Link to recording

flute & guitar (6’)

Thank you to Nicolò Spera for commissioning this piece in honor of International Women’s Day. I am so grateful to him for putting up with endless rounds of drafts as I figured out how to navigate the classical guitar for the first time. And an additional thank you goes out to Nicolò as well as Christina Jennings for premiering the piece on this special day.

The word “quit” in the English language is one fraught with negative connotation. Most people today would define the word as, “to give up” or “to voluntarily fail.” The etymology of the word “quit” lies in the Medieval Latin word quietus, which is defined as “to free, to calm, to rest” and even “to liberate.”

So often women are taught to power through—to persevere against all odds and suffer through immense pain on behalf of others. Women carry our society at the expense of themselves. But what if our liberation starts with quitting?

This piece guides the listener through the various phases of the empowered quitting:

quit - the exhilaration of the realization that you need not suffer—that you have the power to walk away—that you will put yourself first for once—that you can and will quit.

quiet - the moment of calm that follows—that rare experience of inner peace—that feeling of presence, of selflove.

quietus - to be set free—to know that you can and will say no again—to give yourself permission to put yourself first time and time again—to be free of guilt, shame, and failure entirely—to set yourself free.

This piece is dedicated to those brave enough to quit, and to those still searching for the strength to walk away from those things which hurt us most.