Martin Bresnick

Josephine (The Singer)

Josephine (the Singer) takes its title from Franz Kafka's last published story, Josephine the Singer or the Mouse People. This valedictory tale was Kafka's prescient meditation both on musical divas and on what he considered might be the future of the Jews as a persecuted minority in Europe in the twentieth century. Bresnick's composition is an extended passacaglia on a subject derived from Bresnick's earlier work, Songs of the Mouse People. This subject itself is found to be consistent with the narrow intervals employed in most mouse melodies. Josephine (the Singer) was commissioned by the International Max Rostal competition in Berlin as the required solo composition for violin. For advanced players.