BLANC is a symbol of the purity and serenity Dubeau sought as a result of her cancer diagnosis. The selected compositions by diverse composers in diverse styles has provided “comfort, tranquility, and sometimes, an essential escape.” Her ensemble, the all-female La Pietà, founded in 1997 in Canada, is comprised of selected musicians.

1. SCHYMAN: Bioshock: “The Ocean on His Shoulders” – “Pairbond”. Barry Schyman writes impressive scores for video games. This piece exploits the notion of meditative “space music” that features violin solo and cello over sustained harmonies and pedal points.
2. GOLIJOV: Close Your Eyes (The Man Who Cried). Osvaldo Golijov is an Argentine composer who blends Jewish liturgical and folk music with the tango impulses of Ástor Piazzolla. The Man Who Cried is a film score written in an emotional, plaintive style, much like Hebrew prayer music and pieces by Ernest Bloch.
3. MUNSEY: The Distance Between. British composer Adrian Munsey has also gained fame for several documentaries, including Wonderland, Thomas Hardy, and D.H. Lawrence. The Distance Between is a sustained serenade for violin and orchestra and piano obbligato, quite melodic and reminiscent of the style of Vaughan Williams and John Barry.
4. MOZETICH: Postcards from the Sky: “Unfolding Sky”. Marjan Mozetich is an Armenian-born composer living in Canada. Postcards from the Sky is a three-movement work for string orchestra from 1996. The section “Unfolding Sky” uses a repetitive string ostinato over which the cello sings a lament that soon fills out by the full body of low strings. The music conforms to “minimalist” principles but maintains a lyrical sonority throughout, as a series of scale patterns infiltrates the unceasing motor pattern.
5. HISAISHI: “The Rain”. Joe Hisaishi is a prolific, Japanese film composer whose work began in 1981. His style uses electronic effects and New Age techniques, especially when he scores for Japanese anime cinema. “There is always sunshine after the rain” seems to provide the rubric for this piece, a bright score for violin, piano, harp, and strings. The piece bears the influence of American melodists, especially the more lyrical Hollywood composers.
6. STEVENS: Morning Has Broken. Cat Stevens is a British composer who converted to Islam. An extraordinarily prodigious talent, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. Stevens has a personal folk-rock style. “Morning Has Broken” is an outgrowth of the 1971 Teaser and the Firecat album. A strong piano riff introduces the violin serenade, much in the style of a waltz. The string orchestra introduces a counter-theme, much in a folk or ballad style. The melodic blend flows seamlessly until the end, quite romantic.
7. DOMPIERRE: Mario. François Dompierre is a Canadian composer of film scores, of which the 1984 Mario won the 6th Genie Award for Best Original Score. The film deals with an autistic boy, mute and hard-of-hearing who becomes involved intricately with a woman who disrupts his life on the Magdalen Islands. The music blends violin, cello, and harp over a delicate pizzicato. The melody has a modal, slightly exotic character.
8. MORRICONE: Mario Ennio Morricone composed scores for 400 films, as well as for radio and television. In 1964, a major turning point occurred with his meeting and future collaboration with director Sergiu Leone for the so-called “Spaghetti Western” genre. The Betrothed (Italian: I promessi sposi) is a 1989 Italian television miniseries starring Burt Lancaster and Franco Nero, directed by Salvatore Nocita, based on the 19th-century historical novel of the same name by Alessandro Manzoni. The music sings of happy expectations of future bliss.
9. O’CONNOR: Appalachia Waltz. Mark O’Connor is a virtuoso fiddle player and winner of the 1991 Best Instrumental Country Music Award. His mix of bluegrass, country, jazz, and classical styles defines the Appalachia Waltz, whose polyphony often sounds like the British composer Purcell or Highland Scottish music.
10. BRUBECK: Fujiyama. Dave Brubeck earned the title of King of Cool Jazz, with his rhythmic vitality and offbeat time signatures, using an eclectic blend of instruments in improvisatory groupings. John Fordham said, "Brubeck's real achievement was to blend European compositional ideas, very demanding rhythmic structures, jazz song-forms and improvisation in expressive and accessible ways.” Fujiyama is part of the 1964 album Jazz Impressions of Japan. A violin solo announces the serpentine, arioso theme, joined by bass harmonies in counterpoint.
11. BRUBECK: The Desert and Parched Land. Violin and harp open this arrangement of To Hope!: A Celebration of the Peanuts TV program, meant as an inspiration for the ambitions of youth. A brief serenade, the piece remains airy and dream-like.
12. SAKAMOTO: Bibo No Aozora. Ryiuichi Sakamoto served as a record producer, composer, pianist and actor in Japan, a member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra. He was the first Japanese composer to win an Academy Award, for his music for The Last Emperor. Bibo no Aozora is a track from his1995 album, Smoochy. The summer described in the song is both passionate and crazy. Everything that can be touched becomes like fragments of death. The speaker witnesses the purity of his beloved’s blood through savage eyes, rendering the midsummer paradise a realm of despair and confusion. Piano and violin play repeated riffs whose top melody line swells into an extended lyric, richly embellished.
13. SAKAMOTO: Solitude. The piano opens this melancholy meditation, repeating its simple bass line, while the violin sings of loneliness. The harmony opens with the keyboard’s having simple notes in high register then repeated double notes. The violin plays a shimmering riff that adds a dimension of anxiety, ending with piano solo notes. The original mood re-enters, nostalgic and wistful.
14. PHILLIPS: Woman – She Was Waiting for Her Mother at the Station in Torino and You Know I Love You Baby but It’s Getting Too Heavy to Laugh. Shawn Phillips is an American songwriter whose folk/rock origins embrace other genres, like fusion, jazz, funk, and progressive elements. This song, with the longest title of any known, is about unrequited love, and it remains Phillips’ most influential piece. Violin and drum beats open the work, which after almost a minute begins the sad lyric over pizzicato chords and drumbeat. The piano adds another level of repetition as the texture becomes richer, a bit dizzy and percussive with regret. (3:51)