Favourite poems set to music

[Guest]

As it happens, my two favourite poems are about trains.
One - Edward Thomas's 'Adlestrop' - has been set to music.
The other - Philip Larkin's 'The Whitsun Weddings' - hasn't (as far as I know).
Do other Forum members have favourite poems that they would like to see set to music?

[Mobson7]

Yes I'd like to see John Betjeman's 1974 poem "Executive"

"I am a young executive. No cuffs than mine are cleaner
I have a Slimline briefcase and I use the firm's Cortina
In every roadside hostelry from here to Burgess Hill
the Maitres d'hotel all know me well and let me sign the bill"...

..set to music - a modern rap by someone like Prof Green would do. I know this poem is far from his best, but it was the one I got hooked on from his published poetry collection entitled 'A Nip in the Air' and then years later compared it with Salford punk laureate John Cooper Clarke's account of the bottom end of the same market ...I Travel in Biscuits -

a wolf on all wheels
white collar whizz kids
button three mohair
I travel in biscuits
Getting me nowhere...."

which he did put to music on his sixth album called Zip Style Method in 1982 .....Cool

[MrGongGong]

Kurt Schwitters: Ursonate ,ooops it IS music

Introducción:
Fümms bö wö tää zää Uu,
pögiff,
kwii Ee. 1
Oooooooooooooooooooooooo, 6
dll rrrrr beeeee bö
dll rrrrr beeeee bö fümms bö, (A)
rrrrr beeeee bö fümms bö wö,
beeeee bö fümms bö wö tää,
bö fümms bö wö tää zää,
fümms bö wö tää zää Uu: 5
primera parte:
tema 1:
Fümms bö wö tää zää Uu,
pögiff,
Kwii Ee. 1
tema 2:
Dedesnn nn rrrrr,
Ii Ee,
mpiff tillff too,
tillll,
Jüü Kaa? 2
tema 3:
Rinnzekete bee bee nnz krr müü?
ziiuu ennze, ziiuu rinnzkrrmüü,

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

MrGG

Much of the best Poetry is Music. Unless it is written specifically as a lyric to be set to Music, I prefer to hear my favourite poetry read.

[johncorrigan]

On Sunday morning Cerys on 6 music usually has a poetry session with music accompanying which listeners send in - so it's hit and miss. But on Sunday as part of 6 Music 10th anniversary Joe Boyd was in the studio and read 'O sweet spontaneous' by e.e. cummings backed by a piece of cello by Eric Freedlander - I thought it was wonderful.
It's about an hour and twenty three minutes in to the show if you fancy a listen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01d8tvw

[Pabmusic]

The problem for me about listing poems I'd like to be set is all to do with the quality of an unknown (unknowable) piece of music. I have favourite poems that could be set, but that doesn't mean a lot.

But there are many lovely poems that have been set in ways that enhance the poetry (at least, I think so). 'To Gratiana, dancing and singing' by Richard Lovelace is the subject of a truly wonderful setting by W. Denis Browne, one of Rupert Brooke's pall-bearers, and who himself died at Gallipoli. Gerald Finzi, too, had such a natural sympathy (as do I) with the poetry of Thomas Hardy that there are literally dozens of good examples. I'd pick 'Waiting both', 'To Lizbie Browne' and 'The Sigh' as three examples of how to set simplicity. And I couldn't imagine A. E. Housman's 'The lads in their hundreds' in any setting other than George Butterworth's.

In all these cases, the music (for me) has become so much part of the poetry that it makes it difficult to read the original poems without being aware of the music in my head.

[Chris Newman]

The problem for me about listing poems I'd like to be set is all to do with the quality of an unknown (unknowable) piece of music. I have favourite poems that could be set, but that doesn't mean a lot.

But there are many lovely poems that have been set in ways that enhance the poetry (at least, I think so). 'To Gratiana, dancing and singing' by Richard Lovelace is the subject of a truly wonderful setting by W. Denis Browne, one of Rupert Brooke's pall-bearers, and who himself died at Gallipoli. Gerald Finzi, too, had such a natural sympathy (as do I) with the poetry of Thomas Hardy that there are literally dozens of good examples. I'd pick 'Waiting both', 'To Lizbie Browne' and 'The Sigh' as three examples of how to set simplicity. And I couldn't imagine A. E. Housman's 'The lads in their hundreds' in any setting other than George Butterworth's.

In all these cases, the music (for me) has become so much part of the poetry that it makes it difficult to read the original poems without being aware of the music in my head.

RVW's and Arthur Somervell's setting of Houseman are worth exploring. An American student makes a very promising stab at Somervell's "The Lads in Their Hundreds" at 6 minutes into this recital. On YouTube he has recorded all of Somervell's Shropshire Lad cycle.

I agree that W Denis Browne's "To Gratiana, Dancing and Singing" is beautiful especially with Ian Bostridge.