In setting a piece to music the composer has to take into account the feelings and emotions that he desires to create and then figure out how to produce that. In the case of Friedrich Rückert’s poem “I Am Lost to the World,” there are a wide variety of ways it can be set to music, which can be composed of unchanging elements, aspects that can change throughout, and word-painting – all of which will be compared to the setting by Gustav Mahler.
With any setting of a text to music, there are unchanging elements such as the ensemble to be used and the form. With “I Am Lost to the World,” a combination of winds, strings, and a few brass instruments would be a desirable ensemble to use along with a choir of females. This combination would allow for a full range of colors to be utilized. While the poem is dark and solemn, there are many ways for such a feeling to be expressed by instruments. With such a mixture, all those feelings can be touched on – from strings playing a slow legato to winds playing a solemn, deep tune. A through-composed form would allow for more variance as this poem is more of a narrative than a themed, repeating poem. The female choir would consist of equal numbers of sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, and altos. The high voices would be capable of expressing a longing, desperate, and almost hopeless feel that is characteristic in the poem. The music would be in simple triple meter and would generally be very slow in tempo. Being “lost to the world” is a very dark idea and the poem invokes a sense of loneliness. Such feelings can only be emphasized with a funeral like quality, requiring slow, somber music.
With every setting, there are dynamics and things that change from place to place. With “I Am Lost to the World,” t...
... middle of paper ...
... instead of a choir because it brings out the feelings of loneliness more. The experience with Mahler’s version is very gloomy and has some feelings of isolation.
The development of a piece of music set to a text involves many considerations. Such considerations include taking into account what emotions will be invoked where and how to get those feelings from the audience. Also, form, instruments, and singers, among a variety of other factors need to be taken into account. With Rückert’s text, I opted for slow-moving, sad sounding music based on the qualities of the poem – mainly the themes of loneliness and being lost. Mahler’s setting of the text had similarities to that, but also shared some differences such as only having one singer rather than a choir. The setting of the text to the music is based primarily on how the person composing it sees it fit.
Peter Sculthorpe is an Australian composer who is renowned for his experimentation and exploration of ideas and symbolism in his music. His music is a representation of his feelings in response to socio-cultural, political and historical viewpoints. For instance, his String Quartet No. 16 is a representation of the emotions of refugees trapped in detention centres. It consists of five movements entitled Loneliness, Anger, Yearning, Trauma and Freedom. Musical elements such as pitch, duration and other expressive devices show how effectively Sculthorpe evokes the feelings of refugees through each movements, especially the movements Trauma and Freedom.
This extract emphasises the lonely, outworld feeling that would have been felt living in such settings. This puts into perspective the feeling that will be felt during the coarse of the plot development.
The name of this evening’s program, “Wanderlust,” refers directly to its definition: a strong desire for or impulse to travel and explore the world. The selected song cycles were written by composers of different backgrounds who were inspired by cultures outside of their own through travel or other means of exposure. In each piece, one can see these sources of inspiration manifest itself in various ways, whether it be through the composer’s choice of text, their style of composition, or other musical elements borrowed from other cultures.
However, the most fitting work with the concert theme may be Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 2. This work is often entitled Company and was originally intended for an adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s prose poem entitled Company. This cross-disciplinary collaboration resulted in Glass extracting material from the theatre score and making it a four movement concert work that could stand alone. This 1983 minimalist work is clearly characteristic of Glass’s style in the repeating arpeggios, harmonic language, and his recognizable rhythmic structure. However, the most important aspect of the work in relationship to the other music on the concert may be its inspiration. While Beckett’s work was the inspiration for the Glass’s music, Beckett was also a collaborator in the creation of the staged work. Like the works of The Brooklyn Rider Almanac, Der Blaue Reiter Almanach, and The Onomatopoetic Project, Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 2 provides a unique prospective on art through a different medium. This concert is a wonderful example of how music, the visual arts, theatre, and literature can all be used to comment on and inspire one another by simply looking at art through the prospective of all forms of
Each literary work portrays something different, leaving a unique impression on all who read that piece of writing. Some poems or stories make one feel happy, while others are more solemn. This has very much to do with what the author is talking about in his or her writing, leaving a bit of their heart and soul in the work. F. Scott Fitzgerald, when writing The Great Gatsby, wrote about the real world, yet he didn’t paint a rosy picture for the reader. The same can be said about T.S. Eliot, whose poem “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock,” presents his interpretation of hell. Both pieces of writing have many similarities, but the most similar of them all is the tone of each one.
The speakers and audience in poem are crucial elements of the poem and is also the case in these poems. In the poem Untitled, it can be argued that the poem is being written by Peter based on what his father might say to him...
Second plane is the expressive one. Copland now discusses the notion of meaning in music. In his view, music has a meaning but this meaning is not concrete and sometimes it cannot be expressed in words. This plane explains why we get moved or relaxed by music. It is more difficult to grasp and requ...
In the essay I hope to explain why I picked each poem and to suggest
The audience of this song is anyone who has ever felt alone or can relate to the feeling of not knowing. In the line, “I can see there’s so much to learn,” the audience can recount to a time in their life when they have felt like they did not know enough. Everyone has heard the saying, “You learn something new every day.” This is true not only for the character in the ...
The elements in the poem work very well together to help set the theme of this poem. The tone set the overall mood of the poem, so show that it was rushed but not in a chaotic way. The imagery helps to show us little details of the setting, which are very helpful. And finally, the figures of speech, help the reader to compare the scene to things they have experienced in their lifetime to fully understand the poem.
The name of this evening’s program, “Wanderlust”, refers directly to its definition – a strong desire for or impulse to travel and explore the world. The selected song cycles were written by composers of different backgrounds who were inspired by cultures outside of their own through their travels or other means of exposure. In each piece, one can see these sources of inspiration manifest itself in various ways, whether it be through the composer’s choice of text, their style of composition, or other musical elements borrowed from other cultures.
The use of alliteration, tone, mood, theme and other elements that construct a well balanced poem are in this piece of literature.
I walked around unsteadily all day like a lost baby, far away from its pack. Surrounded by unfamiliar territory and uncomfortable weather, I tried to search for any signs of similarities with my previous country. I roamed around from place to place and moved along with the day, wanting to just get away and go back home. This was my first day in the United States of America.
”To Autumn” is an ode written by John Keats on the 19th of September 1819. While walking near Winchester along a river, Keats became inspired to write the poem. The Rest of his other odes were completed in the spring of 1819. John died on the 23rd of February 1921 at the age of 25, just a year after the release of “To Autumn”. However, throughout his life he inspired many poets, but most notably Percy Shelly. In mourning, he wrote the elegy “Adonais” for Keats.”To Autumn “is his final poem and many have said it is his best. Keats use of imagery takes the reader on an adventure through the scenes and sounds of autumn. He achieves this by his use language, imagery, tone and structure. This is also what creates the mood and consequently allows him to challenge the notion that music is usually associated with spring. Thus, in this essay I will show how he challenges this belief, by looking at his use of imagery, tone and form. In addition I will look at what his influences were and the context in which he wrote the poem.
The poem opens with a quote from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure 'Mariana in the moated grange'. In the play Mariana is deserted by her lover Angleo, and she is spending her days in a solitary grange. The quote gives the reader of the poem the main theme it explores, which is Mariana's longing for her lover to return. It is interesting to note that the quote is lacking a verb, which implies that there is no action in the poem, that there is a sense of stasis or a sense of unending time, isolation and despair, Mariana can therefore be called a lyrical poem, indeed lyric poems as J.S Mill puts it express 'feeling confessing itself to itself in solitude'. It can also be described as a speech overheard, Mariana the poem is in a way a rewriting of Mariana the character of Shakespeare's play. The form of the poem also reinforce this ideas of lyricality, ' lyric poetry may be said to retain most prominently the elements which evidence its origins in musical ...