Music by Brian W. Holmes

Six songs for Medium Voice and Piano, set to the poetry of Mark Van Doren.

1. Chipmunk, Chipmunk
2. Down Dip the Branches
3. Where Did He Run To?
4. Old Ben Golliday
5. Sleep, Grandmother
6. He Cut One Finger

Brian Holmes's musical compositions include two operas, a Christmas show, two plays with music, numerous choral and vocal works, as well as works for orchestra, band, and chamber ensembles. He has been active as a professional horn player, performing with the San Jose Symphony and Opera San Jose. Since 1983, he has been a member of the Physics Department of San Jose State University; he has also taught in the Music Department, the Creative Arts Department, and the Science Education Group. As a recognized expert on the physics of musical instruments, Holmes has given over a hundred lectures all over the United States. Holmes wrote Six Lullabies to amuse his son, Jerry, who was three years old at the time.

Mark Van Doren, an American poet and critic, taught at Columbia University (1920-1959). He wrote studies of John Dryden and Nathaniel Hawthorne, among others. His Collected Poems, 1922-1938, won the Pulitzer prize in 1939. He also wrote plays, stories, and novels. Six Lullabies first appearaed in his book, New Poems, published in 1948.