After a short 3-bar introduction, the boogie beat is laid down by the piano. Its characteristic use of triplets and a “walking bass” in the left hand continues throughout the piece. A jazzy pizzicato phrase for the string instruments leads into a slightly slower section which features dialogue between the strings (playing in rhythmic unison) and the piano. A re-statement of the earlier material is combined with a “ripping” riff. Breathless solos for each instrumentalist bring Four on the Floor to a boisterous conclusion.
Songs from Letters
In the foreword of Between Ourselves, a compilation of letters between mothers and daughters, editor Karen Payne quotes Rosa Luxemburg: ‘It is in the tiny struggles of individual peoples that the great movements of history are most truly observed.’ I think she's on to something. The diary of Martha Jane Canary Hickok (Calamity Jane) reveals the struggle of an individual soul, a tender soul, a woman and pioneer on many frontiers. Calamity Jane was a working woman, good in her profession, working at what she loved and making choices because of her will to work. Calamity Jane sent Janey, her daughter by Wild Bill Hickok, to live with a ‘normal daddy’, her friend Jim O'Neil. She paid for child support by working as a gambler, trick shooter, cowhand, barmaid, stagecoach driver, and prostitute. She even tried (and rejected) marriage. In her time she was odd and lonely. One hundred years later, her life sheds light on contemporary society. She chooses rough-tough words to describe her life to her daughter. I'm interested in that rough-toughness and in Calamity Jane's struggle to explain herself honestly to her daughter Janey.
Songs from Letters was commissioned by Mary Elizabeth Poore, who gave the first performance on 8 April 1989 at the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, New York City.
© Libby Larsen, 1983
Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press
Texts
So Like Your Father's (1880)
Janey, a letter came today
and a picture of you.
Your expression so like your father's
brought back all the years.
He Never Misses (1880)
I met your father 'Wild Bill Hickok' near Abilene.
A bunch of outlaws were planning to kill him.
I crawled through the brush to warn him.
Bill killed them all.
I'll never forget...
Blood running down his face
while he used two guns.
He never aimed and he was never known to miss.
A Man Can Love Two Women (1880)
Don't let jealousy get you, Janey.
It kills love and all nice things,
It drove your father from me.
I lost everything I loved except for you.
A man can love two women at a time.
He loved her and he still loved me.
He loved me because of you, Janey.
A Working Women (1882-1893)
Your mother works for a living.
One day I have chickens, and the next day feathers.
These days I'm driving a stagecoach.
For a while, I worked in Russell's saloon
but when I worked there all the virtuous women
planned to run me out of town,
so these days, I'm driving a stagecoach.
I'll be leaving soon to join Bill Cody's Wild West Show.
I'll ride a horse bare-back,
standing up, shoot my old Stetson hat
twice - throwing it into the air -
and landing on my head.
These are hectic days - like hell let out for noon.
I mind my own business, but remember
the one thing the world hates is a woman
who minds her own business.
All the virtuous women
have bastards and shot-gun weddings.
I have nursed them through childbirth and
my only pay is a kick in the pants when my back is turned.
These other women are pot bellied, hairy legged
and look like something the cat dragged in.
I wish I had the power to damn their souls to hell!
Your mother works for a living.
All I Have (1902)
I am going blind.
All hope of seeing you again is dead, Janey.
What have I ever done except one blunder after another?
All I have left are these pictures of you and your father.
Don't pity me, Janey,
forgive my faults and all the wrong I did you.
Good night, little girl,
And may God keep you from harm.
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