Fine returned
to her earlier and less complex style for Romantic
Ode. It was commissioned by the Chamber Music
Conference and Composers Forum of East, and Fine took
this opportunity to write her lyric contrapuntal lines,
which are so successful for strings. At first the solo
trio is accompanied by the string orchestra, but later
the two merge and become a massed ensemble, a sound that
Fine enjoys: “I like that luscious, full string
sound…. There’s nothing quite as satisfying
as having all the strings…playing at
once.”
–Heidi Von Gunden,
The Music of Vivian Fine, Scarecrow Press,
1999