The following program notes were written for a performance by Metropolitan Opera soprano Myra Merritt.

An interval of twenty years has passed since, as a teenager, I wrote my Two Psalms. A composer starts by filling his head with the masters, in this case of American song, so that when one begins one?s own song it is at first mixed with the echoes, conscious or unconscious, of those who had gone before. While dusting these songs off for performance I decided that to revise them because of their naivet?, their lack of technical sophistication, would be to deny what might be considered the music?s strongest aspect. These are songs simple in form and direct in emotion with little else to adorn them, yet I still find them appealing.