The art of song
music Art Song warmth Aria poetry
sublime passion music+poetry
French Chanson German lieder
soul
For those who love poetry, there is a whole other world to explore and it is
The art song
I love singing and listening to art songs. They are beautiful but be warned; these are for those who like to think.
There is so much poetry that we miss because it written in a different language than our own.
A singer must be able to sing and know their way around languages. Most of us take diction classes and learn the International Phonetic Alphabet. But the real work is truly understanding what the poet means and how it fits with the music.
Any of you who have been to a really good production of a play by Shakespeare know that in the hands of a good actor, audiences understand most of what is going on. It is the same with a singer singing in a foreign language; we might not understand all the words but if the singer has done her homework we will get the gist of it. The poem below is translated from French to English:
Corneille, Pierre 1606-1684
Psyche
I am jealous, Psyche, of all nature:
the rays of the sun kiss you too often;
your hair allows the wind too many caresses-
when it strokes your tresses I sulk.
The very air you breathe
takes too much pleasure in passing your lips;
your garments touch you too closely.
And whenever you sigh,
I do not know what terror fills me,
fear, lest from among your sighs some may go astray.
Pretty heady stuff, n’est pas?
Imagine thousands of poems, each one richer and prettier than the last~
Imagine thousands of pieces of music, gorgeous and sublime~
Imagine them coming together~
If science and math is our head and art is our conscience than surely music and poetry must hold the heart and soul of humanity.
It is worth exploring, isn’t it?
An Artful Earful 