Looking Up =
an elegy for victims of school shootings
for mezzo-soprano and piano
Caroline Olsen, Mezzo-Soprano and Andrew Goodridge, Piano
Looking Up (2021) Program Notes
School shootings are ever present sadly, over six years since I wrote the center song in this triptych. "Looking Up" came to me in one sitting when all my frustrations, built up from every new bit of news, poured out of me. The first performance of Looking Up (when it was just the one song) took place in the First Unitarian Church of Providence during a service on Mother’s Day that was dedicated to ending gun violence. I sensed a larger story needed telling, so I expanded the song to include playful nursery rhymes from the child’s perspective, a lullaby from the mother’s perspective, and a final elegy from the mother, using the poignant words of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. I hope this cycle can serve as a reminder of the beautiful lives of the victims as well as the gut-wrenching gunfire that must be stopped.
Songs
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The world is awesome when you have the time to experience it.
Lyrics: Drums of the Rain, by Mary Carolyn Davies
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I believe children's imagination is more real than adult routinization.
Lyrics: Fairies, by Hilda Conkling, written when she was in elementary school.
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Lullabies are hard to sing when you worry your child might get shot at school.
Lyrics: Evening Song, by Fannie Stearns Davis
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This music came to me all at once in 2018, in the middle of my day, and I wrote down the complete voice part and lyrics in three hours. My heart goes out to the hundreds of thousands of survivors and hundreds of victims.
Lyrics: Looking Up, by William Emmanuel Hawkins
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Walt Whitman's words on the Civil War's fallen inspire strength in the face of tragedy while gifting space for grief.
Lyrics: Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman, arr. by William Emmanuel Hawkins