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MUSIC FOR NARRATOR AND ENSEMBLE

This page offers resources for works featuring narrator and ensemble, including original chamber music combining spoken word with instrumental performance. Explore repertoire lists, composer information, and scores for narrated music across classical and contemporary styles.

NAMELESS JOURNEY

for narrator and small ensemble

Duration:
13:30 minutes
 
Instrumentation:   
narrator, violin, viola, cello and piano
 
Year Composed:  
2024
 
Libretto by:            
Leah Goldberg

Language: Hebrew, English (Translation)          

Premiere Performance:
Scheduled November 2025, Boston
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MUSIC FOR NARRATOR AND ENSEMBLE

WORKS FOR NARRATOR AND ENSEMBLE

THEMES:

Program Notes:

Nameless Journey is a set of four poems written by Leah Goldberg during her stay in Copenhagen in 1960. In these poems, the poet evokes the loneliness and alienation she experienced in the cold, unfamiliar city. Set for narrator (preferably female) and a small ensemble consisting of violin, viola, cello, and piano, the spoken text—interwoven with music that alternately recedes and intensifies—adds a sense of eeriness, even spookiness, to the overall atmosphere.

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SHEET MUSIC AVAILABILITY NOTICE:
 

This work is awaiting its world premiere and will be available for purchase by January 2026. 

Until then, to request a preview score,
please fill this form: 

Related Music:

Works for Narrator and Ensemble

  • Luciano Berio – A-Ronne (1974)
    Instrumentation: 8 amplified voices (spoken only)

  • Philip Glass – Einstein on the Beach (1976)
    Instrumentation: Narrator, solo violin, chorus, synthesizers, woodwinds (2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 soprano saxophones, 2 tenor saxophones)

  • Mauricio Kagel – Der Tribun (1979)
    Instrumentation: Speaker (narrator), brass ensemble, tape playback

  • Lowell Liebermann – The Velveteen Rabbit (1985)
    Instrumentation: Narrator, piano
    (Also available in chamber orchestra version)

  • Francis Poulenc – L’Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant (1940–45)
    Instrumentation: Narrator, piano
    (Orchestral arrangements exist)

  • Camille Saint-Saëns – The Carnival of the Animals (1886)
    Instrumentation: Optional narrator, 2 pianos, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, flute/piccolo, clarinet, glass harmonica (or glockenspiel), xylophone

  • Arnold Schoenberg – Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte (1942)
    Instrumentation: Narrator, string quartet (2 violins, viola, cello), piano
    (Also arranged for string orchestra and piano)

  • Arnold Schoenberg – A Survivor from Warsaw (1947)
    Instrumentation: Narrator, male chorus (TB), large orchestra

  • Igor Stravinsky – L’Histoire du Soldat (1918)
    Instrumentation: Narrator, violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, percussion

  • Viktor Ullmann – Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke (1944)
    Instrumentation: Narrator, orchestra
    (Also performed with piano reduction)

  • William Walton – Façade (1922–29)
    Instrumentation: Reciter, flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, alto saxophone, trumpet, cello, percussion

  • Frank Zappa – The Adventures of Greggery Peccary (1974)
    Instrumentation: Narrator, actors, solo voice, large ensemble (rock band + orchestra)

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