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Programme Note

Digital perusal score available from SchirmerOnDemand

Related works:
   Praline and Fudge for voice and piano

Composer's Note:
I wrote the first version of Praline and Fudge: Recitative and Aria in Baroque Style for bass and piano, in 1989. In 1997, the San Antonio Symphony commissioned a version for orchestra.

The title is a variation on "Prelude and Fugue," and the texts are from cookbooks: the recitative (Andante con molto anticipazione) is a recipe for pralines, and the aria (Allegro glucoso) is a recipe for fudge. There are multiple examples of Handelian word-painting, on words such as "stir," "dropped" and "bottom," with a long rising melisma on the word "grease."

— Robert X. Rodríguez