ROCO

  • Meet
    • About ROCO
    • Artists
    • Board & Team
    • Newsroom
    • Press Kit
  • Livestream
  • Attend
    • Season 19 Announced
    • Performances
    • ROCOrooters
    • 2023-2024 Calendar
    • Accessibility
    • Pay What You Wish
  • Listen
    • Listening Room
    • ROCO on the Go
    • The Nightingale Book
    • Album
    • Video Library
    • Commissions, Premieres, Rescores, & Resources
  • Support
    • Ways to Support
    • ROCO Resound
    • ROCO Revelry Gala
    • Sponsors & Partners
    • Donate
  • Follow
    • Follow ROCO
    • ROCO Mobile App
  • Contact

Founding Mothers: An ode to my matriarchs

Blog, April 3, 2012

From Anthony Brandt, composer of Maternity:

Today, the federal government published the census data from 1940, enabling us to trace our parents and grandparents at a crucial moment in US history.  Where were they?  What were they doing?  It is that curiosity about our heritage that animates in the libretto of “Maternity.”  The text is adapted from David Eagleman’s short story “The Founding Mothers: An ode to my matriarchs—every last one.”  In David’s original story, the narrator celebrates Mother’s Day by spending “ five seconds thinking about each woman in the proud line of matriarchs who brought me here…”  David invented a special ancestral notation: great2grandmother, great3grandmother, etc.  Eventually, the narrator’s thoughts are carried back millions of generations, to the first female in history, the “moment when gender splits into being.” 

Turning David’s ode into a libretto, we made a few immediate decisions.  Instead of using Mother’s Day as the jumping off point, we decided the narrator was singing to her child.   Thus, the libretto begins “You are here because of me.”  We reasoned that the “five seconds” limit wouldn’t be musically plausible, so that was dropped from the text.  Asking the soloist to sing the ever-expanding matriarch notation–great88,299,894grandmother, great334,281,202grandmother—would have been too cumbersome and inadvertently humorous.  So we decided that the notation would be projected in synch with the music.   Once those decisions were made, work on “Maternity” began…

to be continued…

ROCO will perform Maternity on Saturday, April 21, at The Church of St. John the Divine. More…

Leave A Reply Cancel reply

Sign up to receive ROCO news and updates

SIGN UP NOW

Upcoming Performances

Saturday, Sep 30 2023, 5:00pm

ROCO In Concert: Seismic

Saturday, Sep 30 2023, 7:30pm

ROCO Revelry Gala 2023

Thursday, Oct 12 2023, 7:00pm

ROCO Connections: Sight and Sound

Friday, Oct 20 2023, 7:30pm

ROCO Connections: Rise Up

Saturday, Nov 4 2023, 5:00pm

ROCO Unchambered: Rachel Jordan, Violin

See More

Join the Conversation

Recent Posts

  • Beyond Diversity: ROCO Redefines the Classical Music Canon – Arts & Culture Texas
  • Making Waves—Season 19 Announced!
  • ROCO Ends Season With A Parade
  • ROCO Ditches The Conductor In Friends
  • ROCO Makes The F-word Popular: Fortune

© ROCO | 3104 Edloe Street, Suite 350 | Houston, TX 77027 | 713-665-2700 | [email protected]
Registered 501(c)(3). EIN: 30-0288750
Privacy Policy

  • Meet
    • About ROCO
    • Artists
    • Board & Team
    • Newsroom
    • Press Kit
  • Livestream
  • Attend
    • Season 19 Announced
    • Performances
    • ROCOrooters
    • 2023-2024 Calendar
    • Accessibility
    • Pay What You Wish
  • Listen
    • Listening Room
    • ROCO on the Go
    • The Nightingale Book
    • Album
    • Video Library
    • Commissions, Premieres, Rescores, & Resources
  • Support
    • Ways to Support
    • ROCO Resound
    • ROCO Revelry Gala
    • Sponsors & Partners
    • Donate
  • Follow
    • Follow ROCO
    • ROCO Mobile App
  • Contact