6This piece was composed in 1948 when I was spending a year on a Guggenheim in Southern California at Claremont. It was composed for Lee Parison who had an excellent madrigal group. That is how it started. It reflects an interest in circles long standing with me, which came partly from my acquaintance with Marjorie Holt Nicholson who was at Smith College. She wrote several very important books on science and literature. Her book The Breaking of a Circle was dedicated to me, and I in turn composed the Spherical Madrigals and dedicated them to her. She delivered a lecture at Northwestern University based on this book. Her books have a philosophical concern. I do not think that my music has that concern. It is just interesting the way that we can bring about circles in musical composition.