Wordsworth Set to My Music

[Billy]

I love poetry, and composing symphonies too. Electronic versions of my music are here in this video with me reading the Romantic poet William Wordsworth's great Ode: Intimations of Immortality.

Thanks for listening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE9gu7uNxCI

Billy M.

[Sonatina]

Originally Posted by Billy

I love poetry, and composing symphonies too. Electronic versions of my music are here in this video with me reading the Romantic poet William Wordsworth's great Ode: Intimations of Immortality.

Thanks for listening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE9gu7uNxCI

Billy M.

Load of pish!
The ruination of a fantastic poem.

[Tarantella]

Absolutely agree, Sonatina!! Wordworth is spinning like a centrifuge!!

[Sonatina]

Originally Posted by Tarantella

Absolutely agree, Sonatina!! Wordworth is spinning like a centrifuge!!

Yes, I like poetry being poetry.

I noted on the poetry thread you posted some wonderful poetry by one of my favourite poets, Robert Frost.
The 'Miles to go before I sleep' , has been put to music, I try and find you the clip.
I suppose really, Classical music is a form poetry and we even have tone poems, which suggests a powerful connection between music and poetry. It is a complex area this, but I equate it with Beethoven's Ninth, which is in my view is spoiled by the choral ending, as though Beethoven couldn't make up his mind whether poetry was music or words. If that makes any sense.

.

[Tarantella]

It most certainly does, Sonatina!! I think there is a HUGE nexus between music and language, especially poetry. Maynard Solomon wrote a book about late Beethoven and there's a whole chapter devoted to prosody and scansion in his music - and I've heard musicians use terms like "spondaic" etc. when describing music. We could start a thread on this and it would be hugely interesting. I think of language AS musical, and I tried to instil that into my advanced English students when I was teaching. Punctuation is right there in music as well, with slurs, staccato, full stops (cadential points), rests (caesuras, voltas), sfordanzi (exclamation marks) etc. etc. Not only that, the way we use language for speaking is intrinsically musical - emphasising some words, dropping our voice or raising it for questions or effect, rhetoric, assonance, alliteration, etc. etc. Yes, a very interesting area for exploration.

Agree, BTW, about Beethoven's 9th and the choral ending. But lots of people do like it.

[Billy]

What on Earth do you mean to not let Wordsworth be tested out? Poetry is power, says Harold Bloom. I am doing fine with this reading.

[Tarantella]

I thought it was "knowledge is power"!! Apparently not.

[Sonatina]

Originally Posted by Tarantella

I thought it was "knowledge is power"!! Apparently not.

If you like Tarantella, please do start another thread for the discission of Poetry, the human voice and music etc. I ask you because you are more knowledgable.

[Tarantella]

I'll be home in Australia in a little over a week, but I'll start it after Christmas when I have more time. Will start with Solomon's discussion of Beethoven and the metrical features in his music and then possibly look at some written texts that have inherent musical qualities. Also, Bach was a member of a rhetorician group and his music has a linguistic, conversational quality (well, much complex counterpoint has). But, language that is rhythmic like music is also significant.

I think of Dickens as a 'musical' writer and I love to quote some lines from "Dombey and Son" where the lines scan to the ticking of the company clock - very regular and rhythmic. Even my ownuser namesake, the poem, "Tarantella", reads like a percussive piece of music, reminiscent of a dance or whirling dervish!

However, my interest in the musicality of language has little to do with "Phonetic Punctuation", as you'll see in this link with Victor Borge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4qii8S3gw

And he does another one here called "Inflationary Language" -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY6kElOYcd8