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Programme Note

A song composed for Letters, Riddles and Writs directed by Jeremy Newson in 1990/1. Devised for the Artifax/BBC 'NOT MOZART' series commemorating the bicentenary of Mozart's death, the film takes as song texts extracts from Mozart's letters and a set of riddles he wrote and distributed in Vienna during the 1787 Carnival. This song combines one such riddle with a remark Mozart made about his professional prospects shortly before his death, and is based entirely on extracts from two of his Haydn quarters.

© Michael Nyman