The Mona Lisa (Michael Winikoff)

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• CPDL #32869: 

Editor: Michael Winikoff (submitted 2014-09-06).   Score information: Unknown, 8 pages, 903 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: The Mona Lisa
Composer: Michael Winikoff
Lyricist: Leanne Daharja Veitch

Number of voices: 6vv   Voicing: SATTBB

Genre: Secular, Unknown

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

Published: 2009

Description: Leanne wrote: “I keep coming back to this poem. The Mona Lisa has always fascinated me, and there is something incredibly sad about the picture for me. I also find her bone structure interesting, and in this work focused on the fact that not only is the famous smile that was painted now long gone, so too are the fingers that painted her.”

In setting Leanne’s poem I have tried to create a dream-like texture (“acid colours of a dream” and “smoky hues of black, tan and green”). In places the texture vanishes to capture the solitude and loneliness (“such a small smile, so far away”). The section about the visitors (smoking, with flashing lightbulbs, and screaming babies) is set (somewhat ironically) in a happy relaxed style, but, significantly, without any passion or real emotion: it is simply a somewhat pretty tune. The piece ends with a sad fade on the final word: “dust”, emphasised with a sibilant “s”.

In composing this piece I’ve tried to write simply, and to make the piece more readily performable than some of my other works. Although the choir does divide into multiple parts, the piece is almost entirely in 3/4, is rhythmically simple, and does not use any sharps or flats.

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