Three Love Songs by Andrew List was commissioned by and dedicated to Mezzo-Soprano D'Anna Fortunato. Each of the three texts show different sentiments of love. First Sonnet from the Portuguese is about Elizabeth Barrett Browning's abandonment of the hope of love but through a miracle of fate love found her. The text for the song Us was written by my close friend Peter Morris for his partner of 43 years Jack Frey. It is reflection of their love through many years of their life together. The poem As A Dream Unfolding was written for D'Anna Fortunato by her partner at that time Marc Weidershein. It expresses an extremely personal love that stirs from the soul of the poet. She never saw or heard the poem until these songs were written.
It was my goal in writing of these songs that the musical language be different for each one so that the color of the music expresses the mood, tone and intent of each poem.
