Program Notes
The Bagatelles Chantées is a song cycle based on three poems that I wrote during my two first years in New York City. It is only after my studies at the Juilliard School in 2015 that I decided to set them to music. Each of the songs had to have, like the poems themselves, its distinct style. Accordingly, I came up with the idea of making them - to a certain extent - style studies. In the dedication line under every song title in this edition you will find the name of the composer whose style I gave my best to emulate. The first song, Spleen, is dedicated to Olivier Messiaen. The second song, Silence, is dedicated to Gérard Grisey. The third and last song, La Reine (The Queen), is dedicated to Francis Poulenc.
-Alexander Liebermann
-Alexander Liebermann