A while ago, my friend Tasoulla Christou, asked if she could set one of my poems to music. Tasoulla is a very talented musician and was studying advanced composition at The Royal College of Music after obtaining degrees in composition from University of London and Middlesex. She was preparing a collection of her work and was looking to write a song for mezzo soprano and piano. You can imagine how thrilled and honoured I was. Time passed, as it does, and then suddenly a package fell through my door slot. It was a cd called “Anthologia,” filled with beautiful pieces composed by my friend, compositions for a wide range of instrumentation from solo violin to solo flute to string quartet to trios. And smack in the middle is a piece performed by Rosie Aldridge (mezzo soprano) and Hara Kostogianni (piano) called “Dreams of May.”
The liner notes explain that the lyrics are from my poetry play, “Dreams of May,” and are actually the words of the poem entitled “Curving Road” which is then printed in full (as it happens I posted the poem two years ago on my blog here). The notes continue to explain:
The mood of the poem is in three parts – Dark, Bright and Dark. I have chosen a post-romantic style and harmonies, which I hope capture these moods in the music.
The song starts in the minor mode at a slower tempo to express the despondent feelings of the woman. Gradually, the music accelerates and bursts out into major and happy mode as the words of the poem change from dark to positive…This section is the longest of the three. The third section falls back into the bleak mood of the beginning and ends up in loneliness and despair.
You can imagine how thrilled and honoured I am to have my work transformed in this way. Thanks to Tasoulla, my poem has found a new life and a new audience. It’s quite a humbling feeling and a wonderful reminder, when so much of my writing life is concerned with the crap-shoot of getting published, just why I do all this in the first place. You can hear an excerpt if you like here.
Wow! How very exciting. I shall go and listen immediately.
This is lovely news, Sue – so exciting! I’m deep into lyric writing at the moment – contributing to my namesake, Sue Richardson’s, new jazz CD – so it was great to read your post.
How cool! And I really like the extract too!
Gosh, Sue, how really marvellous. Many congratulations, me dear.
That’s lovely! Congrats Sue.
Groovy!
This sounds like great fun and very satisfying.
I am stunned. That is amazing. You must be so so thrilled. Well done.
Thanks all! xo
And Susan: how fabulous that you’re doing this! When do we get to hear some?
How absolutely wonderful! A true artistic collaboration, and you hear your work in an entirely new way. Lovely!