Nico Muhly

So Many Things

The sheet music for contemporary virtuoso composer Nico Muhly's So Many Things, arranged for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano Accompaniment. So Many Things was commissioned by a number of institutions, including The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, UC Berkeley and Carnegie Hall. Lasting around 15 minutes, Muhly has set three poems to this wonderful music, including a lengthy narrative poem by Joyce Carol Oates and two translations of C. F. Cavafy by Daniel Mendelsohn. Muhly has brilliantly managed to take the emotion of the words and replicate them through music, creating an astonishingly moving accompaniment that not only reflects the lyrical sentiment but complements it. He states that the Piano moves between skittish and ostinato, relentless but often pausing for an effective break in the musical narrative. With drones and palindromes from the Piano, the Voice leaps between intervals, creating a dynamism that creates uncertainty rather than resolve, much like the poetry.