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Or it could be that if one is making a primarily musical piece, then the demands of the music should come first. I am more interested in matching mathematics with the words i.e. meeting the poetry half-way as it were. It might make for some interesting music. How do you rate Britten's treatment of Donne et al? BTB, one of my English teachers said that second-rate novels make better TV/film. I came to think of the work as more of a contested site. The better the novel, the stronger the feelings engendered when constructing a translation into a different genre. See any film or TV version of a Jane Austen novel and the Janeite hysteria that usually accompanies it. On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 1:11 PM, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Some years ago, I went to a conference on this and related matters at > Warwick, though memory details have fled; where David Harsent, speaking of > his collaboration with Birtwhistle, said – I hope I quote him fairly – that > the poet must expect his work to be altered by the compose because.the > composers' needs have priority > > I have no trouble him thinking that for himself and HB, consenting adults > and all that, but was put out by the idea that a pecking order might exist > for all of us with composers always on top.... > > I'd been thinking about this quite a bit, though my notes, if I still have > them, are packed away. Two things such as they are I remember > > I am more or less appalled by Vaughan Williams treatment of On Wenlock > Edge. Housman was a rather midling poet; but he deserved better > and Purcell's Dido's Lament, and Purcell's treatment in general of Nahum > Tate makes, to adapt a supposed remark of Beecham on Wagner, Tate sound a > lot better than he would sound on his own. > > L > > > On 2 October 2015 at 12:47, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask] > > > wrote: > > > Hi Roger in my very umble umble experience there are levels of setting > > -sometimes a swish of drum/guitar gentle accompaniment helps this aged > > performer at my local music club > > cheers P most ancient also I like the work of aslak vaalkapa (spelling? ) > > aha Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, where nature is incorporated > > but I suppose we can enter into libretti (spelling ?0 end of thought -off > > to cafe for lunch feast! > > > > -----Original Message----- From: Roger Day > > Sent: Friday, October 2, 2015 12:26 PM > > To: [log in to unmask] > > Subject: Re: Lyrics etc > > > > Interesting note abt the Classical people. > > > > Looking at the scores of, say, Frank Bridge or Stravinski - or even the > > wilder shores of avante-garde composers - there's no reason why > "classical" > > composers could not produce a decent fit for any set of words they wanted > > to set to music without, as you say, torturing the syntax. > > > > I wrote my own words this time, and I had to do a little dance fitting > the > > words to music and vice versa. > > > > Currently I'm adding phrasing, articulation and dynamics. I will produce > > the proper article before Christmas. > > > > On Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 12:09 PM, Andrew Burke <[log in to unmask]> > > wrote: > > > > Roger - from my humble experience, I can tell you a tale relating to yr > >> question. > >> > >> Over the years, both jazz composers/singers and classical composers have > >> set some of my work to music. The jazz people stuck to the words and the > >> structure of the poems, simply hearing the existing rhythms and cadence, > >> and adding notes to them. However, the classical people wrote their own > >> music and squeezed my lines in to fit, torturing my syntax and making > >> little sense of my structure to overlay theirs. Grrrr ... I wasn't > happy. > >> > >> The happiest I've been is for a ballad I wrote as a poem which has been > >> sung and recorded by a couple of folksinger/songwriter people. But that > >> was > >> an instance where I actually wrote a strict structure, very traditional > >> and > >> complete. > >> > >> If it turns out well and highlights the true values already in the poem, > >> nobody should object. But if you wiggle the words around to make it fit, > >> then they'd have cause for complaint. > >> > >> Andrew > >> > >> On 1 October 2015 at 20:48, Roger Day <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> > >> > Hi, > >> > > >> > I have de-lurked from my silence in order to ask a question. > >> > > >> > In my middle-aged madness, I have embarked on a career of composing > >> music. > >> > For my first piece, I have written some verses and composed some > lines - > >> > much in the manner of Schubert. > >> > > >> > I was reading up on Schubert and Goethe, and it appears that the > latter > >> > deliberately composed poetry to be modified that it could be set to > >> music. > >> > > >> > The question I have is, modulo any copyright concerns, are any modern > >> poets > >> > out there who would be amenable to such a strategy? > >> > > >> > How might, say, someone like Prynne react if I did set his poetry to > >> music > >> > but, along the way, managed to make the poetry serve the music? > >> > > >> > > >> > Is this impossible with modern poets and poetry? > >> > > >> > Regards Roger > >> > > >> > >> > > > -- > If you have received from me a bogus email offering passworded files, I do > apologise. It was not I; but I am sorry. > Just delete the horrid thing, please. > And please let me know if it happens again. > It shouldn't happen again but then it shouldn't have happened the first > time. > > L >