Lei Liang

Lamento della ninfa

Subtitle	by Claudio Monteverdi, arranged for string quartet by Lei Liang
Year(s) composed	2024
Publisher	Schott Music
Duration	6'
Premiere	September 15, 2024; Howland Cultural Center, Beacon, NY Brentano Quartet presented by Howland Chamber Music Circle
Commission	Dedicated to Eleanor Eisenmenger for her friendship and generosity toward new music.
Composer note	“Lamento della ninfa” (“The Nymph’s Lament”) is from Monteverdi’s Madrigals Book VIII. It is structured as a dialogue between a lamenting nymph and a trio of male voices who commiserates with her sorrow. In 1636, Monteverdi wrote: The way to perform the present vocal piece: the three voice parts to be sung before and after the Lament of the Nymph have been kept separate because they are sung to the beaten time (“to the time of the hand”). The other three parts, which softly commiserate with the Nymph, have been printed in score, so that they accompany her lament, which must be sung in time with the emotions of the mind and not in time with the hand. Claudio Monteverdi is one of my musical heroes and an ultimate experimentalist. I was particularly taken when I visited the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice, seeing fresh flowers brought to his tomb every day. – Lei Liang 2024