HALFWAY THERE songs
poems by Kate Baer
ABOUT HALFWAY THERE
Kate Baer's poetry sings with a beautiful mixture of vulnerability, evocative imagery, celebration, and humor. This set of songs was happily made for my longtime friend Emily Martin, with whom I've musically collaborated since we were (so very) young, and who was literally my first commissioner when I was 18 years old. The work—performable with piano, or piano and string quartet—is lovingly dedicated to her and to our long musical history.
1. Idea 1
2. To Take Back a Life 5
3. Moon Song 11
4. Halfway There 16
NOTES
• The soprano may use this piano-vocal score while performing with the piano and string quartet.
• The piano part in the chamber version differs from this score.
DURATION
ca. 12’
piano and string quartet version recorded on Halfway There (Albany Records, 2026) Emily Martin, soprano | Alan Johnson, piano | Tesla Quartet
www.jonathannewman.com O K F E E L G O O D M U S I C
Idea
I will enjoy this life. I will open it like a peach in season, suck the juice from every finger, run my tongue over my chin. I will not worry about clichés or uninvited guests peering in my windows. I will love and be loved. Save and be saved a thousand times. I will let the want into my body, bless the heat under my skin. My life, I will not waste it. I will enjoy this life.
TEXTS
Moon Song
You are not an evergreen, unchanged by the pitiless snow. You are not a photo, a brand, a character written for sex or house or show. You do not have to choose one or the other: a dream or a dreamer, the bird or the birder. You may be a woman of commotion and quiet. Magic and brain.
You can be a mother and a poet. A wife and a lover. You can dance on the graves you dug on Tuesday, pulling out the bones of yourself you began to miss. You can be the sun and the moon. The dance a victory song.
To Take Back a Life
First, you must learn desire. Hold its fruit in your hands. Unmarry it from the hunger to be held, to be wanted, to be called from the streets like the family dog. You are not a good girl. You are not somebody's otherness. This is not a dress rehearsal before a better kind of life.
Pick up your heavy burdens and leave them at the gate. I will hold the door for you.
Halfway There
Whatever happens, you are free to go. Free to peel off what's left of this story and choose another. It is not too late. It is definitely worth the trouble
Remember the story of the lion lost without his courage. Too scare, full of fury, the great wizard standing in the emerald tower, knowing the lion was already brave.
texts used by kind permission of Kate Baer and Harper Collins
O K F E E L G O O D M U S I C
for Emily Martin HALFWAY THERE
KATE BAER JONATHAN NEWMAN
To Take Back a Life
- - - hun ger to be held, to
contantly flowing - - - You are not an ev er green, * begin here when performing with piano only
lov er. You can dance on the graves you dug on Tues day,
- - - pul ling out the bones of your
Halfway There
you are free to go