List of songs based on poems
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of some poems that have been subsequently set to music. In the classical music tradition, this type of setting may be referred to as an art song. A poem set to music in the German language is called a lied, or in the French language, a Mélodie. A group of poems, usually by the same poet, which are set to music to form a single work, is called a song cycle.
- "Ten Blake Songs" are poems from Blake's "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" and "Auguries of Innocence", set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1957.
- "Tyger" is both the name of an album by Tangerine Dream, which is based on Blake's poetry, and the title of a song on this album based on the poem of the same name.
- "The Fly" by Esperanza Spalding (as the song "Little Fly" on her 2010 album Chamber Music Society)
- Cosmo Sheldrake adapted two songs of Blake's: "The Fly" into a song of the same name, and "I Rose Up At The Dawn Of Day" into the song "Solar".
- "And did those feet in ancient time" set to music by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916 and best known today as the anthem "Jerusalem." There have been many recordings, most notably by:
- the British progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer for their Brain Salad Surgery album
- the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, whose version was played in medal ceremonies for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
- Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, a 1965 song cycle by Benjamin Britten.
Rachel Bluwstein
- "I Know to Speak Only of Myself"
- by Chava Alberstein
- by Geva Alon
Robert Burns
- "A Red, Red Rose"
- "Sweet Afton" (His poems are made around the 1700s)
- "Auld Lang Syne"
- "Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation"
George Gordon Byron
Florence Earle Coates
- Set to music by Mrs. H. H. A. Beach:
- "For me the jasmine buds unfold". Op. 19, no. 1. For sop. or tenor and piano. 1 score (7 p.). Boston: Arthur P. Schmidt. (1892)
- "Go not too far". Op. 56, no. 2. High and low voice. Words also printed as text. Caption title. 1 score (5 p.); 35 cm. Boston: Arthur P. Schmidt. (1904)
- "I know not how to find the spring". Op. 56, no. 3. For medium voice and piano. Caption title. Words also printed as text on p. 2. 1 score (5 p.); 36 cm. Boston: Arthur P. Schmidt. (1904)
- "Give me not love". Op. 61. Duet for soprano and tenor. Caption title. 1 score (7 p.); 34 cm. Boston: Arthur P. Schmidt. (1905)
- "After". Op. 68. High and low voice. Words also printed as text. Caption title. 1 score (7 p.); 35 cm. Boston: Arthur P. Schmidt. (1909)
- Set to music by Clayton Johns:
- "I love, and the world is mine". To Miss Lena Little. Sop. or tenor in G. Song [with piano acc.]; score (5p.) 35 cm. New York, G. Schirmer. (1891)
- "I love, and the world is mine". To Miss Lena Little. Medium in F. Song [with piano acc.]; score (4p.) 35 cm. New York, G. Schirmer. (1891)
- "When Phyllis comes" (1892)
- "If love were not". 4 p. of music; 35 cm. Boston: Oliver Ditson & Co. (1904)
- "So is my love to me" (1908)
- See also:
- – via Wikisource.
Idris Davies
- Several of the parts of Davies' poem cycle Gwalia Deserta have been adapted into songs:
- Part XV was used by Pete Seeger for the lyrics of "The Bells of Rhymney"
- Part XXXIV was adapted by Max Boyce as "When We Walked to Merthyr Tydfil in the Moonlight Long Ago"
- Part XXXVI was used by Public Service Broadcasting for the words of "Turn No More", sung by James Dean Bradfield, on the album Every Valley
Emily Dickinson
- "I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain"
- by Andrew Bird and Phoebe Bridgers
- "Because I Could Not Stop for Death"
- by Natalie Merchant
- by John Adams
- by Aaron Copland (Composer)
- "Wild Nights" was also featured as part of Adam's composition Harmonium
- The album No Promises by Carla Bruni includes three poems by Emily Dickinson
- "I Felt My Life With Both My Hands"
- "I Went To Heaven"
- "If You Were Coming In The Fall"
- "Hope"
- Too Few the Mornings Be: Eleven Songs for Soprano and Piano by Ricky Ian Gordon, written for Renée Fleming
- "Too few the mornings be"
- "If all the griefs I am to have"
- "The bustle in a house"
- "This is my letter to the world"
- "You cannot put a fire out"
- "Bee! I'm expecting you!"
- "Poor little heart!"
- "I'm nobody! Who are you?
- "How happy is the little stone"
- "Estranged from beauty"
- "Will there really be a morning?"[1]
A. E. Housman
- "Six poems from "A Shropshire Lad" were set to music in "On Wenlock Edge" by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Patrick Kavanagh
- The poem On Raglan Road was put to music when the poet met Luke Kelly of the well-known Irish band The Dubliners in a pub in Dublin.[2] It was set to the music of the traditional song "The Dawning of the Day" (Fáinne Geal an Lae).
Federico García Lorca
Pablo Neruda
- Luciana Souza's album Neruda is a collection of jazz arrangements of the works of Pablo Neruda (translated into English).
- Many of Pablo Neruda's works are featured on the album Quilapayún Chante Neruda
Alfred Noyes
- The American folk and protest singer Phil Ochs set Alfred Noyes' poem "The Highwayman" to music on his 1965 album, I Ain't Marching Anymore.
Also done by Loreena McKennitt.
Edgar Allan Poe
Christina Rossetti
- "Remember"
- "Promises Like Pie Crust" is featured on the album No Promises by Carla Bruni
When I Am Dead My Dearest was recorded by the Kruger Brothers on their album Between the Notes
William Shakespeare
- "Under the Greenwood Tree" by Donovan
- The album When Love Speaks features several of Shakespeare's works set to music:
- "When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes" performed by Rufus Wainwright (Sonnet 29)
- "No more be grieved at that which thou hast done" performed by Keb' Mo' (Sonnet 35)
- "The quality of mercy is not strained" performed by Des'ree (The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, scene 1)
- "The Willow Song" performed by Barbara Bonney (Othello, Act IV, scene 3)
- "Music to hear, why hearst thou music sadly" performed by Ladysmith Black Mambazo (Sonnet 8)
- "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" performed by Bryan Ferry (Sonnet 18)
- Two pieces of Shakespeare's plays were set to music by Loreena McKennitt:
- "Cymbeline" by Loreena McKennitt (Cymbeline, Act V, scene 2)
- "Prospero's Speech" by Loreena McKennitt (The Tempest, Act V, scene 1)
- "O Mistress Mine" by Emilie Autumn, from the album A Bit O' This & That (Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene III)
- "Double Trouble", a song from the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban soundtrack, has rearranged lyrics taken entirely from Macbeth (Act IV, scene I)
Hannah Szenes
- "A Walk to Caesarea"
- by Regina Spektor
- by Sophie Milman
- by Netanela
- "Blessed Is the Match"
William Butler Yeats
- "An Appointment with Mr Yeats" by The Waterboys is an album of Yeats poems set to song.
- The poem "Down by the Salley Gardens" was based by Yeats on a fragment of a song he heard an old woman singing. Yeats' words have been recorded as a song by many performers.
- The song "A Bad Dream" by Keane is based on the poem "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death".
- "Those Dancing Days Are Gone" and "Before the World Was Made" are both performed by Carla Bruni on the album "No Promises".
- "Song Of Wandering Aengus" was performed by Donovan, Judy Collins, Chris Thompson and many more.
- Loreena McKennitt has set two Yeats poems to music:
- "Stolen Child" (Also set to music by The Waterboys, although mostly spoken)
- "The Two Trees"
- "The Song of a Wandering Aengus" is set to music by Caroline Herring.
- '5 Songs on Poems by W.B.Yeats' composed by Dutch composer Carolien Devilee (A Faery Song, He wishes for the clothes of heaven, The lake isle of Innisfree, To his heart, bidding it have no fear & The everlasting voices)
- "Tread Softly" by Tiny Ruins, uses the words of "The Cloths of Heaven" by Yeats.
- "He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven" by North Sea Radio Orchestra sets Yeats' poem of the same title to music.
- The album "Branduardi Canta Yeats" features the works of Yeats performed by Angelo Branduardi in Italian
- "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is set to music by composer Muriel Herbert.
Odysseas Elytis
- "The Blood of Love"