girls’ chorus
Belong Not
The idea for this piece grew out of an early interest in, and search for, texts on adoption. The idea of adoption resonates with me for several reasons. First, because there are already so many children around the world waiting to be saved and loved. Second, adoption relieves some of the pressure and the social expectations placed on women because of their biology. Last but not least, I believe that having children is not about carrying our genes and family name — our “pedigree” — but about the love and care we give, while treating them as a unique creation.
My search led me to the famous poem “On Children” by Khalil Gibran, which I adapted for the needs of the music and my own ideas. One of the changes was to cast it in the first person — both to stress the central idea of the text and to identify it more strongly with the girls who sing the piece.
To my mind the piece connects directly to the occasion for which it was written: the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution. I strongly believe that respecting each person — women, men and children — as an independent being with equal rights is an inevitable part of a loving and flourishing society. Too often this is still not the case: in some places it is plainly visible on the legal and cultural level; in others it is camouflaged by a mainstream trampling through the educational system, and by a culture of overly dominating parenthood.
“Belong Not” was written for, and commissioned by, the wonderful girls of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, who I believe are the best possible messengers for it. The work was performed together with the Berkeley Ballet.
Text
Khalil Gibran, adapted by Aviya Kopelman
Your children are not your children.
We are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.
You may give us your love, but not your thoughts, as we have our own thoughts.
You may house our bodies but not our souls.
You may strive to be like us but seek not to make us like you.
We come through you but not from you, and though we are with you yet we belong not to you.
Commissioned by San Francisco Girls Chorus.