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Previous seminars


LOVE SONGS


AND

MUSIC TO ACCOMPANY A VERY MINOR POET THROUGH LIFE:

VOICES, LINES, BREATH AND FORM


These are suggestions for your entertainment and, just possibly, instruction. The reading should be easy to get hold of, some of the more recherché recordings less so. Ponder the poems and we will listen to the songs and solo music together. Poems/music not available online will be provided in the seminar.

 

Reading

 

N. K. Sandars, trans., “Inanna’s Journey Into Hell” (hard to find: I’ll bring excerpts)

The Bible (King James), The Song of Solomon and Psalms

Anon, “Corpus Christi Carol”, early sixteenth century

Shakespeare, Ariel’s Songs (Tempest, Act 1, sc ii)

George Herbert, “Bitter-Sweet” and “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing”

John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book III, “Hail, holy light”

Christina Rossetti, “A Birthday”, “No Thank-You, John”. “In the Bleak Mid-Winter”

Thomas Hardy, “After A Journey”, “At Castle Boterel”

Edward Thomas, “And You, Helen”

Elizabeth Bishop, “Sandpiper”, “One Art” and “Filling Station”

Simon Armitage, “Evening” and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Frederick Seidel, “Prayer” and “Vermont” from Selected Poems

Jarvis Cocker, “Something Changed” from Mother, Brother, Lover

U. A. Fanthorpe, “The Sheepdog”

Will Eaves, “Avocado”, “Charity”, “Beach Café”

 

 

Listening

 

J. S. Bach, “Gigue” from English Suite No 6 in D Minor

Georg Frideric Handel, “Gigue” from Suites 1, No 1, in A major

Thomas Arne, “The Glitt’ring Sun”, from The Morning

Mozart, “Soave sia il vento”, from Cosi fan tutte

Maurice Duruflé, “Prelude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain”

George and Ira Gershwin, “Someone to Watch Over Me” (sung by Sarah Vaughan)

Billie Holiday, “Everything Happens To Me”

Nina Simone, “Sugar in my Bowl”, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”

Matt Monro, “From Russia With Love”

Aretha Franklin, “Reach Out And Touch” from Live at Fillmore West

Dusty Springfield, “The Windmills of Your Mind” from Dusty in Memphis

Stevie Wonder, “You Are The Sunshine of My Life”, from Talking Book

Prince, “Tambourine” from Around the World In a Day

Jarvis Cocker, “Something Changed” from Pulp’s Different Class

Jeff Buckley, “Corpus Christi Carol”, from Grace

Spirit of Play, “Spirit of Play” and “Beach Café” (impossible to find, oddly)

Beyoncé feat Jay Z., “Déjà Vu”

The Carla Bley Band, Old Macdonald Had A Farm (arr. Bley)


MUSIC AS POETRY


 

Reading / listening:


Leoš Janáček, On the overgrown path (c.1901); listen 1.here and then 2.here; and then 3.here

- please listen in particular to 'The Barn Owl Has Flown Away' (in part 3, from 02.54 - 06.50)

Leoš Janáček, The Diary of One Who Disappeared (1920): watch Ian Bostridge's performance and commentary online, in seven parts: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7;

Libretto in Czech online here; Seamus Heaney's translation provided in class


Larry Eigner, 'Seven Poems' (1966) [read online here - make sure to scroll through for all 7 poems]


Peter Broderick, listen to Music for Falling From Trees (2009)

[this piece is also called: Music for Contemporary Dance; you can watch the trailer here]

Peter Broderick, It Starts Hear (2012), listen to 'I Am Piano', 'Blue', 'Asleep', 'With Notes on Fire'


Max Richter, Infra (2010) [follow the youtube links here]

T. S. Eliot, The Wasteland (1922) [read online]

T. S. Eliot, 'The Music of Poetry' (1942)