Morten Lauridsen is a winner of the 2007 National Medal of the Arts and the 2016 ASCAP Foundation “Life in Music” award among others. This collection of two songs for violin and piano includes Dirait-on, which is adapted from Lauridsen's choral cycle titled Les Chansons des Roses, which is based on poems by Rainer Maria Rilke. The second song in the collection is Sure On This Shining Night, which was originally part of the choral cycle Nocturnes, whcih was based on poems by Rilke, Nerude, and Agee.