Score Pricing
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Set Myself Free (2020)

for SSAA choir | 00:04:00

by Melissa Dunphy

Commissioned by Amuse Singers, Artistic Director Phillip Cheah, to commemorate the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.


Set Myself Free
By Jaqueline Goldfinger

Suck-in stomach.
Wet plump lips.
Paint myself,
Until I can't see myself.
Pleasing you.
I'm tired of my
Face Waist Thighs.
Tired of being the...
UnMe? Not Me?
The Never Good Enough To Be Really Seen.
I scrub the shame out of my eyes.
What to do,
with this paint left behind?
Make
Signs
Slogans
Screaming
Your rights and mine.
Laws
Re-painted
To better align
With the dreams
Our foremothers bought
on back and bent knee.
They knew the price of liberty.
They paid day after day
So I could re-paint the Constitution,
And set myself free.

Artwork by Claris Park


Performances

  • 11 May, 2024: Amuse Singers at St. Ignatius Church, New York, NY
  • 21 Apr, 2024: Lux at Prospect United Methodist Church, Lawrenceville, GA
  • 14 Jan, 2024: Lux at Brenau University, Gainesville, GA
  • 22 Oct, 2023: Lux at Berry College, Mount Berry, GA
  • 10 Sep, 2023: Lux at First Presbyterian Church, Gainesville, GA
  • 24 Apr, 2022: San Diego Opera + La Jolla Playhouse at ARTS DISTRICT - Liberty Station, San Diego, CA
  • 23 Apr, 2022: San Diego Opera + La Jolla Playhouse at ARTS DISTRICT - Liberty Station, San Diego, CA
  • 18 Aug, 2020: Amuse Singers at YouTube (online premiere)