SONGS FROM LETTERS


Subtitle:
Calamity Jane to her daughter Janey, 1880-1902

Movements:
I. So Like Your Father's (1880) II. He Never Misses (1880) III. A Man Can Love Two Women (1880) IV. All I Have (1902) V. A Working Woman (1882-1893)

Instrumentation:
soprano, piano or chamber ensemble: flute clarinet percussion (1) (woodblocks-small, medium, and large, orchestral bells, suspended cymbal-struck and bowed, slap stick, set of 5 tom-toms, temple blocks-wooden, not plastic, maracas, flexitone-struck and bowed) marimba piano strings

Text: Calamity Jane

Duration: 13 minutes

Commissioned By:
Mary Elizabeth Poore

Premiere:
Premiered by Mary Elizabeth Poore, soprano at the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, New York City on April 8, 1989.

Available From:
Oxford University Press, 1994 -- Piano/Vocal Cat. No. 9780193859760 -- Chamber orch. score and parts on rental

Composer's Notes:

In the forward of Between Ourselves, a compilation of letters between mothers and daughters, editor Karen Payne quotes Rosa Luxemburg, "It is in the tiny struggles of individual peoples that the great movements of history are most truly observed." I think she's on to something. The diary of Martha Jane Canary Hickock (Calamity Jane), reveals the struggle of an individual soul, a tender soul, a woman and pioneer on many frontiers. Calamity Jane was a working woman, good in her profession, working at what she loved and making choices because of her will to work. Calamity Jane sent Janey, her daughter by Wild Bill Hickock, to live with a "normal daddy" - her friend Jim O'Neil. She paid for child support by working as a gambler, trick shooter, cowhand, barmaid, stagecoach driver and prostitute. She even tried (and rejected) marriage. In her time she was odd and lonely. One hundred years later, her life sheds light on contemporary society. She chooses rough-tough words to describe her life to her daughter. I'm interested in that rough-toughness and in Calamity Jane's struggle to explain herself honestly to her daughter, Janey.

- Libby Larsen

Additional Information:
Available on several recordings.

Score Errata:
Libby Larsen is aware of discrepancies between the score and the Valente recording. Her preference is for the published score.

II. He Never Misses
- tempo is misprinted. Perform as fast as comfortable, allowing good diction.