Setting a pre-written poem to music

Hey guys,

I've decided I want to have a little go at some vocal music, and so thought I would have a go at creating a song/lied for piano and voice. I want to use the poem by Lord Byron as follows (I figured it had a fairly regular metre and a nice flow so thought it may be fairly easy to do?):

WHEN we two parted

In silence and tears,

Half broken-hearted

To sever for years,

Pale grew thy cheek and cold, 5

Colder thy kiss;

Truly that hour foretold

Sorrow to this.

The dew of the morning

Sunk chill on my brow

Morivou offers his services as a YC Exclusive teacher here on the site. If he's taking anymore students for lessons, you should sign up. He specializes in vocal music. He's great.

Hey thanks for the speedy reply :)

Yeah I've seen him on here and had a look at his lessons, but I'm quite busy with essays and university applications so I don't really want to take up anyones time with lessons if I may not be on the site for periods at a time or have to do any exercises for a deadline. I'm curious if there are any general techniques for simply making the words work if you see what I mean?

Thanks again,

Oscar

What have you got so far? It sounds like you want to make sure the text matches the overall feeling and emotion of the piece and thats good. Just dont try and make the melody do it alone. The other parts are there for a reason.

Differant chord types create differant moods and feelings. A few of them include:

-Major chords = Happy, calming

-Major ninth chords = Warm, deep and rich

-Diminished and seventh chords = excitment and anticipation (due to their natural resolving movements that follow)

-Chords with prominant half step dissonences = creepy and unnerving

Just experiment, there are a ton more than that. Use the sound of the chord to make the audience feel the words they are hearing. Hope that helps somewhat, good luck!

Hey thanks for the response :)

I hadn't thought of using major ninths so thanks for that idea :)

The main help I'm looking for isnt in my harmony, but actually finding a melody that fits the words and sounds correct when sung? I think it has something to do with unstressed and stressed sylables and the beats in the bar... but I'm really not sure...

Thanks again :D

Oscar

Your not going to get much text painting out of the melody itself.

As far as stressed sylables are concerned its exactly the same as when you speak. The sylables you emphasize when you say it are the sylables that need to fall ON the beat when you sing it (1st beat is naturally strongest followed by 3rd (in 4/4) then 2nd, then 4th).

ie, "WHEN we two PARted

in SILence and TEARS

half BROken HEARTed

to SEVer for YEARS"

The capitalized sylables need to fall ON the beat. The stronger the emphasis on the sylable the stronger the beat it should fall on. There are ways around this, but this is almost always the case. It makes the the music flow better and actually makes it easier to sing. Hope that helps. Good luck!

Your not going to get much text painting out of the melody itself.

This is subjective and debatable. I can sometimes get the BEST text painting from just one word and three notes. ;)

SPEAKING of Text. Your poem, it's nice! I think I was going to set some Byron stuff... and then never got around to it. The thing you wanna do (THIS COULD TAKE TIME) is try recording yourself SPEAKING the poem. Try and make it sound as conversational as possible. Then, do a second recording with you reading it as DRAMATIC as possible.

The reason? Well, in order for you to make poems that AREN'T yours TRULLLY your own, you have to first: let the poem speak for itself (the reading JUST as a conversation), and second: making the emotions come through (the dramatic recording). If you do these both, you will not only find perfect words stress, but you will start to get a handle on the pacing and the musical ideas. You might find yourself trying to sing a melody during a recording... this is GOOD! You should sing it.. even if you don't sing.

Now. Once you have figured out the basic ideas... you should jot down KEY phrases in the piece. Find motifs, or.. MAKE motifs. Repeat words (there's nothing that says you can't), build melismas, do whatever you want to it... GO CRAZY. The more creative you are, the better. At this point, you should have a general "emotional" and "tempo" feel for the song. You can now start setting it by just reading it silently while playing your accompaniment. You will find that after spending a few days with your music, you will have been more emotionally (and therefore: musically) connected to the poem. It can sometimes almost be a spiritual thing.

Another suggestion: Just start singing a melody to the words until you find one you like... that's the easy way out, but some of my most simple and beautiful stuff is things I just spurt out of my mouth. That is more for if you are short on time. Just make sure you jot it down.

OH, and you are right... your poem is VERY easy to set cause it follows a strict pattern... which, don't be afraid to break. Patterns lull people into complacency, which shouldn't be done in vocal music unless for a purpose because people stop listening to the same thing over and over. It's different with Orchestral music because people listen for continuity and they like the tune. Most vocal music has a slightly different hearing process... it's all very philosophical etc... whatevs. It's also not important. Just know that you should NEVER repeat the same thing more than 3 times in exactly the same way. ;)

If you have any other questions... or it utterly fails, PM me and I will do a more One on One approach. :D (or... you don't have to. It's whatever, dude).

This is subjective and debatable. I can sometimes get the BEST text painting from just one word and three notes. ;)

I didnt say its imossible, just that its difficult to make clear. Harmonic text painting is usually much more descriptive.

Hey guys thanks for the replies

@pianoman216 - thank you! This was a basic principle I've been struggling with quite getting my head around until your post! Thank you again for your harmonic advice - I was having a play around today and can really see what you mean :thumbsup:

@Morivou - Thank you to you too! I love Byron's poems but I was apprehensive about giving it a go for a first attempt in case I messed it up, but in light of what you've said about connecting with the words you've spurred me on to give it a shot :). I'm going to give both your methods a shot - I already have the opening material for the accompaniment jotted down and I know vaguely my structure - so I'll act on your tips and hopefully soon I will have my own thread in the vocal section of this forum :cool: Thank you for the PM invitation - If I get stuck I'll be sure to send you one (from what I've seen on this sight over the last 18 months you're the resident vocal deity :D )

Thanks again guys I'll be sure to give you updates,

Oscar

I didnt say its imossible, just that its difficult to make clear. Harmonic text painting is usually much more descriptive.

Ok. I see what you mean. But, let's not forget about rhythmic text painting, cause that's almost just as important to harmonic.

Ok. I see what you mean. But, let's not forget about rhythmic text painting, cause that's almost just as important to harmonic.

VERY true. Varied rhythms can change the feel and emotion of the piece significantly. Its not quite as straight forward as harmonic painting, but definately has its benifits.

Hola

I had the same sorts of problems earlier when i tried to set a choral piece to music. Byron is deceptive to write music to. Just because it has a straight forward metre doesn't mean shyte.

One thing I do definitely recommend is read the poem aloud. Then get a bunch of other people to read it to you. Remember poems are like plays-they're not meant to be read, they are meant to be recited (but that's just me).

Hope this helps good luck

Thank you for the replies :)

So far I have the piano introduction and half the first stanza written down, although I do have plans for my overall structure and harmonic direction :)

I've tried to be adventurous so we shall see if it pays off - I would attach the score however I am very bad at idiomatic piano writing unless I hand write it, so I will type up the complete thing and post it on the forum when done.

Thank you for your replies; I look forward to your opinions when I finish :)

Oscar