Kuster | When There Are Nine by Just a Theory Press

for mezzo-soprano, vocal ensemble, and orchestra

When There Are NinePERUSALSCORE

Music by Kristin Kuster

Libretto by Megan Levad 2019

PERUSALSCORE

When There Are Nine

for mezzo-soprano, vocal ensemble, and orchestra

PERUSALSCORE

Music by Kristin Kuster

Libretto by Megan Levad 2019

Commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music with generous support from JoAnn Close & Michael Good, Carole & Henry Klyce, Cherrill Spencer, and Joan Zimmerman.

Megan Levad’s libretto made possible with generous support from Joe Collins, and Diane & Donald Cooley.

World Premiere performance on Friday, August 2, 2019, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra conducted by Cristian Măcelaru; Featuring Jamie Barton, mezzo-soprano; and Roomful of Teeth, vocal ensemble. Santa Cruz, California.

Instrumentation

Flute 1-3 (3 doubles Piccolo)

Oboe 1-2

Clarinet in B-flat 1-2

Bass Clarinet

Horn 1-4

Trumpet in C 1-2

Trombone 1-2

Bass Trombone

Tuba

Timpani

Percussion 1-3

Crotales, Glockenspiel, Vibraphone, Marimba, 3 Triangles (large, medium, small), 3 Suspended Cymbals (c. 12”, 16”, 22”), Tam-Tam (large), 2 Bongos, 2 Congas, 4 Tom-Toms, Snare Drum, 2 Bass Drums (large, small)

Harp

Strings

Movements

1. Innumerable Drafts, vocal ensemble

2. The Pedastal Is a Cage, mezzo, 4 high voices

3. Pathmaking, vocal ensemble

4. La Giaconda, mezzo

5. Riding an Elephant, vocal ensemble

6. On Dissent, mezzo & vocal ensemble

7. For Marty, vocal ensemble

8. On Dignity, vocal ensemble

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Duration: 45 minutes

First printing, August 2025

1. Innumerable Drafts - VOCAL ENSEMBLE

I think that law should be a literary profession, and the best legal practitioners regard law as well as a craft. –Justice Ginsburg

The court does more than reportage—

Not what we were, but what we could it is written it is written

This is a literary profession, a search, a mission, and like art, like art, it is written it is written not what was, but what could be, not what was, but us that must catch up.

2. The Pedestal Is a Cage - MEZZO, 4 HIGH VOICES

-after Sarah Grimké

I ask no favor, and why should I, when your Argument is that we are lucky-for my sex, so fair and cherished need not worry about the daily bread.

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All I ask of our bretheren is: what do you ask of me? To keep, like a hen, my cozy place, make wifely repartee, be glad for our protection from society, and never, despite this implied inferiority, center of home and family but too delicate for civic responsibility to sit on a jury of peers, make law, make war, even, change history?

Is that the way to take “the talents of all of the people, in all walks of life,”

to build our best society? Brother, please stand shoulder to shoulder with me-may they take their feet

off our necks so we can rise together, and see what we might be

3. Pathmarking - VOCAL ENSEMBLE

Ginsburg envisioned that men and women would “create new traditions by their actions, if Artificial barriers are removed, and avenues of opportunity held open to them.” The ACLU Women’s Rights Project was born in 1972 under Ginsburg’s leadership, in order to remove these barriers and open these opportunities. –ACLU

I had to ask the state’s permission for my boy’s clarinet, his records he was just sixteen but they said no, I was a woman

• It was Air Force regulation resign, or an abortion which I could not do I still dreamed I’d be a pilot

• I was a poor black woman I was pushed to sign the papers it was birth control years later I found out he’d sterilized me

• My wife died in childbirth I was homemaker, caregiver but I was a man so I had no right to benefits

• Sad little stories from nobodies you would hardly hear about them if they hadn’t been the stones she laid in her pathmarking

Sad little stories from nobodies you would hardly hear about them if they hadn’t been the stones she laid in her pathmarking

4. La Giaconda - MEZZO

For me, it began when I was 11, in 1944. My aunt took me to a high school in Brooklyn for a condensed version of La Giaconda. I loved it. –Justice Ginsburg

The Happy Woman Is lonely as hell but proud, and wild, and free

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The Happy Woman is a woman of honor blood more precious than love

The Happy Woman makes great roles for all she knows when her rival is worthy

The Happy Woman will brave the tomb and make of that rival an ally

The Happy Woman is fearless when the Inquisition threatens

The Happy Woman goes down in the end, but goes proud, with dignity

5. Riding an Elephant - VOCAL ENSEMBLE

It had to do with the distribution of weight. –Justice Ginsburg on why Justice Scalia got to sit in front when they rode an elephant together

It was quite a magnificent, very elegant elephant*

It was fascinating, so intelligent, so amusing

It was quite a magnificent, very elegant elephant

Intelligent, nice, and considerate

Oh Nino, oh Kiki

Riding an Elephant Aloft on the law of the land

Oh Nino, oh Kiki

Riding an Elephant

Two kids from Queens and Brooklyn

It was quite a magnificent, very elegant elephant

Intransigent, silly, sublime

It was quite a magnificent, very elegant elephant

Formal, exquisite, and subtle

Oh Kiki, oh Nino

Riding an elephant Philosopher celebrities

Oh Kiki, oh Nino

Riding an elephant

Two kids from Brooklyn and Queens

Here’s to Kiki and Nino

Riding an elephant

Faith in the strive and the scrap

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Kiki and Nino

Riding an elephant

One looks forward, one looked back

6. On Dissent - MEZZO & VOCAL ENSEMBLE

Anger doesn’t get you anywhere. Persistence is critical—Polite Persistence. -Justice Ginsburg

*setting with text of Lux Fulgebit—chant about hope enlightening the darkness of the world, just as daylight returns after the Winter Solstice

Over and over, again and again, like teaching kindergarten, making plain what should have been clear for years (and years— take Plessy versus Ferguson. Justice Harlan wrote The law regards man as man in 1896. Brown versus Board took until ’54.) Believe it. We will see as before—will we?—young men in careful dress, the golden cord that spools from the moment’s political mood to what will become the popular view in a generation. Maybe in two. The Fourth Amendment will matter again because, someday, the drug war will end. It will seem backward millions of women got nowhere with claims of sex discrimination. Even, believe it, the corporate election will someday seem brutal as Carnegie’s Pinkertons. We hope. We persist, we remember, we honor our foremothers like Lockwood and Ledbetter, and we hope. We hope the dissenter’s hope: that we write not for today, but tomorrow.

7. For Marty - VOCAL ENSEMBLE

I think the most important thing I have done is enable Ruth to do what she has done. –Marty Ginsburg

So you’re at dance with someone else-meet a guy who makes you forget yourself for a gal who’s got brains like yours that’s tough

It’s love

You decide together the law it is twin briefcases monogrammed “hers” and “his” despite toddler and cancer you both finish

That’s love

It’s just not done Violates the canons It’s just not done “Life partners”

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It’s just not done so they made it up It’s just not done never stopped them

She goes to Sweden, it stokes her fire he makes tax law superstar she goes by Ms. he finds Moritz they connect it to Reed and she’s off to the races—

Look what they’ve done now there are lactation rooms it’s just not done and some dads stay home

It’s just not done there are women with wives it’s just not done men with husbands

It’s just not done so we made it up it’s just not done never stopped us

8. On Dignity - VOCAL ENSEMBLE

-adapted from Justice Ginsburg’s testimony to the Judiciary Committee upon her nomination to the Supreme Court

The decision

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: cut off, as in other possibilities to bear a child,

: carry, bring or not, is central

: fixed point, a stitch, a prick central to a woman’s life central to her well-being central to her dignity

: worth, acceptance it is a decision a decision she must make a decision she must make for herself—

when government controls

: checks accounts that decision for her when government subjects when government subjects, citizens

: in habitants

when government punishes

: takes vengeance punishes subjects punishes women who bear children who bear children out of wedlock,

: pledge-giving when government controls her decision she is treated as less less than

less than a fully adult human

: earthly being a fully adult human responsible for her own for her own choices

: to taste, to try central to her life to her well-being her dignity

her chance to taste her own life

9. A Push-up Is a Push-up Is a Push-up -

MEZZO & VOCAL ENSEMBLE

[That was when] I could see the light in her eyes. –Bryant Johnson, Justice Ginsburg’s personal trainer, on her reaction to her first push-ups with her knees off the ground, after wall and knee push-ups

You must be fearless prepared to fail-it’s going to happen again and again if you train for the long revolution

You will learn to draw strength from those who disagree, if you take their arguments seriously as you train for the long revolution a push-up is a push-up is a push-up a girl is a girl is a human don’t be surprised when folks cheer you on as you train for the long revolution a push-up is a push-up is a push-up a mind is a body is a human don’t be surprised that you’re in it for life when you train for the long revolution

be heartened, take comfort how sure the path of those who train for the long revolution

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ClarinetinBb1,2

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CTpt1-2

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3.Pathmarking

Ginsburgenvisionedthatmenandwomenwould"createnewtraditionsbytheiractions,ifartificialbarriers areremoved,andavenuesofopportunityheldopentothem."TheACLUWomen'sRightsProjectwasborn in1972underGinsburg'sleadership,inordertoremovethesebarriersandopentheseopportunities.-ACLU

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Forme,itbeganwhenIwas11,in1944.MyaunttookmetoahighschoolinBrooklynfor

CTpt1-2

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Perc2

transi

quiteamagnif --icent, - ver-yele-gant - el

quiteamagnif --icent, - ver-yele-gant - el e

-phant - Nino-andKiki-intrans - -igent - silly-sublime, - Riding - anele-phant - Nino-andKiki-intrans - -igent - silly-sublime, - Riding-anele-phant - Nino-andKiki-intransele-phant - Nino-andKiki-intrans - -igent - silly-sublime,

a magnif - -icent - ele --phant,a magnif - -icent - ele --phant,a magnif - -icent - el e - phant. - -

one lookedback, one looksforward - andone lookedback, one looksforward - andone lookedback, ele --gantele --phant,itwasaver-y ele --gantele --phant,itwasaver-y ele --gantele --phant,was

o,ohKiki, - OhNin-o,ohKiki, - Oh Nino, - ohKiki, - OhNino, - ohKiki, - Oh Nino, - Oh -o onelooksfor ward,

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6.OnDissent

Angerdoesn'tgetyouanywhere.Persistenceiscritical--PolitePersistence.-JusticeGinsburg *settingwithtextofLuxFulgebit--chantabouthopeenlighteningthedarknessoftheworld, justasdaylightreturnsaftertheWinterSolstice

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ations. - The f FourthAmend - -ment willmatter - again - because, - someday, - thedrugwarwillend.

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