Cradle Song of the Lonely Mother, Op. 108 for flute sextet

This intriguing piece is deeply unsettling as a sleep-inducing rock-a-bye cradle song. The title suggests a scenario – a lonely mother singing a lullaby while rocking a cradle. Perhaps the mother’s child died, yet she still rocks an empty cradle while singing to her dead child. There is an eerie plummeting feeling created by the saturation of chromaticism throughout. Chromatic triplets in the middle section creep up and down with no harmonic relation to the melody, producing a distinctly ghostly sensation. This arrangement, based on the original piano composition, is scored for flute sextet with one flute doubling on piccolo.

Listen