Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov — Romance, Op. 15, No. 2

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) was a great Russian composer, probably best known these days for transcriptions of his piece "The Flight of the Bumblebee".

This piece is begins with a heartfelt theme in the male tenor range, which is answered by a soprano voice an octave higher. Although the harmony is normal, he leads the vocal parts chromatically in unexpected directions. Although the structure is standard, the theme seems to recur unexpectedly, growing out of each episode all of a sudden in its original form.