for soprano and piano With specially written poems by Kãrlis Verdinš based on the Adonis chapters from Frazer's The Golden Bough, each song in this little cycle explores a single Affekt. The first is doleful and laden, the second aerated and evanescent, the third is static and expansive, with a hint of a march for the troops, while the fourth is spare and rather withdrawn. The fifth song is very brief and slightly enigmatic, leading to a final movement that tries to capture something of the poem's lush, but ultimately redemptive, grief.