Classical Principle Weekly
August 8, 2023
Setting Poetry to Music
The wellspring of creativity for many classical composers lies in their settings of poetry. Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms used poetry to inspire much larger pieces. We are not talking about modern blank verse which lacks musicality and is often no more than prose, but poetry that uses the musical qualities of language, such as rhythm, meter, and rhyme (known collectively as prosody) to communicate ideas and metaphor in a way that cannot be achieved simply by the literal meaning of words.
Here, for example, is a fine Shakespearean actor, the late William Hutt, demonstrating how Shakespeare can convey an image more through the musicality of the poetry than the literal meaning of the words.
Jose Marti (1853–1895) is Cuba's National hero. He led the 1895 revolution to free Cuba from Spanish colonial rule, and while exiled in the USA, published a newsletter in NYC, promoting the independence of Cuba. He was also one of Cuba’s greatest poet and intellect. Someone who combines the spirit of patriotism and poetry is indeed a precious treasure.
Here is one of his most famous poems:
Cultivo una rosa blanca
I cultivate a white rose
en junio como enero
in June as in January
para el amigo sincero
for my sincere friend
que me da su mano franca.
who gives me his frank hand.
Y para el cruel que me arranca
And, for the cruel one, who tears apart
el corazon que con vivo
the very heart by which I live
cardo ni ortiga cultivo
I grow neither thistles nor nettles
cultivo la rosa blanca.
I grow- a white rose.
There are many sincere and pretty settings of this poem, including as a verse in Cuba's most famous song, “Guantanamera”, sung here by its composer, José Fernández Díaz . You can hear the poem in this recording starting about 02:40.
The challenge in a classical setting is for the music to capture the same surprise resolution as the poem. One might easily attribute the idea to "Love Thine Enemies", but Marti uses the poetic device of a return to the opening idea to recreate that idea in our hearts.
So, here is an attempt, by the musicological advisor to the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture, Fred Haight, on the guitar with his sister Nancy Guice, who really grasped the idea, singing it beautifully.
We will hear more about the settings of the great composers in the near future.