maggie and millie and molly and may - (2007)

E. E. Cummings

for high voice and piano

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maggie and millie and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and

millie befriended a stranded star
who's rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing....

 

This text remains under copyright and is therefore not fully reproduced herein.

 

Noted as number "10" from 95 Poems, (1958)

 

[ 3 pages, circa 1' 30" ]

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E. E. Cummings

"The mystery that is identity is the focus of 'Maggie, Milly, Molly, and May;' the four girls are described as who they are by what they find at the beach. The sing-song of the rhyme belies the deeper intent, which is that who we are determines what we seek out in life. What the girls find, in some sense, is predetermined by our own natures, for the objects retrieved are neutral. It is what we see in them that create their value. Or, as the last couplet concludes, 'For whatever you lose (like a you or a me) / it's always ourselves we find in the sea.'" [From Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno, E. E. Cummings: A Biography.]

 

 

For high voice and piano, the vocal line rises only once to G, as "molly" is chased by the "horrible thing" which is the literal sense seems nothing more than a crab running sideways blowing bubbles. But to the imagination nature can become "horrible." After the opening "splash" of C major and D minor, the accompaniment sings out with the vocal line the initial theme, and left hand emphasizing the off beat throughout. The vocal line breaks rhythmically away, a hemiola of three against the underlying duple of the accompaniment.

 

 

 

The verses for each of the girls are variations, with a final restatement of the accompaniment figure one octave higher, as the poet reminds us "ourselves" that we find in all that we seek. Without regard to the deeper philosophic import, I personally feel the song should be performed as "for children."

 

 

 

This score will be published in in Fifty-Five Songs, YR1550, in the coming months available from Yelton Rhodes Music, Los Angeles, California