all the girls (2007)     

E. E. Cummings

for high voice and piano

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These texts remain under copyright and are therefore not fully reproduced herein.

 

jake hates

                  all the girls(the

shy ones,the bold

ones;the meek

proud sloppy sleek)

all except the cold

                                  ones

 

paul scorns all

                          the girls(the....

[ 5 pages, circa 2' 00" ]

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E. E. Cummings

 

This four stanza text -- the above is only the first and opening of the four -- brings four characters to our attention, Jake, Paul, Gus and Mike. In the American fashion, one imagines three of the four are nicknames, and therefore the text seems to speak personally about these men.

 

The adjectives to describe the "girls" (we may be sure these are women, not girls) hint at a broad range of characteristics. The adjectives to describe those "girls" unfavored by any emotional interest, whether it be hate, scorn, love or liking of the four stanzas, are few. These adjectives are "cold" or "dull" or "dead" or "green," which I take to mean inexperienced. Aside from these characteristics, the four men seem to be quite emotionally wrapped up with women of all sorts. So it is in life.

 

 

The text is found in XAIPE (1950) as simple 21, though listed in a table of contents and appendix as its first line, "jake hates."

 

Many of Cummings' poems are titled by precedent using the first line as the poet did not seem to need titles for his work in general. For this I chose to title the song setting after the general theme of the poem, as the phrase appears in each strophe, whimsically moving from the second to the first line one word at a time.

 

 

 

The score for all the girls is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this piano-vocal score.

 

all the girls