PODCAST #16, A MUSIC LOVER’S ART

This book is filled with poems about classical and folk music I love. Let’s begin with Mozart, a composer everyone loves because his music is so packed with great tunes, and his personality is youthfully impulsive. Try “The ‘trumpet concerto’” (312).

Beethoven equals him in popularity, and I join in, translating Nikolai Zabolotsky’s “Beethoven” (314) and offering a “reply” to the great “Ode to Joy” in my brief lyric, “Beethoven’s Ninth” (318).

I could hardly choose from the many I’ve done on Bach: a sample is “Thoughts on a Bach Cantata Strophe” (276).

Schubert’s “Alder King” (246) stimulated a lively reply

Let’s try composers from a variety of nationalities. American Samuel Barber is a great favorite of mine, and he stimulated “I want to write what never wasn’t there” (329).  “Old Man River” from the Kern-Hammerstein “Show Boat” (119) entranced me.

 Verdi’s (“La Traviata,” 96) at Glimmerglass affected me strongly. 

Russian composer Moussorgsky I love for his “Song of the Flea” (168), and about Stravinsky I wrote in “Rite of Spring?” (332). 

Finnish composer Sibelius is perfect in his orchestral piece “Tapiola” (217).

Spanish “Sarasate” (71) kindled my interest in the music of Spanish verses, too (“Song arising to the mouth,” 269).

Another national folk tradition comes through in O’Carolan’s tune to which Thomas Moore set his poem “The Young May Moon,” but I have written new lyrics to it! (see Planxty Peyton, 59).