Your children (are not your children)

TTBB and four-hands piano

In the early stages of writing this piece I concluded that the simpler I kept the music, the closer it would be to the intention of Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran’s amazing text about the stewardship of raising a child. In the writing I attempted to represent this by taking a melodic idea and “growing” it one note at a time until it became the entire line of text; slow, repetitive development that eventually yields what is hopefully something beautiful. Not a bad metaphor for parenthood, I think.

Your children (are not your children) was co-commissioned by the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota and the Minnesota Music Educators Association for Dr. Angela Broeker and the 2010 Minnesota All-State Mixed Choir.  It was originally scored for two four-hands pianos but I adapted it so the piece can be performed with only one piano.  The tenor-bass version was commissioned in 2013 by the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (Reuben M. Reynolds III, conductor).

The Text

By Khalil Gibran (1883-1931)
Adapted by the composer

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

Performed by the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus
(Reuben M. Reynolds III, conductor)