Song Description

KATHE KOLLWITZ for Soprano and String Quartet Kathe Kollwitz was written in response to a commission from violist Julia Adams for a work celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the Portland String Quartet in 1998. Julia specifically wanted a large-sca

Lyrics

IV. Song: The Calling-Up
Rumor, stir of ripeness
rising within this girl
sensual blossoming
of meaning, its light and form.

The birth-cry summoning
out of the male, the father
from the warm woman
a mother in response.

The word of death
calls up the fight with stone
wrestle with grief with time
from the material make
an art harder than bronze.