Broken Branches is a short 3 minute song/meditation for soprano piano and double bass. It was written for a concert in New York in 1993 which featured a whole programme of political songs; composers were left free tochoose their own subject matter. The conflict in the former Yugoslavia was then at one of its many furious peaks and Weir made a transcription from a recording of a sad choral song from Croatia called zaspo Janko podjablonem. Work for Soprano Piano and Double Bass.

A Spanish Liederbooklet is a short song cycle(of about eight minutes’ duration) for high soprano and piano written for Eileen Hulse in 1988. Eileen gave the first performance accompanied by Graham Johnson at the 1988 CheltenhamFestival. The texts are all Spanish Romances by anonymous authors from the 15th/16th centuries. The songs are sung in the original Spanish.

This was written for Barbara Bonney who had told Previn that she might be related to Billy the Kid (William H. Bonney). Previn discovered a collection of memories of Billy the Kid by women who had loved him. One of these women Miss Sallie Chisum expressed herself with such warmth and pungency that Previn was at once attracted to the character.

Nine Amen and Halleluja Movements-Between 1728 and 1747 Handel composed these nine two-part movements for soprano and instrumental bass. Though speculation exists the occasion for which the pieces were composed as well as the exact date of their composition remain unknown.The soprano sings short liturgical phrases such as ?Amen? ?Allelujah? ?Alleluja amen? or ?Amen alleluia?. The editor has supplied a text for the movement HWV 275 which until now has for reasons unknown been without text. The Amen and Hallelujah movements are in easy keys (using up to one sharp or two flats) and the modulations rarely move to harmonically distant tonal areas. Handel figured the bassline very detailed which playsmostly an accompanying supportive role imitating the voice in a few places. The vocal part is distinguished by the repetition of motives by repeated notes but also by short or extended coloratura. Presumably these movements were intended for use in teaching.Today these short movements of between 25 and 76 bars lend themselves well to use in church services.Based on the Urtext of the ?Halle Handel Edition?Idiomatic realization of the continuo part