"Berceuse" by Robert W. Padgett

"Berceuse" is a lullaby composed for my nephew Nathaniel who was born prematurely at 27 weeks in Okinawa, Japan. In recognition of his truncated time in the womb, the work has 27 bars. The three-bar introduction represents his troubled pregnancy with a sudden Forzado in bar 3, symbolizing a premature rupture at 22 weeks when the water broke too soon. The repeated five-note accompaniment figures signify the five extra weeks he remained in utero before being delivered. The probability of a pregnancy continuing for five more weeks after a premature rupture is only 0.3%, an infinitesimally low figure. In recognition of the number three, each line consists of three bars with a total of nine lines which represents three multiplied by itself. In the last bar, adjacent note letters in the bass line (B-flat, A-flat, B-flat, E-flat, E-flat) spell "BABEE," a phonetic rendering of 'Baby."