Collegium Feminamque Cano

Commissioned by the Radcliffe Choral Society, in honor of their 125th anniversary concert.

Program notes:

To be a woman at Harvard College is to ride a hard line between empowerment and repression. It is a great honor to take part in a tradition of prestige and rigor, yet this tradition did not even claim to fully accept women into its circles until 1999, when the university began granting its female graduates "Harvard" degrees instead of "Harvard-Radcliffe." In the simplest of metaphors, a Harvard woman may be lauded by her classmates in one room for a meaningful and well-executed scholarly endeavor, then face condescension for the very same work just down the hall.

I feel this contradiction more strongly as a composer than in any other facet of my life at Harvard. After my compositional debut, despite high praise from the audience, a male colleague suggested I sit down across the room instead of joining a conversation with fellow emerging composers (who were, notably, all men as well). Later, after receiving my first professional commission, a different male composition classmate asked me if I actually thought I was capable of meeting the commissioning ensemble's expectations. Despite the discouragement, I knew I had a team of intelligent, talented, and kind Radcliffians supporting me; I wrote this piece to say "Collegium feminamque cano"—I sing at a women's college, the motto of the Radcliffe Choral Society—"and by this I am alive."

Textually, Collegium Feminamque Cano explores the dual nature of imagery found at Harvard. Is crimson red the color of warmth or of violence? In eating the apple, according to Genesis and its derivative texts, was Eve deserving of the shame that came with her enlightenment? Per Homer's Odyssey, in continuing his journeys against the backdrop of "rosy fingered dawn," did Odysseus bring glory upon himself or abuse upon the women around him? These lyrical metaphors sink into the harmonies of the song. As dissonant cluster chords are set within a bluegrass-style melody, the intellectualism of the "art music" that I learned in college is forced to confront the spirit of the "folk music" that I grew up around.

Ultimately, these ambivalences mirror a larger uncertainty of whether the status of "Radcliffe" is a demotion from "Harvard" or a badge of honor in its own right. Opinions may vary among the women of Harvard today, but I feel that the status of Radcliffe College, decades after its dissolution, is irrelevant. What matters is the network of mutual support built by those who feel the legacy of Radcliffe: Collegium feminamque cano, and by this I am alive.

Thank you to the Harvard Choruses New Music Initiative and Professor Robert Kyr for supporting the creation of this piece.