Charles Alan Sylvestri’s poem “Leonardo dreams of hid flying machine” is a dramatic story of hope and optimism that takes the listener on a great adventure into the great unknown. Leonardo functions as the agonist of the poem who is “tormented” by his need to fly and touch the sky. Finally, after much planning and determination Leonardo takes a great leap of faith with his flying machine and his dreams of flight are consummated!
In order to fully encapsulate Leonardo’s conquest of the almighty heavens it would only be fitting to have the text set to a full orchestra accompanied by a SATB choir. This is the only combination of instrumentation and vocals that will fully capture the piece’s dramatic story (save a Wagnarian music drama). A full orchestra is a glorious medium that can be used to accommodate the full range of emotions embodied in the poem because of the breadth of orchestral timbre. In parallel with the orchestra, a four-person choir is ideal for the lyrical expression of the poem due to the wide range of notes that can be sung by the soprano, the bass and everyone in between. The parts of the poem sung by the full choir would be done in an imitative polyphony texture utilizing malismas on the repeated line “Leonardo, Leonardo, viene á volare” to accentuate the fact that this line is a “siren-song” sung by “the very air itself.” However, the majority of the text would be sung by the tenor to give the piece a story telling quality, with the rest of the choir chiming in for the Italian parts. This will serve to emphasize the contrast between English and Italian that Sylvestri creates in his poem. It seems appropriate to have the orchestra and choir perform a through-composed setting with a change in music for each st...
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...ings that can be seen in the use of word painting in the first stanza on the words “flight and falling” and “to carry a man up into the sun.” While the similarities between the pieces are fleeting both are able to take advantage of imitative polyphony and word painting to tell the same story in very unique and different ways.
In conclusion, the poem “Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine” by Charles Alan Sylvestri can be set to music in wildly different ways to accentuate different aspects of the plot. The first text setting described portrays a dramatic story of Leonardo conquering his dreams of flight (or so it seems), and the second, by Eric Whitacre, telling the same story in a less dramatic and more ethereal style. This text provides a great example of how the musical setting can completely change not only the listener’s experience, but the story itself.
...t is arguable that the birds fight is also a metaphor, implying the fight exists not only between birds but also in the father’s mind. Finally, the last part confirms the transformation of the parents, from a life-weary attitude to a “moving on” one by contrasting the gloomy and harmonious letter. In addition, readers should consider this changed attitude as a preference of the poet. Within the poem, we would be able to the repetitions of word with same notion. Take the first part of the poem as example, words like death, illness
Aristotle’s Appeals — Discuss the song’s logos, pathos, and ethos separately (in subsections, if you wish); which of these is the most effective in the song, and stating why you think so. Remember, “why” is the big question in this paper – for every opinion you give, you must tell why you believe it.
The fall of Icarus often comes as a cautionary tale about pride and ambition. However, W. H. Auden and William Carlos Williams took inspiration from Brueghel’s The Fall of Icarus in their respective poems Musee des Beaux Arts and Landscape with the Fall of Icarus to tell a new tale. The poems use imagery, form, repetition, and alliteration to convey the apathy of the world in the face of personal tragedy.
Even though the speakers are identified as the authors, they can more accurately be described as characters based on themselves. We know that this type of lyric was most likely performed in front of an audience probably set to music. The public’s relationship to such work can be likened with dramatic performance of today such as a musical or a...
While these two pieces have many similarities and differences, they have a common purpose, to allow a viewer to experience a bit of nature. The two artists used their own unique styles to depict a similar scene that resulted in two different paintings that each allow a viewer to experience this bit of nature in whatever way they interpret it. This is sort of the whole point of art, and it seems that both of these pieces captured that point very well.
Unlike Schönberg, his student Anton von Webern did not make many comments about the relationship between text and music in his works. His George-settings appear rather different to Schönberg’s in their relationship to the text. He was guided much more by declamatory and rhythmical aspects of the poetry than Schönberg.
The poetry by these two poets creates several different images, both overall, each with a different goal, have achieved their purposes. Though from slightly different times, they can both be recognized and appreciated as poets who did not fear the outside, and were willing to put themselves out there to create both truth and beauty.
To that end, the overall structure of the poem has relied heavily on both enjambment and juxtaposition to establish and maintain the contrast. At first read, the impact of enjambment is easily lost, but upon closer inspection, the significant created through each interruption becomes evident. Notably, every usage of enjambment, which occurs at the end of nearly every line, emphasizes an idea, whether it be the person at fault for “your / mistakes” (1-2) or the truth that “the world / doesn’t need” (2-3) a poet’s misery. Another instance of enjambment serves to transition the poem’s focus from the first poet to the thrush, emphasizing how, even as the poet “[drips] with despair all afternoon,” the thrush, “still, / on a green branch… [sings] / of the perfect, stone-hard beauty of everything” (14-18). In this case, the effect created by the enjambment of “still” emphasizes the juxtaposition of the two scenes. The desired effect, of course, is to depict the songbird as the better of the two, and, to that end, the structure fulfills its purpose
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker starts by telling the reader the place, time and activity he is doing, stating that he saw something that he will always remember. His description of his view is explained through simile for example “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets of their branches” (Updike), captivating the reader’s attention
When one hears of György Ligeti’s Atmosphéres, one would immediately think of the 1968 cult film favourite, 2001: Space Odyssey. Atmosphéres’ appearance in the film gained itself widespread recognition and exposure, and this was definitely for a good reason. In Atmosphéres, Ligeti explored unprecedented paradigms of texture, structure, and rhythm that would eventually render this piece to be the avant-garde of the avant-garde. As such, this essay aims to explore Ligeti’s historical background and the new musical techniques he employed in Atmosphéres.
As the child is, so will the man be… So it is in music that the songs which a child assimilates in his youth will determine the musical manhood…the musical influence upon his afterlife and also that the melodies which composers evolve in their maturity are but the flowers which bloom from the fields which were sown with the seed of the folk-song in their childhood. (Barham, 9).
The speaker from the first stanza is the observer, someone who pays closer attention to the entire piece of work, noticing all the details and able to understand the painting as a fluid story and not a snapshot. He is a man with fishing experience. He knows violent the seas and the power nature holds, strong and unforgiving to any individual. The second speaker in the poem is the observer, his voice is heard in the second stanza. He describes the individual looking at the painting as an innocent bystander embracing the art in a museum. The man views the painting, not fully immersing oneself in the complete story of the painting. Instead, he just looks on as a spectator, not fully appreciating the intensity of what he is looking at. Breaking the poem into two stanzas not only allows Finkel to voice two speakers, but also allows him to alternate the tone. The tone of the first stanza with the observer is dark, the speaker describes the events in the painting with a terror, making the painting more realistic with hints of personal experiences. The second stanza is divided into two parts: the first is calm, the onlooker is innocent, gazing at the still image on the canvas, describing the painting at face-value. The latter half of the stanza brings the painting to life. Similar to the first stanza, it transitions back into darkness, a contrast of what the observer views on the
A composer can create images dependant on the form of the language of texts to shape a responders understanding of the ideas and themes prompted by people and their experiences. The German film, ‘Run Lola Run’ written and directed by Tom Tykwer, focuses on the experiences of the protagonist Lola to explore the themes of the inevitable force of time, and the issue of freewill verses determinism. Similarly, Dorothea Mackellar, in her poem ‘My Country’, relies on her experiences of the Australian landscape to convey her love and passion for the country using the language of the distinctive visual.
‘Do not forget that the melody is the Idea, the outline; as much as it is the form and the subject matter of a work. The harmony is an illumination, an exhibition of the object, its reflection…’(3)
In “A Rainy Morning”, the imagery appeals to the senses of sight, touch, and sound. Some of the imagery in this poem that appeals to the sense of sight would be: “a women in a wheel chair”, “black nylon poncho”, and “long white fingers”. Also, some imagery that appeals to touch and sound would be: “strike just as the chord fades”, “her wet face beautiful in its concentration”, and “the wind turns the pages of rain”. Without the use of imagery in “A Rainy Morning” we would not be able to compare the woman and the pianist. Imagery helps us to see how these two are able to be compared to each other even though they are two different type of people, they are still