Blurring the Lines - Music and Gender
 June 18, 19, and 20, 2004
Sundin Hall, Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota
Concert
Repertoire Download
One Voice Mixed Chorus colored outside the lines of social convention to explore and bend gender identity in our concert titled "Blurring the Lines - Music and Gender." The concert used music to explore the continuum between male and female genders including the experiences of bisexual and transgender individuals, cross-dressing, gender stereotypes, and songs about historical figures who lived in society as the opposite gender. Choral selections included The Gender Polka, William’s Doll, Ann Reed’s Power Tools are a Girl’s Best Friend, and A Palette to Paint Us by St. Paul’s award-winning composer, Elizabeth Alexander.
Adding colors of its own was the Twin Cities’ first transgender chorus, formed at the One Voice sponsored Transgender Voices Festival in April. This chorus of twenty transgender singers joined One Voice for the Blurring the Lines concert performing several songs on their own and closed the concert with several combined numbers with One Voice. The concert highlighted a new commission by One Voice accompanist Paul Kovacovic, Our Voice of Truth, composed for One Voice and the transgender chorus.
Concert Program
Program Notes
Blurring the Lines Concert Program
Set One
The Gender Polka
(1997)
By David Maddux
Dancers: Jennifer Andrade, Naomi Guzman, Chuck Hagel, Lynne Larsen, Marnie Milbert, Lisette Schlosser
William's Doll (adapted from the book by Charlotte Zolotow)
(1974)
Music by Mary Rodgers
Lyric by Sheldon Harnick
Arranged by Jane Ramseyer Miller
Friday Soloists: Bernadette Murphy, Spencer Putney, John Bagniewski
Sat/Sun Soloists: Naomi Guzman, Shawn Erwin, Katrina Johnson
"Altar Boy"
Written and read by Kate Lynn Hibbard
The 23rd Psalm (dedicated to my mother)
(1990)
By Bobby McFerrin
Valley of Colors (from Sixty Against One: The Life of Jeanne d'Arc)
(1996, 1999)
Music by Jay Huber
Text by Williard Trask
OVation: Chris Dart, Darcy Juhl, Robin Keck, Molly Keenan, Liz McClear, Shelly McVicker, Jim Slater, John Sorlien
Flight
(2004)
By Paul Kovacovic
Solo: Paul Kovacovic accompanied by OVation
Power Tools (Are a Girl's Best Friend)
(1953, 1997)
Lyrics by Ann Reed
Music by Jule Styne
Arranged by Anita Ruth
Shelly McVicker, Assistant Music Director
Lola
(1970)
Words and Music by Ray Davies
Arranged by Allan S. Warrior
John Sorlien, Assistant Music Director
"What's your Gender?"
Compiled by Kate Lynn Hibbard from chorus member responses
Masculine Women! Feminine Men!
(1925)
Words by Edgar Leslie
Music by James V. Monaco
Arranged by Jane Ramseyer Miller
Soloists: Shelly McVicker & Jam Ramsey
I Am What I Am
(1983)
Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman
INTERMISSION
SET TWO
This Door Swings Both Ways
(1966)
Words and Music by Estelle Levitt and Don Thomas
Arranged by Frank Metis
with assistance from MJ Gilbert
And All that Jazz (from Chicago)
(1973)
Music by John Kander
Words by Fred Ebb
Arranged by Kirby Shaw
Dancers: Jennifer Andrade, Naomi Guzman, Lynne Larsen, Joy MacArthur, Marnie Milbert, Bernadette Murphy, Lisette Schlosser
Al Shlosha D'Varim
(Traditional)
Arranged by: Allan E. Naplan
"Goodbye, Elijah"
Written and performed by Elijah Rose
A Palette To Paint Us As We Are
(1995, 1999)
Poetry by Gerald Rich
Music by Elizabeth Alexander
Poem reading by Kate Lynn Hibbard.
A Far Better Man
(2000)
Lyrics by Kristin Grace, Kathy Lefferts, Brian Watson, and John Kelleher
Music by Steven Landau
Commissioned by the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Chorus
Soloists: Tyler van Vierzen and Jan-Michael Denfeld
Reflection (from Walt Disney's Mulan)
(1998)
Music by Matthew Wilder
Lyrics by David Zippel
Arranged by Mac Huff
Our Voice of Truth
(2004 – One Voice Mixed Chorus Commission)
Words by Michael Christian Valiant
Music by Paul Kovacovic
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Program Notes
Why a concert on music and gender? This year One Voice took on a year-long exploration of gender in an effort to embrace the full spectrum of our GLBT identity. Through workshops, discussion, collaborations and music-making our views on gender have forever been changed. Tonight we offer you the same challenge and hope you will leave this concert with the many hues of gender displayed in new light before you.
Some concert selections challenge traditional gender stereotypes such as William's Doll, from the 1970's feminist hit Free to Be You and Me, and Ann Reed's Power Tools Are a Girl's Best Friend. Bobby McFerrin's 23rd Psalm offers a powerful setting of a beloved psalm with a twist that forever alters and expands traditional images of the divine.
Other songs tell stories of historical and fictional characters whose personalities and roles spanned both female and male genders. Reflection comes from the Disney movie Mulan. According to Chinese legend, Hua MuLan (sometimes called the Chinese "Joan of Arc") dressed as a man in order to take her father's place and lead his troops to battle. y. I Am What I Am is from the legendary Broadway show, Le Cage Aux Folles. The story features two gay men who pose as a straight couple in order to appease their son's future in-laws. The light-hearted, yet provocative lyrics of the Kink's surprise hit, Lola, make it easy to forget that it was written only a year after Stonewall.
We were fortunate to have the opportunity to work with three Twin Cities' composers in preparing this concert. Jay Huber's Valley of Colors is part of a larger composition written for the Rose Ensemble. The composition tells the story of the legendary Joan of Arc who chooses male attire in her role as defender and warrior. Paul Kovacovic composed Flight for solo piano accompanied by OVation. Composer Elizabeth Alexander joined us to rehearse her A Palette to Paint Us, a composition which has become a favorite of the chorus. The poem's vivid hues offer a challenge to perceive the world beyond our traditional two dimensions.
Masculine Women, Feminine Men was a unique find in our search for gender-related repertoire. Written in 1926, the song has apparently enjoyed significant popularity. I discovered twenty recordings of the song on the Internet - six of them from the 1920s.
Set II opens with a song made popular by Herman's Hermits – This Door Swings Both Ways – and And All that Jazz from the musical hit, Chicago. Trans Voices spent the past eight weeks exploring and playing with new voice ranges, trying out voices that may have never sung before, and learning to trust the musical sounds within each singer. Their set closes with Al Schlosha D'Varim, a two-part arrangement of the popular Jewish maxim, "the world is sustained by three things – by truth, by justice, and by peace."
Our concert concludes with three pieces performed together by Trans Voices and One Voice Mixed Chorus. A Far Better Man was commissioned by the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Chorus in 2000 and was inspired by a transgender man who was born in Minnesota before moving out to Seattle. Our new 2004 commission, Our Voice of Truth, was composed by Paul Kovacovic especially for this concert.
Dive in and enjoy! We hope you leave this concert challenged and inspired to embrace the full-spectrum possibilities of gender.
-- Jane Ramseyer Miller
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