Advice to a Girl

Advice to a Girl (2020)

-for Soprano (or Mezzo Soprano) with String Quartet

Duration: approx. 6 minutes

Difficulty: Moderate

Download includes two versions of the full score (one with reduced-sized string staves for the Soprano) and complete set of string performance parts.

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I became aware of the poem 'Advice To A Girl' by Sara Teasdale in a media misquote, which said I had set these words in another musical work of mine, ‘Flame and Shadow’ (they got the Teasdale bit right, but chose the wrong poem!) Upon reading the poem, it struck me as the perfect text to use for a work that wanted to lay claim to a woman's rightful desire to create. I set it aside until the right opportunity came about- that opportunity was a new work to be included on my debut album of chamber music for voice and strings. 

The music, like the text, is gentle but confident; simple, but direct. Teasdale’s honest and unpretentious lyricism is reflected in the crystalline clarity of the music, beginning with a small waver of insecurity, and finishing with a new-found assuredness. It is a poem that I still struggle to articulate a meaning for, but which affects me deeply every time I hear it: what better reason, then, to set it to music, and to let the music deliver the true meaning of the words?

Range - E4 to F#5. Suitable for Soprano or Mezzo Soprano.

Advice to a Girl

No one worth possessing

Can be quite possessed;

Lay that on your heart,

My young angry dear;

This truth, this hard and precious stone,

Lay it on your hot cheek,

Let it hide your tear.

Hold it like a crystal

When you are alone

And gaze in the depths of the icy stone.

Long, look long and you will be blessed:

No one worth possessing

Can be quite possessed.

~Sara Teasdale

The work is also available in an arrangement for singer with Piano Trio, and Piano.