My two most recent posts included Dickinson’s “My River runs to thee,” and I mentioned that I had composed a song based on this poem to be performed at my third-annual ED birthday celebration concert this December. Just FYI: Info on last year’s concert is HERE and info on the first event is HERE.
 | Like the previous two concerts, this one will include ten songs, and my friend will sing and I will play the piano. I plan to open the event with my songs based on “My River runs to thee” and “After great pain, a formal feeling comes.”  |
Why pair those two?
Well, it has to do with how the poems – and songs – conclude.
I’ve started working on the program for the event, and here is the draft of what I have written for “My River runs to thee”:
“When people speak of a musical cadence, they often think of the beat or rhythmic motion of a song or of a drumline. However, “cadence” also refers to the sequence of notes or chords that comprise the close of a musical phrase.
For this poem, I wrote a song with traditional country-western cadence (the rhythm of the song), and a strong, final cadence at the end, i.e., the chord progression, to provide a strong sense of resolution.
Compare that final cadence of this number to the next where I strove to end with an imperfect cadence.”
By the way, the song ends by walking down the notes A - G - F - E, just above middle C, with the chords F - C - G7 - C, a very standard cadence that gives an absolute sense of resolution
For the next number, based on “After great pain, a formal feeling comes,” I have written this:
“For this song, I attempted to end with what is known as an ‘imperfect cadence,’ a series of chords to suggest a sense of incompletion. Is there more to come? Afterall, the poem does not end with a death – or does it?”
To conclude this song, the words “Then the letting go” correspond to the notes G - G - A - Bb - D (moving up above middle C) with the chords C# dim (for the two Gs), A (for the A and B flat), and B flat (for the D) – and just like that final dash after the closing words of the poem, the final chord progression suggests that maybe there’s more to come? Maybe? Or is it done?
The concert will include six other songs based on poems by Dickinson, one song based on Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise,” and one song based on E. E. Cummings’ “the great advantage of being alive.” I’ll provide a few more particulars and poems as we get nearer to the date.
Stay tuned. ;-)
Well, it has to do with how the poems – and songs – conclude.
I’ve started working on the program for the event, and here is the draft of what I have written for “My River runs to thee”:
“When people speak of a musical cadence, they often think of the beat or rhythmic motion of a song or of a drumline. However, “cadence” also refers to the sequence of notes or chords that comprise the close of a musical phrase.
For this poem, I wrote a song with traditional country-western cadence (the rhythm of the song), and a strong, final cadence at the end, i.e., the chord progression, to provide a strong sense of resolution.
Compare that final cadence of this number to the next where I strove to end with an imperfect cadence.”
By the way, the song ends by walking down the notes A - G - F - E, just above middle C, with the chords F - C - G7 - C, a very standard cadence that gives an absolute sense of resolution
For the next number, based on “After great pain, a formal feeling comes,” I have written this:
“For this song, I attempted to end with what is known as an ‘imperfect cadence,’ a series of chords to suggest a sense of incompletion. Is there more to come? Afterall, the poem does not end with a death – or does it?”
To conclude this song, the words “Then the letting go” correspond to the notes G - G - A - Bb - D (moving up above middle C) with the chords C# dim (for the two Gs), A (for the A and B flat), and B flat (for the D) – and just like that final dash after the closing words of the poem, the final chord progression suggests that maybe there’s more to come? Maybe? Or is it done?
The concert will include six other songs based on poems by Dickinson, one song based on Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise,” and one song based on E. E. Cummings’ “the great advantage of being alive.” I’ll provide a few more particulars and poems as we get nearer to the date.
Stay tuned. ;-)
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