In preparation

               I. Ange
               II. Claire
               III. Bella

Three Songs (2025) is about the joy of learning new things about old friends. This piece is a continuation of a long friendship with the Quatuor Bozzini which began in 2009. When we started working on this piece, I asked the quartet many questions, including what songs they sang as children, or perhaps to their children. To these and other questions, I was delighted to understand that there was so much about my old friends that I didn’t yet know — and I was reminded of the poem “The Whistler” by Mary Oliver where she writes about learning with surprise that her wife of thirty years can whistle (“as from the throat of a cheerful bird, not caught but visiting”).

These three French and Italian folk / campfire songs were sang to me by the quartet members, and I have treated them almost as lullabies — thinking about how it feels to sing to a child or friend, about how it is not only comforting for the receiver but also for the singer. I started by transcribing their singing, and I zoomed in on the elements that had to do with the feeling of rocking, holding or consolling. These elements then repeat around and around until they can be heard out of context, as if anew. “I know her so well, I think. I thought. […] Who is this I’ve been living with for thirty years? This clear, dark, lovely whistler?”