A veil does not obliterate a thing completely; it allows that thing to suggest itself to us, gently. We can gradually perceive what we believe it to be through the texture of our emotional world and imagination. Yet veils also protect—both the concealed and the one who perceives. The three works in this program each emerge from a composer’s particular need to veil his deepest truths, whether from himself, from society, or from the devastating clarity of direct exposure.