I Shall Be Taller (2021)
mezzo-soprano, clarinet
c. 6 minutes
text by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Premiered by Kira McGirr (mezzo-soprano) and Alix Reinhardt (clarinet) as part of the 2022 She Scores Festival
Harkness Chapel, Cleveland, OH, 25 June 2022
c. 6 minutes
text by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Premiered by Kira McGirr (mezzo-soprano) and Alix Reinhardt (clarinet) as part of the 2022 She Scores Festival
Harkness Chapel, Cleveland, OH, 25 June 2022
Nearly a century ago, Edna St. Vincent Millay published “The Concert” in her collection The Harper-Weaver and Other Poems (1923). In this poem, she depicts one side of a conversation between two lovers saying goodbye for the evening. The narrator of the poem is on her way to a concert, and she assures her lover that she will be back soon and that she loves them. This conversation is a familiar one between loved ones, from parents saying goodbye to their children before sending them off to school in the morning to families and friends parting ways after the 2019 holidays unaware that the COVID-19 pandemic was about to hit.
In I Shall Be Taller (2021), the clarinet creates the other side this conversation. While the mezzo- soprano promises her partner that she will return shortly, the clarinet expresses feelings of concern, longing, and love. The text for the piece is taken from the first and final stanzas of Millay’s poem, centering on the idea that the soprano will return “only a little taller than when [she] went.” The mezzo-soprano acknowledges that she will grow and change from being apart from her lover for even an evening, but that her love for her partner will persist.
from "The Concert" (1923)
No, I will go alone.I will come back when it’s over. Yes, of course I love you.
No, it will not be long.
Why may you not come with me?--
You are too much my lover.
You would put yourself
Between me and song.
Come now, be content.
I will come back to you, I swear I will;
And you will know me still.
I shall be only a little taller
Than when I went.
In I Shall Be Taller (2021), the clarinet creates the other side this conversation. While the mezzo- soprano promises her partner that she will return shortly, the clarinet expresses feelings of concern, longing, and love. The text for the piece is taken from the first and final stanzas of Millay’s poem, centering on the idea that the soprano will return “only a little taller than when [she] went.” The mezzo-soprano acknowledges that she will grow and change from being apart from her lover for even an evening, but that her love for her partner will persist.
from "The Concert" (1923)
No, I will go alone.I will come back when it’s over. Yes, of course I love you.
No, it will not be long.
Why may you not come with me?--
You are too much my lover.
You would put yourself
Between me and song.
Come now, be content.
I will come back to you, I swear I will;
And you will know me still.
I shall be only a little taller
Than when I went.