New forum addition

This is a bit different, but I am a poet looking for collaborations with spoken word and piano accompaniment. This is a recording I've made from a presentation made by Ewert Cousins at Gethsemani Encounter, a conference in Inter-religious Dialogue.



I think there is a tremendous potential for collaborations between poets and musicians, both in terms of beauty, as well as making this world a better place.

Some of my other recordings can be heard at my website:

http://www.merryclarkster.net


Merry Clarkster

 

Thank you for your reply.

I can attempt to give the tone of some of my poems, though I think that the synergism can best come from the musician, who is moved both by the poetry and the interpretation of the music as it moves him or her.

The piece, Axis Mundi, creates a vision for the critical role of spirituality leading us toward a global, complexified consciousnes, which in turn will lead us forward through our present ecologic, economic, and military challenges. The tone, for me, is one of both caution and exultation. In addition, there is a phrase, building the earth, which is quite powerful. When I have done performances with West African drummers, they echo this rhythm, boo-da, doo-ba, and keep that as a repeating, underlying rhythm.

My other pieces, which I have written, are at my website, http://merryclarkster.net.

They fall into several different categories:

• Profound whimsy, which highlights humankind's brilliance and frailty

• Love--erotic, romantic, cosmic

• Zen-flavored poems--I have at times used Satie as a background

I hope that this is helpful.

Merry Clarkster

 

Oh, thank you so much.

You've introduced me to some wonderful music, as well as some composers that I was unfamiliar with. But, aahh Liszt!!! I had no idea!

Here is a poem I wrote this morning after hearing Avguste Antonov reveal Liszt's Ballade no. 2 in B minor:


Aaaahhhhh, Liszt
(Inspired by Ballade no. 2 in B minor, as revealed by Avguste Antonov)

Aahhh, Liszt
Whose brilliance
I have just now discovered

Who
Charts a course
Like no other

A never-ending
Trail of rapture
Led forward
By flying fingers
That capture

Celestial evenings
Rolling thunder
Silent music
Touching deep
Then soaring up
From under
That silent place
Of fear and wonder
.....

Now
Quiet clarity
Sweet bliss
Of human harmony

Then
Twisting and careening
Through dark woods
Threatening trees and shadows
Hidden meanings
Of buried dreams

Back
To a calm safe clearing
Warm sun cleaning
From skin to soul
Discordant thoughts
No longer
Intervening

Then home again
Soft hands
In gentle caress
Bring me back
With kind soft smile
And god-born bless

Reminding me
To remain
Now and forever
In happiness

 

Merry Clarkster,

Nice poem. Schumann was a poly writer, too :wink:

Your idea to combine poetry and music is an interesting one. Last year for my universities music festival (outside the box) the grad students in poetry collaborated with the music department. They each prepared poems and we went over to my teachers house and drew from a hat who we would be with. The next step was for us composers to set the “lyrics” that is, the poem, to music. The only constraint was that this was limited to a very rare genre—solo unaccompanied voice--. Us composers wrote our pieces for the music school singers and the festival culminated in a big performance of the pieces. The singers would walk up to the stage, find their starting pitch on the piano and start singing. I give each and every one of them a tremendous amount of credit, because a lot of these pieces were… like Pierrot Lunaire style. Imagine if you had to sing Rite of Spring on a stage to a crowd of people and you get the idea. It wasn’t music as we know it here on pianosociety, but it was a great experience. Lucy Shelton taught us composers a lot about composing avant garde voice music and assisted the vocalists with maximizing their performances.

 

I did find some recordings that I thought might fit nicely with some of my poems. However, I'm not sure how to contact those pianists. The pianists that I looked to contact didn't have contact information, and members are listed with their user names, which don't correspond to their given names. Could you please help me with this?

 

But note that we do not have contact info for all the pianists on the site. Mostly only for those who are also registered on the forum.

 

Thank you for adding the feature. It is sort of like having loads of teachers from the forum. I'm hopefully going to be working with my brother who is good with recording, in order to obtain a higher quality recording than what I've been able to obtain. I will have a couple of mic's on the instrument now, will hopefully get it tuned. The works in progress is a great idea to help us see what you're looking for in a recording.