Words and Music
Michael Kaulkin has worthwhile things to say about setting texts to music.
I recently adjudicated a composition competition where many of the submissions were vocal pieces, and it was a big surprise how few of those composers seemed to know, or even care, much about how to handle a text.Oh, please let that be true! There are, of course, two ways to win a competition: (1) be great, or (2) have stupid weaklings for opponents.
I was particularly interested that he recommended Camile Paglia's Break, Blow, Burn for learning to analyze poetry, since that book is sitting on my shelf right now, waiting to be read.
Umie the Umlaut says, "ask your doctor about the Fredösphere!"
2 Comments:
Ah. You're a natural songwriter, aren't you? I wish I was better at that, but I'm hopless with text setting. Part of it is that I play an instrument that doesn't require that I breathe for my phrasing, and part of it is that I don't sing (If you ever sood next to me in Church, you'd understand why). I also feel out of my element writing lyrical melodies: I'm much better at forming geometrically precise perpetual motion things. I know you can write expressive melodies, so how do you approach it? Do you write them over a preconcieved harmonic progression, or do you write them from a purely melodic view and add the harmony later?
Fred, thanks for the link. I had suspected we were of like minds. The "Concise Dictionary" above is further proof.
Unfortunately, even if you're great, there's a third scenario where the adjudicators are stupid weaklings, which sux. Then there's the ultimate: stupid weaklings are both the opponents and the adjudicators. That's where you're really screwed (and must be common, because I never win competitions).
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