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from Gwendolyn Koldofsky--University
of Southern California
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Read the poetry or a translation of the
poetry. Songs are not abstract pieces, they
are poems that have been set to music by a
composer. Before even looking at the music, look at the poetry, in the
case of a song in a foreign language, look at the translation of the
poetry. Better yet, translate it yourself in order to sharpen your
language skills. This first step is vitally important because it
allows you to interact with the poem on its own terms, allowing you to
discover important aspects such as line, syntax, vocabulary, trope, rhetoric,
meter, and rhyme that may be transparent in the poem's musical setting.
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Carefully learn the pronunciation of
the poem in the original language. Pay careful attention to
all the details of pronunciation that you have so meticulously learned in
diction class.
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In the original language, read the poem
aloud. Pay attention not just to the sounds of the language,
but to syntax and intonation, trying to sound as idiomatic as
possible. Inject meaning into your recitation--don't just recite
syllables out loud. Think of how a native speaker of the language
would recite the poem. Many famous composers of art song are known to
have recited a poem at length as a way into setting it to music.
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In the original language, read the poem
aloud in the rhythm of the vocal line. This will give you
clues as to how the composer heard the poetry and how he/she may have wanted
to interpret the text musically, ie. what lines of text are repeated, what
words are emphasized, how fast or slow is the declamation of text, how
important are the poem's line breaks and where they occur in relation to the
breath.
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At the piano, play the vocal line in
the right hand and the bass line of the piano part in the left hand. This
may take awhile, but is worth the effort. Now that you know something
about the composer's setting of the text, this process will give you further
musical clues regarding the song's melody, contour, tessitura, harmonic
direction, and phrase structure, as well as help you to understand and hear
the structure of and relationship between the vocal and piano parts.
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Now learn the music. You'll
be surprised.
from Rena Sharon--University
of British Columbia
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Who is the protagonist?
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What is the setting?
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What does each of his/her five senses
perceive in the poem?
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Does the protagonist stay in one place, if
not, where does he/she go?
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Where was the protagonist before his/her
present state?
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Is the narrator speaking to anyone in
particular, if so, who is the person, what do they look like, what is their
relationship?
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What impetus causes the narrator to speak?
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Why has the narrator chosen to speak?
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What is the narrator's emotional and physical
state?
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Does the narrator change in the process of
speaking?
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Has the narrator's physical and mental
condition changed?
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What happens after the text stops?
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What happens after the music stops?
Some quotes to remember:
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"Imagination is more important than
knowledge." --Albert Einstein |
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"Melody is the sensuous life of
poetry." --Ludwig van Beethoven |
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"To be willing to live within the
imagination is to commit oneself to the gathering together of the pieces
that might begin to form a self. To avoid this territory is to avoid
the encounters that might validate, inform, or enhance one's
experience." --Deena Metzger, from Writing for your
Life: A Guide and Companion to the Inner Worlds |
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"In art, one has more often to fight
against oneself, and the victories one wins are perhaps the most
beautiful." --Claude Debussy |
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"...there are others who welcome the
transport poetry provides. They welcome it repeatedly. They
desire it so much they begin to crave it daily, nightly, nearly abject in
their desire, seeking it out the way hungry people seek food. It is
spiritual sustenance to them. Bread and wine. A way of
transformative thinking. A method of transfiguration. There are
those who honor the reality of roots and wings in words but also want the
wings to take root, to grow into the earth, and the roots to take flight,
ascend. They need such falling and rising, such metaphoric
thinking. They are so taken by the ecstatic experience--the
overwhelming intensity--of reading poems they have to respond in kind.
And these people become poets." --Edward Hirsch, from How to
Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry |
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"Reading is like writing in beginning in
uncertainty and driving toward speculation and experiment. The reader
follows, via the poem as a ghostly map, the many paths that were not taken
by the author, but whose possibility leaves a shadow like crosshatching on
the paths that remain. To read this way keeps a poem always
provisional and still in the making, which is how the process of reading
absorbs the act of writing to their mutual improvement in terms of skills
and understanding." --Mary Kinzie, from A Poet's Guide to
Poetry |
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"The spiritual desire for poetry can be
overwhelming, so much do I need it to experience and name my own perilous
depths and vast spaces, my own well-being." --Edward Hirsch, from
How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry |
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