Lullabies
Solo baritone
Commissioned by Marguerite Levin for Trio Montage.
Lullabies, commissioned by clarinetist Marguerite Levin for her Ensemble Montage, consists of a series
of meditations—in song and dance—on fatherhood, particularly that of young children as I’ve
experienced over the past nine years. Each song in the cycle treats with the various anxieties, fears,
uncertainties and, most of all, joys of having young children and the ruminations—such as thoughts of
encroaching mortality– that leads to. The dances, meanwhile, present musical portraits of my own
children—and one overgrown man child—in sound.
Lullabies was commissioned by Marguerite Levin for Trio Montage, Phillip Collister, baritone,
Marguerite Levin, clarinets, Timothy McReynolds, piano. It was premiered by Trio Montage at Weill
Hall, Carnegie Concert Hall, in October, 2011. It is dedicated with much love to my daughters, Olivia
and Elena.