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Table of Contents |
Wordsworth's World: Composer Sean Vernon Discusses and Performs His Setting of "The world is too much with us, late and soon" (with a setting of a poem by Richard Barnsfield thrown in for good measure. Silly Settings: A Poetic Singalong -- Emily Dickinson, Christopher Marlowe, William Blake, William Shakespeare; assorted composers Giving the Class "The Minor Bird" -- Robert Frost; Celius Dougherty
An edited, illustrated transcript of an actual class discussion of Frost's "Minor Bird," followed by Dougherty's setting performed by members of the class.
A Hardy Hymn: "She -- At His Funeral" -- Thomas Hardy; Vincent Novello Miss Dickinson, Meet Mr. Joplin -- Emily Dickinson; Scott Joplin, Max Morath A Young Composer and Ezra Pound -- Tristan Perich and "In a Station of the Metro" The Secret Hymns of Emily Dickinson -- Emily Dickinson, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Martin Luther, Samuel S. Wesley
Two Songs from Frostiana -- Robert Frost , Randall Thompson
Page last modified 4/23/05.
Sean Vernon is a contemporary singer-songwriter-performer, who has written settings for more than 150 famous poems. He is a thoughtful teacher, as well, and is articulate about his sweet, jazzy, sometimes haunting work.
This page is actually a discussion of metrical forms, for any tune written for a particular meter can function as a setting for a poem written in the same meter. Hilarious (and sometimes startlingly apt) renditions of poems are possible. Included are the texts of four poems and a number of MIDI files with which poetic singers may sing along.
Coming from a family of church musicians, Hardy made use of hymns in both his fiction and his poetry. This essay includes a performance of a setting he describes in The Mayor of Casterbridge and goes on to imitate this process by setting one of Hardy's poems to a hymn to see how the music and the poem work together. A performance of the setting, by "Mango," is included.
Max Morath, one of America's foremost exponents of ragtime, has set three of Dickinson's poems against ragtime music. This page gives some history and definition of ragtime, some MIDI files of rags, and a discussion of Morath's decision to set ED to this distinctly American form -- in addition to the settings, performed by the composer and his daughter, Kathy Morath.
A new minimalist setting of Pound's hiaku-like image, composed by high-school student Tristan Perich.
It is well-known that Dickinson wrote in hymn meters, but not everyone knows what it means to hear her poetry sung to hymns. Here are three of here poems set to well-known hymns, sung by a group called The Dickinsingers.
Frostiana is a cycle of settings of seven poems by Robert Frost. Two of the songs are presented here, with some analysis, performed a cappella by the Two-by-Fours.
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