Milosz Songs was Harbison's first commissioned work for the New York Philharmonic and his fourth piece composed for the soprano Dawn Upshaw. It was also Harbison's second setting of the poetry of Czesław Miłosz, following his Flashes and Illuminations for baritone and orchestra. The score requires that the soloist be surrounded by a concertino group at the front of the stage. Harbison described its purpose in the score program notes, writing, "This concertino plays an important, varied role in every song. I thought of these players as satellites revolving around the path of the singer."[1] Harbison subsequently composed a reduced version of the score for voice and piano.[3][4]
Structure
Milosz Songs has a duration of roughly 30 minutes and consists of a prologue, eight movements, an epilogue, and a post-epilogue.
Reviewing the world premiere, Anthony Tommasini praised Milosz Songs, writing, "[Harbison's] lucid and precisely wrought music complements Milosz's gripping words. Those who prefer the brasher kinds of contemporary music may find Mr. Harbison's score, with its audible textures and essentially tonal harmonic language, rather well mannered and soft-spoken. But quizzical things keep happening below the surface, and there are imaginative strokes in every phrase."[5]