Song

Song

Conceived by the current.

Content is understanding,

the words their own hope

to assist performers

to better understand themselves,

usually associations elsewhere –

song attempts to cover that void.

Volume is meant to fill a void:

song does an admirable job

given the attention span of most.

Philip Harvey’s entry in the ‘Prose/Sculpture 2 (Writing Within Writing)’ section of the Melbourne International Franco-Anglais Poetry Festival, October 2008.

Source:

Book review by Brad Eden (University of California, Santa Barbara) of Researching the Song: a Lexicon, by Shirlee Emmons and Wilbur Watkin Lewis. New York : Oxford University Press, 2006. xliii, 507 p. ISBN 0-19-515202-6 $74

In: Fontes Artis Musicae: Journal of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML) = Journal de l’Association Internationale des Bibliothèques, Archives et Centres de Documentation Musicaux (AIBM), Volume 54/4, October-December 2007, pp. 609-610.

Found text with the poem’s words in red, in order as required by the terms of the competition: 

Researching the Song: a Lexicon. By Shirlee Emmons and Wilbur Watkin Lewis. New York : Oxford University Press, 2006. xliii, 507 p. ISBN 0-19-515202-6 $74

This book was essentially conceived and constructed by the late Stanley Sonntag. The current authors have taken much of his content, rewritten most of it, and, after more than ten years of work, have finally published this lexicon. One of the major challenges for vocalists and singers is the understanding and researching of the words of a song, often in a different language than their own and related to a vastly different culture and time period. The authors hope to assist classical music performers to better understand the poetry of the great art songs, and, through this, the songs themselves, with the publication of this book.

A lexicon is usually defined as a technical dictionary that focuses on a particular aspect of a discipline. This lexicon focuses on the relationship between art songs and their associations, such as a poet, writer, concept, dance type, song form, poetry type, genre, or reference that might appear in a song. The book does not provide research information on composers, as this is readily available elsewhere. Nor is this book intended to be a history of the song. According to the authors, there is no one volume that is currently devoted to the poets who wrote the texts, or to literary allusions contained in art song; this book attempts to cover that void. Explanations of many literary, mythological, geographical, and historical references, including the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome, make up the majority of the content. The authors even provide a useful short guide to using the volume, focused on doing preliminary research on the song using conventional methods, then referring to this book to assist in learning about names, terms, and phrases that are unfamiliar or out of context. For instance, over 50 entries are given for Scottish phrases that are often incomprehensible to most Westerners.

Some of the more interesting and extensive entries in this book are the ones on Faust (with a short synopsis of the original work, as well as subsequent songs inspired by it); Don Quixote (short synopsis of work); Magelone Lieder (all 15 narrations are included); and Thursday Angels (related to Henry Purcells’ The Fairie-Queene). On a lighter note, entries for “Fairies”, “Diotima”, “Kecskemet”, “Osier,” and “Schwager” are included as well.

This volume is meant to fill a void in the current literature surrounding research on unfamiliar or hard-to-find terms, concepts, and people in the area of the art song. In that sense, this book does an admirable job. Of even greater assistance would be the inclusion of an appendix/index that lists the art songs that are related to the items in the book, thus providing an invaluable and quick guide to the use of the work. Without this appendix/index, the volume becomes very difficult to use, and that, given the attention span of most undergraduate and graduate students, may limit its adoption and usefulness.

Brad Eden, Ph.D.

University of California, Santa Barbara

Song

Conceived by the current.

Content is understanding,

the words their own hope

to assist performers

to better understand themselves,

usually associations elsewhere –

song attempts to cover that void.

Volume is meant to fill a void:

song does an admirable job

given the attention span of most.