Arr. Moy Ortiz, Katrina Saporsantos

Lugu is a religious chant sung by women of the Sama Dilaut (Badjao) tribe, indigenous people found mostly in southern Philippines. The lugu’s lyrics are from the Koran, and it has a traditional and melancholy tune characterized by high vocal tension, a slow tempo, long and sustained notes, and some vocal tremolos. A woman sings this chant at a wedding as the imam walks with the groom to the bride’s side.

Sail kami malallay-lalay
Mag-ambit kami dua manaytay
Maid kami limabay
Kumita kilai hi rayang
Mabaya kami limabay
Hamot sin sumping malay
Bangsila makapag-habuok
Makapag simun tamus.

We are walking very slowly
The two of us will cross the bridge
So that we can catch a glimpse
Of the eyebrows that are hidden
Let us pass by
As fragrant as flowers
And after the wedding
They may then kiss each other.

from The Song Among Us (2021)
Words and music by Moira Smiley (b. 1976)

Premiered in 2022 by the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble, this piece is from the larger work The Song Among Us, an inclusive, secular liturgy that is loosely structured on two ceremonies of transformation: The five movements of a Mass and the structure of a mediation or therapy session. To honor our hope that music can transform us–even for a moment–we fold your words into the performance.

Share it among us
I often find joy in _________________
A rare joy, A precious joy is _________________
I often long to hear or say _________________
And I am grateful for _________________

So all may be lighter
Share it among us

From Crossings (1980)
By Ysaye M. Barnwell (b. 1946)

Recorded by African American a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, this piece speaks of the precious gift of life. It is from the larger work Crossings which was originally composed as a dance theater work with narration that tells the coming-of-age story of an individual confronting racism in their community. The work highlights the importance of empowerment and cultivating beauty in our views of self and community. Barnwell dedicated the piece to her father, explaining that when her parents died and she prepared to sell their house, she found bags of memorabilia like photos and letters, realizing her unconscious wish of Wanting Memories.

I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
To see the beauty in the world through my own eyes

You used to rock me in the cradle of your arms,
You said you’d hold me till the pains of life were gone.
You said you’d comfort me in times like these and now I need you,
And now I need you and you are gone.

Since you’ve gone and left me, there’s been so little beauty,
But I know I saw it clearly through your eyes.

Now the world outside is such a cold and bitter place,
Here inside I have few things that will console,
And when I try to hear your voice above the storms of life
Then I remember that I was told.

I think on the things that made me feel so wonderful when I was young,
I think on the things that made me laugh, made me dance, made me sing,
I think on the things that made me grow into a being full of pride;
Think on these things, for they are truth.

Words by Paul Fleischman, from Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
Music by Laura Mercado-Wright
(World premiere performance)

My sister Lisa and I have been performing Paul Fleischman’s poems from Joyful Noise for our family since we were old enough to read. They are a charming collection of poems about different species of insect and their particular ways of life and death. I have always thought their attention to timing and rhythm was very musical, and was thrilled when the author replied to my personal email asking for permission to set the entire book to music. The Digger Wasp is a touching look at parental love, and more broadly at the legacy we each endeavor to leave behind.
–Laura Mercado-Wright

Words by Danila Stoianova and Peter Stopschinski
Music by Peter Stopschinski
(world premiere performance)

I heard VAMP for the first time in the Draylen Mason Studio during the KMFA Unofficial SXSW 2023 concert and was so moved by their sound and artistry that I went home that night and wrote this piece for them. I often stay up very late into the night and on this night snippets of melody kept cycling through my head until I was compelled to form them into a piece of music. The lyrics are a sort of mashup of unconnected verses. I had been reading the poetry of Bulgarian poet Danila Stoianova and rather than set any particular poem of hers, I scanned through the collection and chose individual lines. I even added some lines of my own. The next day I sent VAMP The Smell of Rain, completely unsolicited, and I am so grateful to them for their generosity with their time in giving this music a performance.
–Peter Stopschinski

When I have fallen, fallen to sleep,
I feel the grass grow on my feet.
Sunny roses on my toes
And air that’s crystal and cold.
It’s so good to let my mind glow bright
In solitude and light.

When I have fallen, fallen to sleep,
And my mind is cool, clean, and neat,
My tears fall icy on the night,
Passionless, pale, orange, white.
The moon divides herself in two,
And all the sad and crude
sinful hymns weep in the cold,
But the rain smells fresh and new.

2014
Music and Lyrics by The Staves (Jessica Staveley-Taylor, Camilla Staveley-Taylor, Emily Staveley-Taylor)
Arr. Benjamin Dia (2023)

This song is the first track on The Staves’ sophomore album If I Was, produced by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. Like many songs by the three English sisters, “Blood I Bled” features tight trio harmonies and obscure but evocative lyrics. Vernon’s contributions lent rhythmic drive and layered instrumentals for a build in intensity. Reading the lyrics on their own, one could come away thinking, like Jean-Paul Sartre, that “Hell is other people”—humans all over the planet fomenting war and greedy for power. For VAMP, the ceremonial flavor of the text and the mantra-like repetition of words and motives evoked ritual and feminine magic. We are grateful to Benjie Dia for masterfully setting this song for five voices instead of three, with minimal percussion, but keeping the drive and build of the original.

Come the quickening feet that fall
Come the gathering rain
Suffering as I suffer you
Hearing you speak of pain

If I was
If I am
If I did
If I have

Come the quickening feet that fall
(Hard behind you)
Come the gathering rain
Suffering as I suffer you
(Woe betide you)
Hearing you speak of pain

If I was
If I am
If I did
If I have

Raise your banners and ride to war
(Just and righteous)
Throwing around your name
(Fortune find us)
See the damage of churlish rage
(Just and righteous)
Oh, saddle me with your blame
(Fortune find us)

You cut my roots and now my leaves are dead
They tumble down in pools of all the blood I bled

If I was
If I am
If I ever did
If I ever have

You cut my roots and now my leaves are dead
They tumble down in pools of all the blood I bled

2014
By Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941)
Text from Philippians 4:8

Based on a passage from Philippians 4, this piece was composed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Virginia Children’s Chorus. It speaks to the crucial need to slow down, be present, and appreciate the wholesome and good aspects that keep us going in a dangerous and chaotic world. We love its lush harmonies and sense of wonder.

Think on these things

Whatever is true
Whatever is honest
Whatever is noble
Whatever is just
Whatever is kind
Whatever is pure
Whatever is lovely

If there is any virtue,
anything worthy of praise,
Think on these things.

By Adrienne Inglis
Adapted from essays by Robert Penfield Inglis and communications with the USS Thresher
(world premiere performance)

Dedicated to the memory of my first cousin, Jack Inglis, The Other Side grapples with the unimaginable tragedy of losing a child, the serious concerns about the fitness of the USS Thresher to leave dock for sea trials, the catastrophic implosion of the submarine that killed all 129 aboard, and the communications between Jack and his parents after the Thresher sank. The loss of the USS Thresher (SSN-593) spurred the Navy to institute the very successful Submarine Safety Program (SUBSAFE).
–Adrienne Inglis

1) Jack's Message
After we lost our son when the Thresher sank,
a complete stranger called my wife.
She said that Jack had been trying to tell us he was fine
and that it was his job to help the crew members across to the “other side,”
to look to the light.

2) Twenty-first Birthday
The day before the Thresher left for sea trials,
Jack called us because it was his birthday.
He said that the crew was fearful and worried,
as they knew it wasn’t ready for sea trials.
The valves were installed backwards.
The pipes were wrong.

3) Sea Trial
…
Auxiliary Sea Water rupture in aft compartment
“Minor difficulties, have positive up-angle, attempting to blow”
Taking on water in aft compartment
Heavy Sea Water spray onto reactor Control Rod electrical panel
“900 north”
Unintentional Reactor SCRAM due to Reactor Control Rod electrical failure
Vessel at reverse down angle
Propulsion lost due to Reactor SCRAM
Depth 900 feet, descending
Heavy Sea water leak, Evacuate Aft Compartment

“Exceeded test-depth”
Seal Aft compartment bulkhead
Activate Emergency Ballast Tank Blow
Aye aye!
Emergency Ballast Tank Valves not responding
I can’t see anything
Depth 1000 feet

4) Jack’s Last Contact
The last contact I had with Jack
was one evening after dinner.
I was listening to music
And Jack came to me and said,

“I’ve been with you and Mother
For one and a half years.
Now it is time for me
to get along with what I have to do.”
He expressed his love for me and his mother.
Then there was a tremendous flow of love through and around me
like I had never experienced before or since.

Then it was gone
and so was he.

Music and lyrics by Laura Mercado-Wright
(world premiere performance)

As the theme for this concert developed over the last year, I knew I wanted to write something in Spanish (the language of my heritage), and that I wanted to pay homage to the incredible and inspiring women in my family, as well as to the larger community of women I’ve had the honor of crossing paths with over the years. I found it a particular challenge to stick to a simple song form; I didn’t want to over complicate the message, settling on a verse-chorus format with the simple refrain, “Les doy las gracias” - I give you thanks.
–Laura Mercado-Wright

A todas las mujeres de mi vida
Les doy las gracias.

Singulares como rayos del sol en el horizonte
Mientras el mundo revuelve
Accelerando cada vez más,
Les doy las gracias.

Se agranda mi amor,
Se multiplica el valor,
De su sabiduría ancestral.
Y su fuego incalculable,
Les doy las gracias.

To all the women in my life
I give you thanks.

Each like a ray of sun on the horizon
As the world turns and turns
faster and faster, again and again
So grows my love
So grows my appreciation
for your ancestral wisdom
and for your infinite fire.

By Carolyn Trowbridge
(world premiere performance)

When I was a young child, my family and I lived in the hauntingly beautiful city of Prague, Czech Republic. Majestic cathedrals were steadfast hallmarks in a post communist city rapidly entering the western world in the 1990s.

My parents loved supporting local Czech artists. One piece they bought was the artist's final piece in a series of six stages of life. The painting was of an old woman representing the final stage of life. It haunted my seven year-old imagination; but it also felt as though this woman was a sort of guardian. She stared me right in the eyes and I bowed to her respectfully every time I passed the painting. I treated that painting like a station of the cross.

My family moved every three years and the painting always hung as a focal point. As time passed the old woman in the painting remained the same, much like the cathedrals still standing in modern day Prague.

The solemn chorale in this piece represents the constant presence of the woman, while the fast contemporary percussive beat is the progressive world in which she now lives.
—Carolyn Trowbridge

1992
By Craig Carnelia (b. 1949)
Arr. by Michael Rafter and Craig Carnelia

This song by American musical theater composer and singer Craig Carnelia has been sung as a solo by several musical theater greats and arranged for treble choir. The version we are performing is a duet arranged for Sutton Foster and Megan McGinnis, recorded on Foster’s 2009 album Wish. The song scratches our musical theater itch, but more importantly, speaks to the feeling of being stuck in a life, wanting more. Acknowledging that you’ve outgrown where you are is the first step to finding your own agency to change the trajectory of your life, and hopefully, joy!

Let me run through a field in the night,
Let me lift from the ground til my soul is in flight.
Let me sway like the shade of a tree,
Let me swirl like a cloud in a storm on the sea.

Wish me on my way,
Through the dawning day.
I wanna flow, wanna rise, wanna spill,
Wanna grow in a grove on the side of a hill.

I don't care if the train runs late,
If the checks don't clear, if the house blows down.
I'll be off where the weeds run wild,
Where the seeds fall far from this earthbound town.

And I'll start to soar.
Watch me rain til I pour.
I'll catch a ship that’ll sail me astray,
Get caught in a wind I'll just have to obey
Til I’m flying away.

Let me leave behind
All the clouds in my mind.
I wanna wake without wondering why,
Finding myself in a burst for the sky.

High.
I'll just roll.
Let me lose all control.

I wanna float like a wish in a well,
Free as the sound of the sea in a shell.
I don't know, but maybe I'm just a fool.
I should keep to the ground. I should stay where I'm at.

Maybe everyone has hunger like this,
And the hunger will pass, but I can't think like that.
All I know is somewhere in a clearing,
There's a flickering of sunlight on a river long and wide.
And I have such a river inside.

Let me run through a field in the night,
Let me lift from the ground til my soul is in flight.
Let me sway like the shade of a tree,
Let me swirl like a cloud in a storm on the sea.

Wish me on my way,
Through the dawning day.
I wanna flow, wanna rise, wanna spill,
Wanna grow on the side of a hill,
Wanna shift like a wave rolling on,
Wanna drift from the path I've been traveling upon,
Before I am gone.

1911
Music by Lili Boulanger (1893-1918)
Text by Charles Grandmougin

As the sister of famed French composition teacher and composer Nadia Boulanger, Lili Boulanger is sometimes overlooked, but she was a prodigious composer in her own right whose mastery might have been further realized if not for her tragic death at the age of 24. She was a multi-instrumentalist, studied with her sister and with noted organist and composer Louis Vierne, and became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome at the age of 19. In 1911, she composed Les Sirènes for mezzo-soprano soloist, choir, and piano and was greatly influenced by Debussy's piece of the same name. Between verses, you’ll hear the eerie and beautiful sirens calling to sailors, obscured by waves and the wisps of sea foam.

Nous sommes la beauté qui charme les plus forts,
Les fleurs tremblantes de l’ecume Et de la brume,
Nos baisers fugitifs sont le rêve des morts!

Parmi nos chevelures blondes
L’eau miroite en larmes d’argent,
Nos regards à l'éclat changeant
Sont verts et bleus comme les ondes!

Avec un bruit pareil aux délicats frissons
Des moissons
Nous voltigeons sans avoir d’ailes;
Nous cherchons de tendres vainqueurs,
Nous sommes les sœurs immortelles
Offertes aux désirs de vos terrestres cœurs.

We are the beauty that charms the strongest men,
The trembling flowers of foam
And of mist,
Our fleeting kisses are the dream of the dead!

Among our blonde tresses
The water glimmers in silver tears.
Our changing, sparkling glances
Are green and blue like the waves.

With a sound like the delicate shivers
Of harvest wheat
We flutter about without wings.
We seek tender conquerors.
We are the immortal sisters
Offered to the desires of your earthly hearts.

From The Threepenny Opera (1928)
Music by Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
Text by Bertoldt Brecht
English translation by Marc Blitzstein
Arr. by Laura Mercado-Wright

Pirate Jenny is one of the most famous songs from Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, a “play with music” that premiered in 1928 in Berlin and served to critique capitalist society. The song was originally written for the character Polly who revels in defying her parents by stepping out with Mack the Knife (London’s most notorious criminal), but is often reassigned to be sung by the prostitute Jenny in the second act of the play. Jenny is a maid at a filthy hotel and is ignored and harassed by the patrons. They tease her with questions of when her “pirate husband” will return. Little do they know that she herself is the pirate. She serves as one of the earliest manifestations of feminism in Germany’s Weimar Republic, with new social, economic, and political freedom for women. The song was originally performed by Lotte Lenya who was married to Weill at the time of the play’s premiere, but it has since been covered by numerous artists including Bea Arthur and Nina Simone. We like to think there’s a little of Pirate Jenny in us all.

You gentlemen can watch while I'm scrubbin' the floors
And I'm scrubbin' the floors while you're gawkin'
And maybe once you tip me and it makes you feel swell
On a ratty waterfront in a ratty old hotel
And you never guess to who you're talkin'
You never guess to who you are talkin'
Suddenly one night, there's a scream in the night
And you wonder, "What could that a-been?"
And you see me kinda grinnin' while I'm scrubbin'
And you wonder, "What's she got to grin?"
And a ship, a black freighter
With a skull on its masthead
Will be comin' in

You gentlemen can say, "Hey girl, finish thе floors
Get upstairs, make the bеds, earn your keep here!"
You toss me your tips and look out at the ships
But I'm countin' your heads while I make up the beds
'Cause there's nobody gonna sleep here
Tonight none of you will sleep here
Then that night there's a bang in the night
And you yell, "Who's that kickin' up a row?"
And you see me kinda starin' out the winda
And you say, "What's she got to stare at now?"
And a ship, the black freighter
Turns around in the harbor
Shootin' guns from the bow

Then you gentlemen can wipe off that laugh from your face
Every building in town is a flat one
Your whole stinkin' place will be down to the ground
Only this cheap hotel standin' up safe and sound
And you yell, "Why do they spare that one?"
And you say, "Why do they spare that one?"
All the night through with the noise and to-do
You wonder who's that person lives up there
Then you see me steppin' out into the mornin'
Lookin' nice with a ribbon in my hair
And the ship, the black freighter
Runs the flag up its masthead
And a cheer rings the air!

By noontime the dock is all swarmin' with men
Comin' off of that ghostly freighter
They're movin' in the shadows where no one can see
And they're chainin' up people and bringin' them to me
Askin' me, "Kill them now or later?"
Askin' me, "Kill them now or later?"
Noon by the clock and so still on the dock
You can hear a foghorn miles away
In that quiet of death, I'll say
"Right now"
And they pile up the bodies and I'll say
"That'll learn you"
Then the ship, the black freighter
Disappears out to sea
And on it is me

2023
Lyrics and Music by Laura Mercado-Wright

This piece developed out of an honest and spontaneous question that popped into my head one day: Why do we always smile? The “we”, in this case, being women. It is so automatic for many of us to smile, for reasons other than to express happiness, and often it’s because we are told to do so. I wanted to explore the possible responses, if we did not bend to social norms and expectations. This led me into a dark fantasy, filled with gnashing teeth and carnage. I wanted to hint at the deep resentment and power that can be repressed behind our smiles, and also celebrate the grace and patience we exercise in not resorting to more extreme responses to the casual misogyny we experience on a daily basis. The barbershop-inspired style is meant to root the piece in gentile, polite society, juxtaposed with the menacing intent of the text.
–Laura Mercado-Wright

Why do we always smile?
Why do we always smile for you?

“You’d look prettier if you’d smile.”
“Oh, darlin’, why don’t you smile?”
“Come on baby, give me a smile.”

See?
See my teeth?
Can you see my teeth, sir?

Now, don’t you let these pearly whites fool you.
It doesn’t take much pressure to penetrate flesh,
And we’re packing a hundred and sixty-two pounds per square inch.

Think of the carnage.
Think of the mess.
We hope that we don’t need to be more explicit than this.

So the next time you’re compelled to tell a woman to smile,
Please kindly turn around and fuck off.
‘Cause we are so tired, so awfully tired, of smiling
For you.

(And now I only smile for me.)

2015
Words and music by Moira Smiley

In 2005, I went to northwestern Ukraine with vocal ensemble, KITKA and Ukrainian singer/actress/composer Mariana Sadovska. We went to learn special songs sung for a midsummer festival. Many of those songs were kept alive by the grandmothers (babas) of the villages we visited, and they told us that the true power of group singing was in the unison–rather than layers of harmony. Some of their songs were sung to lift the veil between the living and spirit worlds. In many ancient cultures–with evidence in our celebrations today–midsummer and midwinter were times of the year when the ancestors were thought to be nearer, and needed to be honored. This meant that the living might also ‘ask’ the ancestors for guidance and good fortune in these times. Songs were part of those celebrations and rituals of honoring and asking.

In Ukraine I learned of the raw power of singing unisons and octaves, and how singing gives us responsibility to speak directly to the mystery around us. In my years of touring between that Ukraine time and writing ‘Bellow’ I kept noticing how rare it was to be called to sing with a full, wild, fierce voice. When an old friend (who knew me singing bright, bold Balkan songs) came to a concert where I mostly sang soft, melancholy songs, he asked me with concern whether the world had worn me down and taken my fiery voice away. I loved the question! There are, indeed, many incentives to sing tenderly into a mic–and I love to do that–but I am so thankful for the history of the continued importance of bold, fierce singing–in timeless and timely protest, exquisite emotional release and wildest expressionism.
–Moira Smiley

Sometime, anytime you wanna bellow at the sky, call on me, call on me.
We’ll unzip the horizon with our voices.

You ask me why I sing softer now.
And did the world beat me down?
‘Cause back then I sang hard, I sang proud,
But where are the edges now?

Ukrainian summer, before the revolution.
I sat at the knees of the grandmother,
her daughter told me we could lift the veil
between the worlds by singing
And we were sat outside in the dawn light
Of the midsummer feast, and the short night.
Singing to the dead so they bless the crop,
Bless the young, bless the year.

Sometime, anytime you wanna bellow at the sky, call on me, call on me.
We’ll unzip the horizon with our voices.

This is the way we call the unknown
And lift the veil to the other side
We’re singing to break the walls down
Throwing the gate open wide
Every breath I take has been taken before
Every note’s been sung
Who can I sing them all again for
Baba Baba Baba

Please don’t give up,
Please don’t lose that sound
So many people fought to gain that ground
Please don’t give up,
Please don’t hide your voice
So many people did not have that choice

She told me the power of song was in the unison
She gathered her friends all around her
And they pierced the sky with a call
One melody from many voices
And from then ‘til now I remember
When the year is fat and full of shadows,
I’m singing to the dead so they’ll bless the crop,
Bless the young, bless the year.