The Garland Songs - Linda Tutas Haugen 

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Program notes from the composer… 

The texts of The Garland Songs are based upon poems written by Judy Garland in her late teens -- poems that she had printed and bound in leather and given to a few friends and relatives. They reflect the thoughts and feelings of a bright, sensitive and insightful young woman. While much of the poetry is quite dramatic, it is mature beyond her years, and above all, honest and direct. I always have as my goal to write music that will be aesthetically significant and of lasting beauty. I hope that I have in some way enhanced the meaning of these poems that allow us to look through the window at who Judy Garland was as a young woman. 

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I. Lover’s Goodbye to a Departing Soldier 

Leave me, my love 

Leave sun and moon and wind and rain 

and hope and life behind 

Tread into darkness, oblivion, 

blindly walk with tragedy by your side 

Make all men free as we are free, 

but leave no room in your heart for me 

Fill it with justice and liberty, 

and leave me here to wait for thee 

But, come back to me, my love 

Not as you stand before me now, 

but half gone, half dead, half departed 

If body, sound thought and mind contorted, 

return my love, return 

I ask not all of you, 

for that shall not be mine again 

Come back changed, unrecognizable 

But oh, my love, come back 

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II. The First Cigarette 

I was a woman 

Glamorous, sparkling, with eyes that shone, 

guarding secrets untold 

Lips that were petulant, pouting and bold 

I was a woman

with a body molded to gentlemen’s delight 

and pedicured toenails, shining and bright 

I patronized night clubs, danced until three, 

and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of men 

were mad about me 

I was a woman… 

Then, in a panic, my dream began to cool 

I mashed out the cigarette 

and was late for school 

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The Giver of Stars: Six Poems of Amy Lowell - Edie Hill 

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Program notes from the composer… 

The Giver of Stars is excerpted from a larger theatrical work entitled Amy Lowell: A Rare Pattern. Lowells’s life as a poet and how it was woven into her life with the actress, Ada Dwyer Russell, fascinated me. Lowell’s stern exterior is counterpoint to a tender heartedness and vulnerability which she shared with her beloved Ada. This cycle represents the arc of their love and life together. 

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I. Pyrotechnics 

Our meeting was like the upward swish of a rocket 

In the blue night. 

I do not know when it burst; 

But now I stand gaping, 

In a glory of falling stars 

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II. Flame Apples 

Little hote apples of fire 

Burst out of the flaming stem 

Of my heart 

I do not understand how you quickened and grew, 

And you amaze me 

While I gather you.

I lay you, one by one, 

Upon a table. 

And now you seem beautiful and strange to me, 

And I stand before you, 

Wondering 

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III. Vernal Equinox 

The scent of hyacinths, like a pale mist, lies between

          me and my book; 

And the South Wind, washing through the room, 

Makes the candles quiver. 

My nerves sting at a spatter of rain on the shutter, 

And I am uneasy with the thrusting of green shoots

Outside, in the night 

Why are you not here to overpower me with your 

           tense and urgent love? 

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Love what you heard and curious to explore more?

Check out these song suggestions by Minnesota icons! 

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Libby Larsen, “Try Me Good King”: for the history buffs, this intense song cycle features texts taken from the last words of the wives of Henry VIII 

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Jocelyn Hagen, “Songs of Fields and Prairies”: a beautiful cycle of 7 songs about fields and prairies 

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Edie Hill, “Between the Limbs, Music”: four songs about love, life, and death

 

Wendy Durrwachter, “Only One”: a song about a special recipe, commissioned by OOPS MN 

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Abbie Betinis, “Nattsinger” (Nightsongs): a cycle of seven songs exploring the nature of time from sunset to dawn; this is a chamber piece for clarinet, high voice, and piano

 

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