[log in to unmask] wrote:
> Was Spenser's shorter poetry ever either designed for the songwriters
> of his day or in any case set to music by them?
I don't know of any contemporary settings. But see:
Corse, Larry E. "'A straunge kinde of harmony': The Influence of Lyric
Poetry and Music on Prosodic Techniques in the Spenserian Stanza." Diss.
North Texas State Univ., 1972.
This won't tell you what you want to know, but on pp. 70-Corse talks
about contemporary settings of Ariosto. Extended passages of OF were
apparently sung to folk melodies, and in 1561 Jachet Berchem published a
book of more than a hundred madrigals, with lyrics from OF. (1 stanza =
1 madrigal.)
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Dr. David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [log in to unmask]
English Department Virgil reception, discussion, documents, &c
East Carolina University Sparsa et neglecta coegi. -- Claude Fauchet
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