Songs My Mother Taught Me

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Commissioned By

Abbey Greene

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First Performance

April 2024

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Ensemble

Voice and Piano

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Duration

3 minutes

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Program Notes

Songs My Mother Taught Me is a four-line poem, with the first two lines discussing the past, and the last two the present. I've set these four lines in the same keys and with the same melodic contour to emphasize the original poem. The middle section gradually modulates to a foreign key and new time signature to bring the listener and singer back in time, with the singer remembering their mother singing this lullaby. As the lullaby ends, there is a much more abrupt transition back into the main idea as the singer is snapped out of their daydream and reveals the similarities between themselves and their mother. 

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Songs My Mother Taught Me by Alfred Heyduk, Tr. Natalie McFarren

Songs my mother taught me in the days long vanished, 

Seldom from my eyes were the teardrops banished. 

Now I teach my children each melodious measure; 

Often tears are flowing from my memory's treasure. 

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(second stanza written by Jaclyn Breeze)

Darling, darling, what do you fear?

The darkness brings peace through all of your tears. 

Darling, darling, what do you fear? 
The darkness brings peace through all your years. ​