Composer’s Note:

“Serenade — of moonless nights with a last warm wind that hovers late and tender before winter’s chill,” for cello and piano, was commissioned by and written for Linda Jennings. The title came from my reading of Rilke’s “Book of Hours,” and refers to a singing lyricism, which is at the heart of the music’s inspiration.

A music that sings in phrases, periods and sections, and a musical narrative that unfolds with three different ideas interweaving. An andante (A) that moves with a strolling lilt, an expressive cantabile (B) with a cello and piano dialogue and its progressing development, and an almost whimsical but nuanced dance-like fast tempo (C) where the cello pizzicato leads to a punctuated and celebratory conclusion.

A diagram of the interweaving ideas, A B A C B C demonstrates how the B sections serve to unify, with their singing and developing lines, two smaller three-part structures.