Preface / Programme Note: Some melodies keep haunting me; they will stick in my mind, and I will walk about humming them, and they will find their way into my music. Two such melodies are the basis for the present piano piece, which I call LULLABIES. The first little tune began its life as a ballad in an operatic draft ofmine. Later on - with text by English poet Selima Hill - it became part of my songcycle ROSES ARE FALLING for mezzo soprano and piano. In the latter context it is a love song, but I have always had a lullaby-feeling about this tune, and, indeed,as a lullaby it appears in my opera UNDER THE SKY, to text by Peter Asmussen; inthe opera, the loved one sings and hums to her beloved and make him come to rest. During LULLABIES the tune will appear a half tone lower with each entry, and make its way downwards through the musical texture, from upper voice to bassline. The other little melody is a true lullaby, which I hummed for my youngest daughter to try and make her go to sleep. Later on it became the backdrop for the last movement of my trombone concerto, BIRDS AND BELLS. The two melodies in their original form are reproduced at the beginning of LULLABIES. Bent Sørensen, 2000