Setting poetry to music and singing it

[luzula]

I've always liked setting poetry to music. I think it started when I first read Tolkien at age eight or nine and making up melodies for the songs there.

It's hard to talk about how I do it, though! I mean, I love music and singing, and that's obviously a prerequisite. I most often make melodies that sound like folk music of some kind, because that's the sort of music I listen to most. I usually just go around humming and trying out different melodies and rhythms until I find one that works for me. Usually I won't write it down as sheet music, and neither will I be particularly bothered about the beat being regular--when I've tried to accompany myself with a guitar or something, I've often had to change the way I sing to make the beat more regular. Which is not to say that there isn't a beat, just that I've sung it in a freer way when I do it a capella.

Here's one I made fairly recently: it's fannish poetry by kill_claudio, originally posted here (the fandom is due South and the pairing Fraser/Kowalski, but it can hopefully be appreciated without context):

Shattered Light, by Kill Claudio:

January was
A rush of snow, light, fur and
Exhilaration.

By February
You had slowed to a full stop.
He chose the city.

In March you tracked him
Across dark skies and streets. Clipped
Your wings at his side.

Spring in Chicago 
Is invisible; soundless
As an unused sled.

Only his hands are
Cold and crisp against your cheeks,
Even in summer.

July. Light shatters
Across polished floors. You still
Swear you are happy.

God, I love that poem--it's heartbreaking. Anyway, this one's interesting because it's a set of haikus, so the rhythm of the song is going to have to work with that. Also, I want the melody to somehow indicate the sentence breaks as well as the line breaks, which means that there are variations in the melody between the verses. My sister is the one playing the guitar and singing harmony, and I remember that we wrote down fairly precisely what she was going to do with the guitar (for example make a small break after "full stop" *g*).

Here's a second one: it's Kipling's "Song of the Little Hunter" from the Jungle Book.

Ere Mor the Peacock flutters, ere the Monkey People cry,
Ere Chil the Kite swoops down a furlong sheer,
Through the Jungle very softly flits a shadow and a sigh--
He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear!
Very softly down the glade runs a waiting, watching shade,
And the whisper spreads and widens far and near.
And the sweat is on thy brow, for he passes even now--
He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear!

Ere the moon has climbed the mountain, ere the rocks are ribbed with light,
When the downward-dipping trails are dank and drear,
Comes a breathing hard behind thee--snuffle-snuffle through the night--
It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear,
On thy knees and draw the bow; bid the shrilling arrow go;
In the empty, mocking thicket plunge the spear!
But thy hands are loosed and weak, and the blood has left thy cheek--
It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear!

When the heat-cloud sucks the tempest, when the slivered pine-trees fall,
When the blinding, blaring rain-squalls lash and veer,
Through the war-gongs of the thunder rings a voice more loud than all--
It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear!
Now the spates are banked and deep; now the footless boulders leap--
Now the lightning shows each littlest leaf-rib clear--
But thy throat is shut and dried, and thy heart against thy side
Hammers: Fear, O Little Hunter--this is Fear!

I did this one fairly long ago--maybe ten years ago?--so I don't remember much of the process. But I still like it. There's so much drama in it, and I get to act out all the stalking and the skittishness. And I like the language, too (but I remember having to practice saying "the lightning shows each littlest leaf-rib clear" fast without stumbling--there are a lot of consonants in there *g*). I also like how it lets me play around with volume, almost down to a whisper when the text calls for it.

Comments

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I love Tolkien's poetry, and have been singing it since I was four. I sing badly in this body, so I tend to save it for when I'm alone. But I still enjoy doing it.

Re: Yes...

[luzula]

There must be tons of people who have made up melodies for those songs! It would be cool to hear a collection of them.

ETA: And of course there are lots of them on Youtube.... : )

[jjhunter]

Oh wow--now that's really cool. Re: the second piece, the repetitious nature of the melody has a sense of relentlessness about it--the fear's not going away any time soon. I like how not only did you manage all those consonants clearly (it's much harder than one might assume!), but you managed to get in subtle variations correlating to the meanings of various words even in the midst of all those swelling dramatic lines. I especially liked

But thy hands are loosed and weak

the way you said 'weak' here.

Re: the first one - stunning source material, lovely overlaying of a second voice track on two of the stanzas (beautiful, beautiful), and the way the melody really showcases how gorgeous a singing voice you have. I especially liked

Only his hands are
Cold and crisp against your cheeks,

and the way it returns to a single voice for the third line re: summer.

All in all, there's something very vibrant and emotive about singing poetry as you have here that goes above and beyond what a recitation conveys. It does make me wonder if the divide between poetry and lyrics consists in whether the text or the melody comes first...food for thought.

[luzula]

Ooh, thanks for all the detailed feedback! That is awesome.

Yeah, the split between poetry and lyrics is weird. There's an album by Natalie Merchant that I love (Leave Your Sleep) where she sings poetry set to music, but I don't get the sense of it still being poetry there. They're songs--really good songs, but not poetry. Maybe it's because of all the instrumentation. OTOH, I feel like most of my songs are still poetry somehow (though I don't know how it comes across to others) maybe because the singing is still rather free, as if it's recited. But I don't know. I've never written whole songs (lyrics + music).

[lilmoka]

This is so awesome! *_*

[luzula]

Thank you so much! : )

first attempt

[jjhunter]

I gave a try at setting a poem to music (well, improvised music): Poem-As-Song: "Can She Bake a Scary Pie?" by Elizabeth Barrette. It's not nearly as lovely or as structured as the pieces you've shared here, but I did enjoy recording it.

Re: first attempt

[luzula]

Will check it out! And wow, improvising a melody has got to be rather different from what I do. Interesting!

[lynnoconnacht]

What jjhunter said! These are wonderful. (And I'm sorry I'm not trying to say things in my own words, but that's such a better comment than I could ever make.)

They're both incredibly powerful. ^_^ Do you have an idea why some melodies work better for you than others?

I used to go the other way around myself. I'd take a piece with a clear melodic line and write a poem to it. The two can complement one another so, so incredibly well.

[luzula]

Thank you so much! : )

No, I don't really know how I make melodies. I usually go around humming the words and trying different melodies until I find something that works for me, but I can never put a finger on why it works.

I am impressed that you can go the other way around, though! I've never been able to do that.

[lynnoconnacht]

It's neat how different people find different things easy, isn't it? ^_^ I'd always thought that having a set melody in advance was a lot easier than coming up with it on your own.

This is the kind of song I'd write to, if you'd like an example. It's also got a vocal version, though, which may well be part of why it's got such a strong line to write to. Been ages since I did any writing like that, though.