Songs I-IX by Stuart Saunders Smith, performed by Karlyn Mason
- Duration: 8:37
- Updated: 25 Nov 2013
Recorded Live on April 5, 2013
Performer's Notes:
"A few years ago, I heard a radio interview on NPR with former Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Pinsky, and he spoke of his poetry in a way that has never left me. I think to fully appreciate and experience his poems, one must hear them read aloud. Beyond the meaning of the words themselves, Pinsky's verse is deeply rooted in the percussive and musical sounds that the syllables create. In the interview, Pinsky spoke of reading complicated manuals and other texts on subjects that he didn't understand, because he just really loved to hear the combinations of sounds and articulations created by the arrangement of the letters, and without meaning attached to the words, could enjoy that more.
This is one of the things that I think about when I perform Stuart Smith's Songs I-IX. There are certainly combinations of words and phrases that make no concrete or tangible sense. And that's okay -- even more, that is part of the point. Throughout this piece, it is the skillfully crafted sonic interplay between the text and percussion writing that gives this piece its affect and dramatic elements, far more than it is the literal meaning of the text." --KRM
http://wn.com/Songs_I-IX_by_Stuart_Saunders_Smith,_performed_by_Karlyn_Mason
Recorded Live on April 5, 2013
Performer's Notes:
"A few years ago, I heard a radio interview on NPR with former Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Pinsky, and he spoke of his poetry in a way that has never left me. I think to fully appreciate and experience his poems, one must hear them read aloud. Beyond the meaning of the words themselves, Pinsky's verse is deeply rooted in the percussive and musical sounds that the syllables create. In the interview, Pinsky spoke of reading complicated manuals and other texts on subjects that he didn't understand, because he just really loved to hear the combinations of sounds and articulations created by the arrangement of the letters, and without meaning attached to the words, could enjoy that more.
This is one of the things that I think about when I perform Stuart Smith's Songs I-IX. There are certainly combinations of words and phrases that make no concrete or tangible sense. And that's okay -- even more, that is part of the point. Throughout this piece, it is the skillfully crafted sonic interplay between the text and percussion writing that gives this piece its affect and dramatic elements, far more than it is the literal meaning of the text." --KRM
- published: 25 Nov 2013
- views: 41