---

Programme Note

I’ve always dreamed of writing a substantial collection of choral
works that might enter the standard choral repertoire, something
with the depth and passion of Monteverdi’s Fourth Book of
Madrigals and the charm and timelessness of Brahms’
Liebeslieder Waltzes.
I wrote this instead.
This is the first ‘volume’ of Animal Crackers, and if everything
goes as planned I’ll write several more. (Ogden Nash wrote
scores of these ridiculous animal poems, all of them crying out
for musical settings.) Feel free to mix and match pieces between
volumes to create your very own personalised zoo, and
remember: the performance will be extraordinarily more effective
if you play these as seriously and soberly as possible.
Cheers!
Eric Whitacre