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Coroniti, Joseph

Poetry as Text in Twentieth Century Vocal Music From Stravinsky to Reich
1992 0-7734-9774-9
This work explores the many aesthetic and theoretical issues that arise when poems are set to music. Is a setting a hybrid form, a support for the text, or simply a piece of music? All such inquiry is an effort to define, and then either integrate or resolve the tension that is the driving force of the musical setting. This explores the differing aesthetic theories and tests them against the practice of modern composers. Topics include: speech rhythms in music; Ezra Pound and music; Shakespeare's Sonnets; Recitations with music - Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Baraka; Stravinsky -- Shakespeare Songs, "In Memoriam Dylan Thomas," Symphony of Psalms; "The Tyger", settings by Britten and Thomson; Emily Dickinson/Aaron Copland; more.