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Christopher Cerrone

The Naomi Songs

version for voice and piano

(2015)

Text information	Text by Bill Knott
Duration	8'
Movements	1. The Beach 2. I Left 3. When Our Hands Are Alone
Commission	Commissioned by  the Albany Symphony Orchestra with Funds Provided by the Music Alive Residency Program of New Music USA
Premiere	May 15, 2015; The Curis R. Priem Experimental Music and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute , Troy, NY; David Alan Miller, conductor • Theo Bleckmann, voice
Language	English
Technical requirements	The singer should be amplified throughout with a fairly generous amount of reverb on his or her voice. He or she is asked to loop his voice in the third movement. In the case of the premiere the singer used a hardware looping and reverb set up. The composer also provides a simple application built in Max/MSP.
Publisher	PSNY

Media

Program Note

I discovered the poetry of Bill Knott through my friend Eric Shanfield, who dumped a series of interesting documents that he’d found on the internet onto my hard drive. Among these was an unadorned file set in Times New Roman titled “ALL MY THOUGHTS ARE THE SAME, the collected poems of Bill Knott.”

I poured over this curious volume which the author (then living) posted on the internet for free. What I discovered was a humorous and passionate writer of short poems. I was particularly taken by a series of four poems that were all addressed to a mysterious Naomi. Later, when I heard he had died in late 2014, it seemed to appropriate to memorialize him with a short song cycle based on his poems.

Since each one of these short songs is concerned with love, I decided to put the entire piece in the same key (F) with each song in a different mode (different minor and major scales). The melancholy first song, “The Beach,” channels French Impressionism punctuated with pizzicati. The second, “I left” luxuriates in long, sensuous melismas. The third “When our hands are alone” is a moment of safety and repose (featuring either electronic looping or two extra voices). And the final—“What Language Will be Safe?”—returns to the opening song, with an unexpected resolution.

- Christopher Cerrone

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Full Score/Performance Score (price reflects 4 copies) (Digital)

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Choral Booklet (Digital)

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Full Score in 3 volumes (Print)

Anthology edition (Print)

Choral Score (includes 4 copies) (Print)

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Full Score/Performance Score (4 required for performance) (Digital)

solo part and piano reduction (Digital)

solo part and piano reduction (Print)

Full Score/Performance Score (6 scores required for performance) (Digital)

Performance Score (includes 4 scores) (Print)

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Pricing reflects cost of 5 digital scores.

Full Score/Performance Score (8 scores required for performance) (Print)

Full Score/Performance Score (5 copies required for performance) (Print)

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Vocal Score Set - License for 16 copies (Digital)

Vocal Score Set - 16 copies (Print)

Score (Digital)

Score (Print)

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Full Score/Performance Score (price reflects 5 copies) (Digital)

Full Score/Performance Score (6 scores needed for performance) (Print)

Full Score/Performance Score (price reflects 6 copies) (Digital)

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Full Score/Performance Score (Digital)
The full score serves as a performance score for all players. A score PDF file is delivered via email upon receipt. Any electronic files associated with the work are included with every purchase. An email containing a link to download the electronic files is sent to the customer's email address.

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A print edition of the score and part(s) ship to the customer's address upon receipt. Any electronic files associated with the work are included with every purchase. The email containing a link to download the electronic files is sent to the customer.

Solo Instrument Score (Print)
A print edition of the score is shipped to the customer's address upon receipt. Any electronic files associated with the work are included with every purchase. An email containing a link to download the electronic files is sent to the customer's email address.

Full Score/Performance Score (Print)
The full score serves as a performance score for all players. Print edition(s) of the full score/performance score are shipped to the customer's address upon receipt. Multiple copies are included if the work has more than one player. Any electronic files associated with the work are included with every purchase.

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A PDF file of the choral score is delivered via email upon receipt. The set is priced to allow multiple copies of the PDF to be printed for performance by the purchasing organization only.

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