To a Child

This music was composed for my son when he was six years old. Every parent has endless dreams about their children, coupled equally with fears of what can go wrong. The four poems by W.B. Yeats included in this group of songs captured those feelings so wonderfully that I decided to set them for female voice with string quartet accompaniment. The form of the work is a little unusual – it begins with an opening prelude for string quartet alone, followed by the first song. Thereafter, each song is followed by a brief interlude for the strings that is a variation on the opening prelude. The work closes with a postlude that brings back the opening theme.