tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3690077250072100801.post6941415753550977222..comments2024-03-29T20:41:34.103+13:00Comments on Reid's Reader – A Blog of Book Reviews and Comment.: Something ThoughtfulNicholas Reidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05497366104216216952noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3690077250072100801.post-73329022066208767352012-05-15T20:30:19.514+12:002012-05-15T20:30:19.514+12:00I think it's clear that both are nature poems....I think it's clear that both are nature poems. As just one shared example: through "winter, yelling through the troublous air" and earth's "envious shade," these aspects of nature are personified - both Collins and Jonson effortlessly bridging the perceived gap between the objective world and our subjective experience of it. Given their largely pre-materialist world view this must have been a lot easier for them, compared to us schooled in the separation of self and outside world and the reduced access to nature in artificial urban environments. I'm not saying that we can't appreciate the depth of the poets' immersion, just that nature seems more natural to them.Hugh Majornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3690077250072100801.post-65038521879236810292012-05-15T19:46:35.395+12:002012-05-15T19:46:35.395+12:00I had thought of writing a blog on settings of poe...I had thought of writing a blog on settings of poems by composers. My basic contention would be that the best poetry (too filled with verbal meaning to comfortably be turned into sung lyrics) often makes for mediocre songs, while mediocre poetry (less dense with meaning) can make good songs. Actually, nearly all the poets Elgar set in his "Sea Pictures" are Victorian rather than Georgian and are indeed mediocre, but it still is magnificent when the likes of Janet Baker sing it.<br />Obviously the Brain-Pears recording of Britten's "Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings" is the definitive version, partly because they were the performers for whom it was composed. But i have heard a credtable live performance with NZ performers once, as too with "Sea Pictures".<br />I understand the Germans regard the poetry Schubert set as "Die Schone Mullerin" as pretty footling stuff - but they make great songs.Nicholasnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3690077250072100801.post-20643861574307086742012-05-15T10:51:02.101+12:002012-05-15T10:51:02.101+12:00Like you I always hear Benjamin Britten's sett...Like you I always hear Benjamin Britten's setting whenever I read Ben Jonson's song from the masque "Cynthia's Revels". Indeed Dritten's work "introduced" me to the poem. Personally, I feel the best recording that particular work remains with the tenor the late Peter Pears and the French horn player the late Denis Brain.<br />The work also "introduced" me to the anonymous, little-known dirge "This Aye Night". The whole work is settings of poems with a nocturne theme.<br />Britten always managed to do exquisite settings of worthy or interesting poems.<br />By contrast the earlier composer Elgar, such as in "Sea Songs" did some good musical settings but usually of mediocre Georgian poets.<br />Setting of poetry to music is a fascinating subject worth study on its own.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com