Three Songs was expertly composed by Nico Muhly . There is a two-note drone that sounds throughout this piece’s 15-minute duration. In the first part of the songs, the Tenor and the Violin exchange lyrical and declamatory statements. The second part is a song without words: a sort of dance for solo Violin. The third part has the Violin intoning a pair of notes while the tenor sings, in essence, a list. The work was commissioned by violinist Tatiana Berman on French surrealist poems of her choosing, and was premiered at the Constella Festival in Cincinnati in 2012.