Vincent Lister Professor Vander Zee Modern Poetry December 28, 2011 Ideology and History between Poetry

and Music For many years now poetry and song have entertained and influenced the masses through good times, bad times, and times of sheer boredom or creativity. Music that we hear today is obviously not how it has always been. For much of the time music has existed, it existed without any lyrics. There are noticeable similarities in poetry, it was normally only read and now many musicians consider themselves poets through the music that they produce in combination with what they have written. So for a while one was without the other. There are many idea similarities within the two realms of entertainment and combined on this magical moment, a mark was left in history affecting what you hear on a daily basis. Perhaps the most essential piece of understanding how the two (poetry and music) come together is the fact that both possess a quality of rhythm and harmony. Rhythm can simply be perceived as a form of human expression. Interestingly enough, I found that a common action of the human nervous system is to put things into rhythmic action as a consequence of manifesting the nature around oneself. Harmony can be described as ways to depict the world around someone as well. For example, trying to convey different colors and sights through another form of expression: usually artistic. The combination of these two perception methods is a result in the music as a mixture of poetry and melody, following similar rhythms and sticking to particular harmonies in the form of musical

keys to properly convey sounds that go together (Raymond). Poetry actually originated from folk songs made in order to tell epics such as the Iliad and the Odyssey (Morley). None other than Pope Gregory the 1st formulated some music of his own. The Gregorian Chant happens a very interesting and early response to these folktale epics. This chant was basically like reading a Koran (because the notation was so confusing} and just like the recitations of the Odyssey (Blood). Although this form of music had harmony and rhythm, it didnt normally include outside instruments, just a choir. The Ancient World poetry and music were said to be of the same concept, more specifically, ars musica. In fact, epic poems had music play along side them to make particular parts easier to remember while capturing ones attention. When this would happen, it would be crucial that the reader was aware of the underlying rhythm and remained with the pace of the song. An original argument made to support this style would be somewhere along the lines of, what attracts our attention helps us learn better, especially with the emotional attachments that both music and poetry can provide. Put them together and it only helps the learning process. A member of the audience along with a poet himself would agree that these concepts combined strike attention and may have affect on ones memory. Another great example and response is Shakespeares Ghost, which was a combination of sonnet and music. The music could help set the stage for the feelings any poet is trying to convey to an audience (Pugh). This is how the perceptions of rhythm and harmony were objectively originated and created. Since then, there has obviously been a lot of growth in both the realm of poetry and music, although it seems like a logistic curve has been hanging over the arts since everything seems to already have been done. This is a view held by many people today

implying that creativity remains stifled or is having a hard time persisting (Weisberg). That is only a relative, common opinion but Ill leave that out of this. Many modern poets have selected to use their poems along side with music to give it another element; it is also no surprise that many poets would like to stay away from this simply because ego may be a tad in the way. Many poets might argue that there work is beautiful on its own and would not need assistance, which is a very respectable thing to say. One poet in particular I have decided to focus on is none other than E.E. Cummings. The small poetry CD I made contains five songs all-deriving from his poetry. In fact 63 of his works have been put to music along side of some world-renowned composers such as

Dominick Argento, Luciano Berio, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, John Cage, Aaron Copland, Ned Rorem, and Peter Schiekle. Must be some writer considering these composers asked him if they could use his beautiful texts (Bachland).
To my surprise, more likely than not, most poems were meant to stand-alone from music in most modern day poets as the intent of why they were written. It wasnt until later that they realized or decided to mix the poem with the melodies. And even then, the combination isnt always finalized. What I mean by this is, the composer will have made a coinciding musical track that goes along with the poem, and nothing is actually spoken; for example T.S. Elliots The Hollow Men. Musical pieces have been put into place and there was no reading along side. Walt Whitman however, did have many poems with the collaboration in order such as Song to Myself. More often then not the songs came from epic poems of some sort. This seems to be a common theme most likely because where the idea of this combination originated: recitations of the Odyssey and the Iliad (Blood).

Some poetic works are easier to fit into music, although this depends on what style of music you are shooting for. Many poems can have an orchestra played along side, but a poem that holds consistent rhythm and meter is very different. I find that poets such as E.E. Cummings and Langston Hughes are the easiest to use in such rhythmic patterns. Of course every single poem is subject to make judgment, but collectively I would argue that their writing styles, in terms of literary devices, and content generally would be better for this style of musical interpretation. There is much to consider when recognizing how to combine to similar realms of art. Many poems of which, were not intended to be combined with music, and were done so anyways thanks to their beautiful texts such as many E.E. Cummings poems and many others, the list goes on and on. This idea of combination originated from how the Iliad and Odyssey epics were delivered long, long ago. There have been many responses that I would like to point out such as The Gregorian Chant, and many works of Shakespeare and works influenced by Shakespeare. Unfortunately this response method of art has lead to a lack of creativity in many works, none the less every piece should be up for discrepancy. Musical composers really like to fixate a piece of music around poems and this is likely how a lot of the more modern songs from these modern poets have came about. I guess you could say that is what I am attempting to do with the physical product of my DH Creation, although my style is coming through instead of trying to be something else. Ill be putting five E.E. Cummings poems to the test up against music that is considered post modern I would imagine by many. I am sure his beautiful texts will only prevail, as they have seemed to stand the test of time so far.

Works Cited Bachlund, Gary. "No Thanks." Music and Texts. Web. <http://www.bachlund.org/No_Thanks.htm>. Blood, Brian. "Music Theory Online - Notes & Rests." Dolmetsch Online. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. <http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory2.htm>. Morley, John. "English Men of Letters - John Morley." Google Books. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. <http://books.google.com/books?id=wZQyAAAAIAAJ>. Pugh, Ben. "The Ghost of William Shakespeare Appearing at the Falstaff Experience | PRLog." For Immediate Release. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. <http://www.prlog.org/11611178-the-ghostof-william-shakespeare-appearing-at-the-falstaff-experience.html>. Raymond. Rhythm and Harmony. Print.

Wiesberg, Robert. "Toward a Cognitive Analysis of Musical Creativity: Improvisation in Jazz." Print.