#4229: Poetry and Music
April is national poetry month. So, for this New Sounds, come for the music, stay for the poetry. We’ll hear a number of poems set to music by The Unthanks, by English composer Donna McKevitt, and by New York-based composer Alex Weiser. The poetry is by Emily Brontë, Williams Carlos Williams, Lord Byron, Seikilos, Edgar Allen Poe, Jan Noble, and Emily Dickinson.
Listen to music by a pair of sisters from England, The Unthanks, probably best known for their arrangements of folk songs. They’ve recently recorded have done a trilogy of albums: all settings of poetry - the third of which is dedicated to Emily Brontë. Hear two of Emily Brontë’s poems set to music by The Unthanks: “The Night Is Darkening Round Me” and “Lines”, both recorded in the parsonage where the Brontë sisters lived and worked. Also, listen to a setting of poetry by actor and writer Maxine Peake about the “headscarf revolutionary”, Lillian Bilocca, who fought for safety measures for the fishing fleet in Northern England in the 1960’s.
Then, listen to music by Donna McKevitt, and her settings of the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe, Jan Noble, and Lord Byron. Hear some of the stanzas of Byron’s “She Walks In Beauty”, along with Poe’s “From Childhood’s Hour” along with poetry by Jan Noble. Plus, from the recent record, and all the days were purple by New York composer Alex Weiser, hear three epitaphs featuring texts by Williams Carlos Williams, Seikilos and Emily Dickinson, sung by Eliza Bagg.
Program #4229: Poetry and Music (First aired 4/23/2019)
ARTIST: The Unthanks
WORK: The Night Is Darkening Round Me [1:00]
RECORDING: Lines, Vol. 3: Emily Brontë
SOURCE/INFO: the-unthanks.com/lines
ARTIST: The Unthanks
WORK: Maxine Peake /Adrian McNally/Becky Unthank: A Whistling Woman [5:58
RECORDING: Lines, Vol. 1: Lillian Bilocca
SOURCE/INFO: the-unthanks.com/lines
ARTIST: Donna McKevitt
WORK: she walks in beauty [2:17]
RECORDING: From Childhood's Hour EP
SOURCE: Left Out Records
INFO: globe.lnk.to/BPdeFPR
ARTIST: Donna McKevitt
WORK: From Childhood's hour [4:02]
RECORDING: From Childhood's Hour EP
SOURCE: Left Out Records
INFO: globe.lnk.to/BPdeFPR
ARTIST: Donna McKevitt
WORK: These were the words [2:58]
RECORDING: These are the words
SOURCE: Out of print.
INFO: lelandoriginals.com
ARTIST: The Unthanks
WORK: The Night Is Darkening Round Me [5:33]
RECORDING: Lines, Vol. 3: Emily Brontë
SOURCE/INFO: the-unthanks.com/lines
ARTIST: The Unthanks
WORK: Lines [6:48]
RECORDING: Lines, Vol. 3: Emily Brontë
SOURCE/INFO: the-unthanks.com/lines
ARTIST: Alex Weiser, ft. Eliza Bagg et al.
WORK: Alex Weiser: Three Epitaphs [14:20]
RECORDING: and all the days were purple
SOURCE: alexweiser.bandcamp.com
INFO: alexweiser.com
ARTIST: Caitlin Sullivan
WORK: Andrew Norman: Sonnets: confounded to decay [3:55]
RECORDING: A Page From
SOURCE: New Amsterdam Records
INFO: caitlinsullivan.bandcamp.com
