Longing for Home

I. Jerusalem

*II. Mother

III. Voyager Dust

IV. A Letter to Marianne Moore

V. Dancing Toward the Promised Land

Carol Barnett

A song cycle for mezzo, baritone, and piano

www.carolbarnett.net

MOTHER

I wish that I could talk with her again. That’s what I thought of when I thought of home,

Always supposing I had a home to come to. If she were here, we’d warm the Chinese pot

To brew a jasmine-scented elixir, And I would tell her how my life has been—

All the parts that don’t make sense to me, And she would let me talk until the parts

Fitted together.

That will never be. She couldn’t wait for me to come to her—

Ten years away. I couldn’t wish for her To wait, all blind and helpless as she was. So now I have come home to emptiness:

No silly welcome-rhyme, no happy tears, No eager questioning. No way to get

An answer to my questions. Silence fills The rooms that once were vibrant with her song,

And all the things I wanted to talk out With her are locked forever in my heart.

I wander through the rooms where she is not.

Alone I sit on the hassock by her chair, And there, at last, I seem to hear her voice:

“You’re a big girl now. You can work things out.”

Bea Exner Liu (1907-1997)

duration: c. 3:45

Composer’s note

Bea Exner Liu was born and raised in Northfield, Minnesota, and graduated from Carleton College. She moved to China in 1935 to teach English, since teaching positions were scarce in the United States during the Depression. While there, she married a Chinese classmate from Carleton, and witnessed the Japanese invasion of China during the years 1935 to 1945. The eventuality of a Communist takeover finally brought Liu and her family back to Minnesota. She later published an award-winning children's book as well as her memoir, Remembering China, 1935–1945.

Mother is the second of five songs comprising Longing for Home, a cycle written to celebrate

Source Song Festival’s fifth season. The texts all reference homecoming in various ways – the enduring wish to return to a place remembered with love and longing, as well as the

uncertainty, the impossibility of doing so. The music of Mother mirrors the unsettled sadness of a daughter’s long-delayed visit home, now bereft of its center of gravity. Memories of

beloved rituals, of a sympathetic ear, are brought to life once more by the nearness of familiar objects, and finally, the almost tangible sound of her mother’s voice: “You’re a big girl now.

You can work it out.”

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LONGING FOR HOME

Carol Barnett

Poem © 1988 Bea Exner Liu. Used with permission. Music © 2018 Carol Barnett. All rights reserved.

II. Mother

Bea Exner Liu (1907-1997)

Celebrating the Fifth Anniversary of Source Song Festival, Mark Bilyeu and Clara Osowski, artistic directors.

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