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Music in literature
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Music in literature |
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Subject: Music in literature From: Marion Date: 14 Jun 99 - 04:26 PM Hello folks. Would you like to name novels or poems that have inspired or influenced your music? I'll start: 1. The first chapter of "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair stars a Lithuanian fiddler who worked on the kill floor all day and taught himself the violin by night. There's a stirring description of his performance at a wedding reception, and I was definitely influenced to take up the fiddle by him. 2. In "Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck (chapter 17, or possibly 15) there is a description of the camps made by displaced farmers migrating west. It says that in every camp someone would bring out a guitar and the others gather round, and that "each man wished he could pick a guitar, for it is a gracious thing." This inspired me - I still love rereading that passage. 3. In "The Drifters" by James Michener there is a character who plays guitar, mostly the ballads. There is much detail about the Child collections and about individual ballads, especially Mary Hamilton and The Silkie. This novel influenced me to get into Child ballads and to love Mary Hamilton. I've got a fiddler friend who loves the poem, "The Touch of the Master's Hand." (I don't know who wrote it). Has anyone else appreciated any of these books that have inspired me? What other books or poems can you point to? Marion |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: Rick Fielding Date: 14 Jun 99 - 04:44 PM Other than the classics, which I devoured as a child, The two most important books for me as far as coming to an understanding of human nature were: Ball Four, by Jim Bouton, and The Naked Civil Servant by Quentin Crisp. Ball Four is ostensibly about baseball, but is really about so much more. Jim Bouton was idolised from about the age of ten for his superb athletic ability, and heartily disliked for his intelligence and outspokeness. It's an amazing book written by someone who finally came to see that he was an outsider and would only be tolerated as long as he could get people out. Quentin Crisp was(still is at 90+) a flaming extroverted homosexual who grew up in 30s Britain, where you would be tolerated if you kept quiet about it. He decided early in life to make no secret of his lifestyle, and at least let people hate him honestly and without innuendo. His credo, which I try to adhere to is: Don't swim against the tide. Swim with it only Much faster! Weird isn't it? I've never been either a professional ball player or homosexual and yet these two exceptionally wise men are my heroes. Sadly, I think my other hero, Pete Seeger, would hate 'em both! No question that the writing of all three have influenced my life and my music. Rick |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: Bert Date: 14 Jun 99 - 05:36 PM That's a difficult one. I haven't been influenced by any specific book but certainly the kind of books that I like are reflected in the songs that I write. I enjoy humorous and bawdy works that are not too serious. Some of my favorites are... Canterbury tales, Chaucer Alice & The Hunting of The Snark, Lewis Carrol Wilt, Tom Sharpe The Dover mysteries, Joyce Porter Trapp's War, Brian Callison Bert. |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: refresh Date: 15 Jun 99 - 02:18 PM refresh |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: Lowcountry Date: 15 Jun 99 - 03:46 PM One of Shakespeare's sonnets is about his mistress playing the piano; it is sensual and moving. The fiddling scene in Cold Mountain was oddly disturbing, but there was a message there about the beauty and universality of song. |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: Margo Date: 15 Jun 99 - 03:48 PM I have said before in other threads that I am writing songs to some of Robert Louis Stevenson's poems in the collection "A Child's Garden of Verses". I am terminally childish (or childlike?). I love things that are simple, sweet, and elegant. Stevenson's poems are wonderfully worded in language a child can appreciate as well as any adult. Also on my list is to write music to Benjamin Franklin's song about his wife. The poem has been preserved, but not any melody to my knowledge. He was quite the music maker. He played guitar and sang, as well as inventing the glass armonica, for which Mozart wrote music. Margarita |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: Rick Fielding Date: 15 Jun 99 - 03:53 PM Hi Lowcountry. Does Shakespeare actually mention a piano? I didn't think they existed at that time. |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: Dan Date: 15 Jun 99 - 03:55 PM Margarita, I would be very interested in your music for Stevenson's poems--I am in love with some of those poems, expecially "Windy Nights" and "Farewell to the Farm" (Oh hayloft! Where the cobwebs cling. Goodbye, goodbye, to everything) |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: Margo Date: 15 Jun 99 - 04:00 PM Dan, I'll have to publish them in a hurry. But first I'll have to finish writing them! Seriously, if you want to keep abreast of them, send me your email in the personal page...... Margarita |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: Lowcountry Date: 15 Jun 99 - 04:12 PM Good point, Rick. He wrote about the warmth of the wood and loving touch of her fingers on the keys, etc., and I might have jumped to a conclusion. I will let you know. When DID they invent the sucker? |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: Marion Date: 15 Jun 99 - 04:38 PM This one's more disturbing than inspiring, but it certainly stuck in my mind: "The Kreutzer Sonata", a short story by Leo Tolstoy. In this story a man kills his wife basically because she played a duet with another man. He (the husband) claims that making music together is so intimate that it should be considered adultery. |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: Penny S. Date: 15 Jun 99 - 07:06 PM Shakespeare would have known something called the virginals, which had a keyboard. And Bert, what are the Dover Mysteries? Penny |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: alison Date: 16 Jun 99 - 02:51 AM Hi, Read a great book "the Little Country" by Charles De lint the main characters play music and it affects what is going on, the tunes are written at the back of the book. he dedicates it "for all those traditional musicians who, unwittingly or unwittingly, but with great good skill, still seek to capture that first music." Slainte alison |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: Bert Date: 16 Jun 99 - 07:40 AM Penny, The Dover Mysteries is a series of humorous novels about a Scotland Yard detective who is just about the most obnoxious person possible. He goes charging around, trampling everyone in his path, completely oblivious of the truth. He always comes up smelling of roses, all for the wrong reasons. Do a search for Joyce Porter on bibliofind and you will find several of them.
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: marion Date: 03 Aug 99 - 03:55 PM refresh |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: CarlZen Date: 03 Aug 99 - 09:09 PM Seeing the early reference to The Grapes of Wrath, I'm reminded of the way Ramblin' Jack used to introduce Tom Joad. (He may still do it the same way - I haven't had a chance to see him for years.) He'd say he was going to sing a song he learned from Woody, which Woody wrote after seeing a movie with Henry Fonda which was based on a novel written by John Steinbeck, which was baswed on the life of Woody Guthrie. |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: GUEST Date: 05 Nov 02 - 02:30 PM Touch of the Master's Hand - mentioned above and in the database with no attribution - is a poem written by Myra Brook Welch ca 1927, It was published in "The Messenger" and reprinted in "Good Old Days". Sally Rogers saw it, liked it, and set it to music. (This is from an old Prairie Home Companion tape featuring Sally Rogers.) |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: Walter Corey Date: 05 Nov 02 - 02:40 PM Sorry - above posting was mine - didn't realize I was cookieless |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: belfast Date: 05 Nov 02 - 03:08 PM The main distinction between the ballad "Finnegan's Wake" and the novel (?) by Joyce, "Finnegans Wake" is the apostrophe. The book itself (like most of his work) is crammed with references to all kinds of music from ballads to opera. You could do an album using a fraction of the songs he quotes. A great title for this album would be "The Songs We Sang At Finnegans Wake" |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: Jim Dixon Date: 05 Nov 02 - 09:58 PM Belfast: You might enjoy browsing through the James Joyce Sheet Music Collection, University of Miami Libraries, where they have cataloged all the music that Joyce mentioned or quoted in his work. Unfortunately, you can't see the actual sheet music online, only the titles. |
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Subject: RE: Music in literature From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 01 Dec 02 - 10:56 PM Last Month Dana's Two Years Before the Mast was concluded. It is a fine read and I recommend it to anyone. It is impressive with both the monotonous drudgery of a voyage and also the profound place that music had within their lives. The following are musical excerpts: Sincerely, Gargoyle CHAPTER XV ...the behavior of the two men who were flogged toward one another showed a delicacy and a sense of honor,which would have been worthy of admiration in the highest walks of life. Sam knew that the other had suffered solely on his account.... ....Nobody broke his back or his hand-spike by his efforts.And when the cat-tackle-fall was strung along, and all hands--cook, steward, and all--laid hold, to cat the anchor, instead of the lively song of "Cheerily, men!" in which all hands join in the chorus, we pulled a long, heavy, silent pull,and--as sailors say a song is as good as ten men--the anchor came to the cat-head pretty slowly. "Give us 'Cheerily!'" said the mate; but there was no "cheerily" for us, and we did without it.The captain walked the quarterdeck, and said not a word. He must have seen the change, but there was nothing which he could notice officially. CHAPTER XVIII The next Sunday was Easter Sunday, and as there had been no liberty at San Pedro, it was our turn to go ashore and misspend another Sabbath. Soon after breakfast, a large boat, filled with men in blue jackets, scarlet caps, and various colored under-clothes, bound ashore on liberty, left the Italian ship, and passed under our stern; the men singing beautiful Italian boat-songs, all the way, in fine, full chorus. Among the songs I recognized the favorite "O Pescator dell' onda." It brought back to my mind pianofortes, drawing-rooms, young ladies singing, and a thousand other things which as little befitted me, in my situation, to be thinking upon. The Italian ship had a crew of thirty men; nearly three times as many as the Alert, which was afterwards on the coast, and was of the same size; yet the Alert would get under weigh and come-to in half the time, and get two anchors, while they were all talking at once--jabbering like a parcel of "Yahoos," and running about decks to find their cat-block. There was only one point in which they had the advantage over us, and that was in lightening their labors in the boats by their songs. The Americans are a time and money saving people, but have not yet, as a nation, learned that music may be "turned to account." We pulled the long distances to and from the shore, with our loaded boats, without a word spoken, and with discontented looks, while they not only lightened the labor of rowing, but actually made it pleasant and cheerful, by their music. So true is it, that-- "For the tired slave, song lifts the languid oar, And bids it aptly fall, with chime That beautifies the fairest shore, And mitigates the harshest clime." CHAPTER XX The Italians sang a variety of songs--barcarollas, provincial airs, etc.; in several of which I recognized parts of our favorite operas and sentimental songs. They often joined in a song, taking all the different parts; which produced a fine effect, as many of them had good voices, and all seemed to sing with spirit and feeling. One young man, in particular, had a falsetto as clear as a clarionet. The night before the vessels were ready to sail, all the Europeans united and had an entertainment at the Rosa's hide-house, and we had songs of every nation and tongue. A German gave us "Och! mein lieber Augustin!" the three Frenchmen roared through the Marseilles Hymn; the English and Scotchmen gave us "Rule Britannia," and "Wha'll be King but Charlie?" the Italians and Spaniards screamed through some national affairs, for which I was none the wiser; and we three Yankees made an attempt at the "Star-spangled Banner." After these national tributes had been paid, the Austrian gave us a very pretty little love-song, and the Frenchmen sang a spirited thing called "Sentinelle! O prenez garde a vous!" and then followed the melange which might have been expected. When I left them, the aguardiente and annisou was pretty well in their heads, and they were all singing and talking at once, and their peculiar national oaths were getting as plenty as pronouns. When the last luff was hooked on, all hands were called to the rope--cook, steward, and all--and ranging ourselves at the falls, one behind the other, sitting down on the hides, with our heads just even with the beams, we set taught upon the tackles, and striking up a song, and all lying back at the chorus, we bowsed the tackles home, and drove the large books chock in out of sight. CHAPTER XXIII About seven o'clock, the mate came down into the steerage, in fine trim for fun, roused the boys out of the berth, turned up the carpenter with his fiddle, sent the steward with lights to put in the between-decks, and set all hands to dancing. The between-decks were high enough to allow of jumping; and being clear, and white, from holystoning, made a fine dancing-hall. Some of the Pilgrim's crew were in the forecastle, and we all turned-to and had a regular sailor's shuffle, till eight bells. The Cape-Cod boy could dance the true fisherman's jig, barefooted, knocking with his heels, and slapping the decks with his bare feet, in time with the music. This was a favorite amusement of the mate's, who always stood at the steerage door, looking on, and if the boys would not dance, he hazed them round with a rope's end, much to the amusement of the men. CHAPTER XXIX The sailor's songs for capstans and falls are of a peculiar kind, having a chorus at the end of each line. The burden is usually sung, by one alone, and, at the chorus, all hands join in,--and the louder the noise, the better. With us, the chorus seemed almost to raise the decks of the ship, and might be heard at a great distance, ashore. A song is as necessary to sailors as the drum and fife to a soldier. They can't pull in time, or pull with a will, without it. Many a time, when a thing goes heavy, with one fellow yo-ho-ing, a lively song, like "Heave, to the girls!" "Nancy oh!" "Jack Cross-tree," etc., has put life and strength into every arm. We often found a great difference in the effect of the different songs in driving in the hides. Two or three songs would be tried, one after the other; with no effect;--not an inch could be got upon the tackles--when a new song, struck up, seemed to hit the humor of the moment, and drove the tackles "two blocks" at once. "Heave round hearty!" "Captain gone ashore!" and the like, might do for common pulls, but in an emergency, when we wanted a heavy, "raise-the-dead" pull, which should start the beams of the ship, there was nothing like "Time for us to go!" "Round the corner," or "Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!" Among her crew were two English man-of-war's-men, so that, of course, we soon had music. They sang in the true sailor's style, and the rest of the crew, which was a remarkably musical one, joined in the choruses. They had many of the latest sailor songs, which had not yet got about among our merchantmen, and which they were very choice of. They began soon after we came on board, and kept it up until after two bells, when the second mate came forward and called "the Alerts away!" Battle-songs, drinking-songs, boat-songs, love-songs, and everything else, they seemed to have a complete assortment of, and I was glad to find that "All in the Downs," "Poor Tom Bowline," "The Bay of Biscay," "List, ye Landsmen!" and all those classical songs of the sea, still held their places. In addition to these, they had picked up at the theatres and other places a few songs of a little more genteel cast, which they were very proud of; and I shall never forget hearing an old salt, who had broken his voice by hard drinking on shore, and bellowing from the mast-head in a hundred northwesters, with all manner of ungovernable trills and quavers in the high notes, breaking into a rough falsetto--and in the low ones, growling along like the dying away of the boatswain's "all hands ahoy!" down the hatch-way, singing, "Oh, no, we never mention him." "Perhaps, like me, he struggles with Each feeling of regret; But if he's loved as I have loved, He never can forget!" The last line, being the conclusion, he roared out at the top of his voice, breaking each word up into half a dozen syllables. This was very popular, and Jack was called upon every night to give them his "sentimental song." No one called for it more loudly than I, for the complete absurdity of the execution, and the sailors' perfect satisfaction in it, were ludicrous beyond measure. The next day, the California commenced unloading her cargo; and her boats' crews, in coming and going, sang their boat-songs, keeping time with their oars. This they did all day long for several days, until their hides were all discharged, when a gang of them were sent on board the Alert, to help us steeve our hides. This was a windfall for us, for they had a set of new songs for the capstan and fall, and ours had got nearly worn out by six weeks' constant use. I have no doubt that this timely reinforcement of songs hastened our work several days. CHAPTER XXX Every wave that she threw aside brought us nearer home, and every day's observation at noon showed a progress which, if it continued, would in less than five months, take us into Boston Bay. This is the pleasure of life at sea, --fine weather, day after day, without interruption,--fair wind, and a plenty of it,--and homeward bound. Every one was in good humor; things went right; and all was done with a will. At the dog watch, all hands came on deck, and stood round the weather side of the forecastle, or sat upon the windlass, and sung sea songs, and those ballads of pirates and highwaymen, which sailors delight in. Home, too, and what we should do when we got there, and when and how we should arrive, was no infrequent topic. Our spirits returned with having something to do; and when the tackle was manned to bowse the anchor home, notwithstanding the desolation of the scene, we struck up "Cheerily ho!" in full chorus. This pleased the mate, who rubbed his hands and cried out--"That's right, my boys; never say die! That sounds like the old crew!" and the captain came up, on hearing the song, and said to the passenger, within hearing of the man at the wheel,--"That sounds like a lively crew. They'll have their song so long as there're enough left for a chorus!" As we left the gale behind us, the reefs were shaken out of the topsails, and sail made as fast as she could bear it; and every time all hands were sent to the halyards, a song was called for, and we hoisted away with a will. CONCLUDING CHAPTER There is a witchery in the sea, its songs and stories, and in the mere sight of a ship, and the sailor's dress, especially to a young mind, which has done more to man navies, and fill merchantmen, than all the press-gangs of Europe. |
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