When Carol Ann Weaver and Rebecca Campbell came into our clas on Thursday, they talked about the process of putting music to poems, bringing life to a work already written so well. Carol said she even has to change some word order around to fit the music or make different word choices.
It's one thing to be an editor of an anthology or a "Best U.S. Poems" book or something where deciding which poems to include and for what reasons is the hard part, which would really be difficult, but then there's the step further that Carol takes with the poems she chooses for her works. She is choosing the words that will tell a unique Mennonite story, and then choosing how to change them so that the music will flow through them and further tell that same story and communicate the emotions she's aiming for. I can only imagine the creative skill it would take to revise someone else's finished work for a different medium without changing the meaning too much, yet changing it completely for her use in music.
I haven't heard the music put to the words yet, but when I do, I will update this post.
When you do listen to the music, Kolton, I think you'll really appreciate the way Weaver created a larger narrative about the Mennonites' relationship with Paraguay. Even though I didn't like the style of the music, the content and lyrics were really interesting.
ReplyDeleteKolton, I appreciate that you appreciate the difficulty of what Carol did in order to construct her song cycle. What she did was challenging, especially since a lot of the prose she collected was not intended for poetry/lyrics. In some ways, I think it's almost like writing an original poem, except with a lot more pressure because you're technically borrowing other people's work.
ReplyDeleteKolton, thanks for your appreciative note on Weaver's task of creating songs with poems. I look forward to hearing your response to the performance. The CD has finally been made and I'll try to get it to you tomorrow (Friday).
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