The poems of Jane Hirshfield that I chose for Words Cast Shadows all had a common thread in how my inner musical ear responded: a straightforward setting driven by the words. There is the obvious aspect of how word stress and flow influence rhythm, long / short notes and melodic curve. But also they seemed (to me) to want a straightforward presentation, with little word or phrase repetition. Unlike some of my other vocal music, which fragments words into phonemes that assume their own life, the non-word sung and spoken sounds are merely a halo around the poems, much like the frame that holds a painting.
As always, though, I believe it important to capture the overall mood and flow of a poem, in addition to the meaning and images presented in the words. For Sheep, I zeroed in on the sound of a bell, from the lovely last line of the poem. For A Blessing for Wedding, the vibrancy of the language and the a-bunch-of-things-happening suggested a faster tempo. For When Your Life Looks Back, my use of solo voices against a background of “n” sounds was a way of reflecting the italicized text of the second stanza. These are a few examples of my musical response to the whole poem, beyond the individual lines.
I have set Jane’s poetry before, and I must acknowledge her graciousness in granting permission to do so again. All of these poems are from her 2011 collection Come, Thief. I highly recommend it, or any of her books.