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About the Composer
Timothy C. Takach
Graphite Publishing
How to Triumph (cycle)
Art song that radiates empowerment, affirmation and strength.
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How to Triumph
low voice, piano
A piece that delicately moves from personal affirmation to renewal and finally ferocity and strength. Deeply moving texts by Sierra DeMulder, Marg Walker and Ada Limón are set in an honest, straightforward way, letting the music support the emotional journey.
Composer’s Notes
As a straight white male composer I’m trying to figure out my role. How do I bring a diverse type of poetry and music to singers and audiences without overstepping my bounds? I think about my catalog: I’ve written in Estonian, French, Somali, Spanish and Latin, but none of those languages are “mine.” I’ve arranged spirituals, Motown, Rock, Hip-Hop, I’ve arranged tunes from the Irish, Scottish, Appalachians and Norwegians, I’ve written for treble choirs, GALA choruses, and religions that aren’t mine. None of those belong to me. So am I allowed?
When I wrote “How to Triumph,” I was well aware that I was not a woman. One of the singers who premiered the SSA version said as much, and asked why I thought this was a piece I should write. I told her that I felt strongly about this poem and that it needed to be set to music. I realized that in the process of bringing women’s poetry to life for a female singer, I was the gender outlier in that chain as a male composer. But I wanted this story to be heard on stage and I knew how I’d want it to be told. I knew the kind of reaction I wanted the singer and the audience to feel. I knew that if I succeeded, it wouldn’t matter what my gender was. I didn’t want to set this poem for my own use, but for the musical experience of others. I wanted to do my part in lifting up women, to help them see themselves as strong. The gift here is the poetry of these women and the journey.
– Timothy C. Takach
Text
I. Mantra
Vitamin D. Sunlight.
Go outside. Get a good night
of sleep. Not too good.
Not shades drawn forever
good. Not like you used to.
Open the windows.
Buy more houseplants.
Breathe. Meditate. (One day,
you will no longer be
afraid of being alone
with your thoughts.)
Exercise. Actually exercise
instead of just Googling it.
Eat well. Cook for yourself.
Organize your closet, the
garage. Drink plenty of
water and repeat after me:
I am not a problem
to be solved. Repeat after me:
I am worthy I am worthy
I am neither mistake nor
the punishment. Forget to take
vitamins. Let the houseplant die.
Eat spoonfuls of peanut butter.
Shave your head. Forget
this poem. It doesn’t matter.
There is no wrong way
to remember the grace of your
own body; no choice
that can unmake itself.
There is only now, here,
look: you are already
forgiven.
– from Today Means Amen by Sierra DeMulder (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2016). Copyright © 2016 by Sierra DeMulder. Reprinted and used with permission from Sierra DeMulder.
II. Begin Again
if you must begin again
begin here
in silence
hold your
hungry self
in your own
loving arms
in the clearing
a wisp
of new moon
slips
from the grasp
of the trees’
dark inventory
look up
its contour
foreshadows
the fullness
that is to come
– Marg Walker, used with permission. Copyright © 2019 by Marg Walker
III. How to Triumph Like a Girl
I like the lady horses best,
how they make it all look easy,
like running 40 miles per hour is as fun as
taking a nap, or grass.
I like their lady horse swagger, after winning.
Ears up, girls, ears up!
But mainly, let’s be honest,
I like that they’re ladies.
As if this big dangerous animal is also a part of me,
that somewhere inside the delicate skin of my body,
there pumps an 8-pound female horse heart,
giant with power, heavy with blood.
Don’t you want to believe it?
Don’t you want to tug my shirt and see
the huge beating genius machine that thinks,
no, it knows, it’s going to come in first.
– Ada Limón
From Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions 2015). Copyright ©2015 by Ada Limón. Reprinted with permission from Milkweed Editions. milkweed.org
$12.00 per licensed PDF
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