Ancestor 2
I hear you, Grandmother,
Telling me to take it
And eat it and get on with it
And lie on the bed I have made.
I hear you, Grandmother,
telling of bare-footed
poverty, drunkenness, leaving
in a boat for a hard city.
I hear you, Grandmother,
saying that once life was heaven,
the farm was fertile
and God smiled every Sunday.
I hear you Grandmother.
Men are fools, babies,
cunning, swine, strong
and need keeping down
as your grandmother told,
and hers told her, and hers,
right back to Eden.
I hear you, Eve.
© Margaret Morgan 2004
At the beginning of Ancestor 2 the female voices of the choir whisper in a slightly independent tempo. This is an example of many passages in Nine Figures that offer the dramatic and gestural possibilities found in contemporary presentations of the ancient Greek chorus.
Bars 35 and 36 from Ancestor 2 show how each voice takes a loop of material of different lengths and rhythms and brings them together to create an insistent dramatic effect.