DAVID LANG
SHE IS CALLED FOR TREBLE CHOIR SCORE
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program note
she is called was written for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
she is called began with my curiosity about what the Old Testament has to say about women and their role in society. We are trying to pay more attention now to how our society may place certain limits on women, limiting who they are and what they can do and what they can become; I thought it might be useful to try to figure out where those limits may have come from. Because the Bible has been so fundamental in American and European culture that seemed like a good place to look.
Of course, the Bible has many powerful, inspiring, independent women, but, in general, women in the Old Testament have a narrower range of options than men. To see just how much narrower, I searched the King James Bible translation of the Five Books of Moses for every phrase that begins with the word 'she.’ This generated a long list of the kinds of roles women play; by far the most numerous phrases were about conception and giving birth. To make the text for she is called I filtered out of this list all the phrases that were repeated, leaving behind a catalog of the unique actions of an anonymous Biblical woman, in the order in which those actions are mentioned in the Bible.
The duration is approximately 5 1/2 minutes.
she is called text by david lang (after the king james bible)
she is called she is taken
she takes the fruit thereof she gives me of the tree and I do eat she is the mother of all living she conceives
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she bears a child she appoints me another seed she returns unto him
she has no child
she is very fair
she is thy wife
she is my sister
she has a handmaid
she sees she flees from her face
she says she calls the name
she is a mother
she is afraid
she is a pillar she lies down she arises she is a man’s wife she is the daughter of my father she is my wife she is reproved she departs she casts the child under one of the shrubs she goes she sits she sees a well of water she wed kindness she goes down to the well she hurries she is done giving she is old she makes haste she lights she takes a veil, and covers herself she becomes a wife she is barren she says, If it be so, why am I thus she is fair to look upon she puts the goatskins on his hands she gives the savory meat and bread she is prepared she sends and calls she keeps them she runs she calls his name she conceives again she bears a child upon her knees she leaves bearing a child she takes she is buried she has hard labor she is in hard labor she dies she yet again conceives she takes her widow’s garments off she is not given she covers her face she is his daughter in law she is with child she brings forth she is more righteous she struggles she speaks she catches him she sees that he has left his garment she calls unto the men she lays up his garment she speaks to him she lives
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she sees him she hides him she can no longer hide him she lays it in the flags she sends her maid she opens it
she sees the child she has compassion she nurses the child she brings him she has born a child she does not go out she pleases not her master she goes out free she will be unclean she is unclean she continues she touches no hallowed thing she bears a child, a girl she brings a lamb she is cleansed she is put apart she lies all the days she numbers to herself she is your mother she is born at home she is your father’s she is your aunt she is your son’s she is scourged she is not free she sees his nakedness she uncovers the fountain she profanes herself she is burnt with fire she does not eat she will eat she lies desolate she is defiled she will not be defiled she will be free she is leprous she is not ashamed she thrusts herself unto the wall she falls down she turns from me she binds her soul she vows she utters with her lips she vows in her husband’s house she shaves her head she puts the raiment of her captivity off her she cries not
she is called
