Songs with Words (2015)

Mezzo-Soprano, Baritone and Piano – 14 mins.
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Program Note

Songs with Words
Lyrics by Steve Pollitt
to music by Don Freund

Program notes from the composer

I have always been more than a little jealous of the great American songwriters like Jerome Kern,
George Gershwin, Bert Bacharach, not only for their brilliant genius in coming up with fascinating and
memorable tunes, but also their associations with lyricists who found just the right turn of phrase to
capture the magical syntax of their music. Not knowing what to do with the melodies I have come up
with over the years, I’ve been slipping them into string quartets and concertos, and even tried collecting
three of them in a little set called Songs without Words for viola and piano. So I was thrilled when
Steve Pollitt asked if I’d like him to write lyrics for some of these “great American songbook”
wannabe’s, and I continue to be amazed at how beautifully Steve’s words and ideas add a fresh
dimension to these “Songs with Words.”

We are greatly indebted to mezzo-soprano Amanda Russo and baritone Reuben Walker not only for
their compelling and stylistically spot-on performances in the concert premiere and the definitive
recording session, but also for putting their tremendous vocal resources and imaginative artistry at our
disposal during the creative process, working behind the scenes with me and Steve to find just the right
touches in the music and lyrics to fashion what we believe is a new and persuasive approach to the
marriage of words and music.

Notes on the lyrics from the lyricist, Steve Pollitt:

The five songs describe three different male/female relationships. The first, Sunbreeze Song, the
Beach at Hua-Hin, is my fantasy on Sandra and Don’s vacation to Thailand. The couple here is
mature, married and quite comfortable with one another. Second is a pair of songs, My Mistakes
and What Were You Thinking? which tell of the first meeting between a teenage girl and her father
some months after his break up with her mother. This couple is neither mature nor comfortable,
quite the contrary. The final pair in this song cycle, Muse and Hawthorne Scented Air, concern a
muse and her man who, through no fault of their own, are losing contact with one another after a
long and loving partnership.