Lullaby & Doina
Lullaby & Doina (2001)
This piece starts with a set of variations on a Yiddish lullaby that I composed for Sally Potter's film The Man Who Cried, set to function well in counterpoint to another important music theme in the soundtrack: Bizet's Aria Je Crois Entendre Encore, from The Pearl Fishers. In her film Sally explores the fate of Jews and Gypsies in Europe during the mid-years of the 20th century, through a love story between a Jewish young woman and a Gypsy young man. The lullaby metamorphoses into a dense and dark doina (a gypsy slow, rubato genre) featuring the lowest string of the violas. The piece ends in a fast gallop boasting a theme that I stole from my friends of the wild gypsy band Taraf de Haïdouks.
Duration
7'30
Premiered
Jordan Hall, Boston
April, 2001
Premier Performance
by Boston Symphony Chamber Players
Commissioned
by the Boston Symphony Chamber Players
Dedicated
to Anthony Fogg and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players