Full cycle premiered March 9, 2019 at the Howland Cultural Center, Beacon, NY.
Freedom & Truth, text by Margaret Fuller 4’ 30”( 2016)
The New Colossus, text by Emma Lazarus 3’ (2017)
Give Her the Fruit of Her Hands, 5’30” (2019)
We Hold These Truths is a growing cycle of songs celebrating freedom. The first three premiered in 2019 on a concert, Reclaiming the Night, celebrating Women’s History Month.
Texts for the first two songs were written by women who were outspoken pioneers in the early women’s movement for suffrage and equal rights. Freedom & Truth, text by Margaret Fuller, discusses the important relationship of these two ideals. The New Colossus, text by Emma Lazarus, is a setting of the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. Both were written at a time when the very fact of being a woman writer was taboo, yet the strength of their words still rings true today. The text for Give Her the Fruit of Her Hands is a Biblical phrase, co-opted early on in the struggle for equal rights for women. “Give her the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates.”
The cycle will soon include its namesake, a setting of a portion of the Declaration of Independence, We Hold These Truths.
Score Excerpts
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