From Poetry to Music: Listening Reflectively to "In Flanders Fields"
Like any other art form, the essence of poetry lies in its interaction with the human consciousness. A poem on paper is simply words on a page; a poem becomes art when it is read – when we engage with the connections and meanings that lie within the printed page.
The act of reading a poem is a performance. And like any other performance, each act of reading that poem results in a unique presentation and a unique interpretation. On the next occasion you experience “in Flanders Fields” being performed – either by you reading it silently or out loud, or by hearing it read by someone else – take notice of the distinctive qualities of that performance. Which words are stressed, drawn out, enunciated with particular articulation? Do the lines flow quickly or slowly from one to the next, fluidly or with pauses? Is the poem’s interior rhyme scheme and rhythm emphasized or downplayed? Does it speed up or slow down, grow louder or softer? Does your ear – or eye – linger upon a particular word or phrase?
Then, as you reflect upon all these performative qualities, ask yourself the most difficult question to answer: how do all the subtle nuances of this unique performance combine to influence your interpretation of the poem?
Under the hands of musicians, a poem becomes a malleable medium that can be re-imagined and transformed. Like the reader, the composer can emphasize and articulate, shaping the text to coax out the meanings that lie buried between the literal lines. In turn, the musical performer can further emphasize and articulate, becoming an additional hand that guides the composer’s re-working of the text. Musical nuances can convey an idea with extra weight, or conversely, soften a line that otherwise might invite forceful delivery. The musical score acts as a fresh canvas: brushing on colour, blurring lines, stretching, shaping, and even adding details until what results is a new work of art in its own right.
The enigmatic power of a poem set to music is its ability to elicit a unique response each time it is by performed and by each listener who chooses to hear it.
Compositional Elements
Like any other art form, the essence of poetry lies in its interaction with the human consciousness. A poem on paper is simply words printed on a page; a poem becomes art when it is read – when we engage with the connections and meanings that lie within the words.
The act of reading a poem is a performance. And like any other performance, each act of reading that poem results in a unique presentation and a unique interpretation. On the next occasion you experience “in Flanders Fields” being performed – either by you reading it silently or out loud, or by hearing it read by someone else – take notice of the distinctive qualities of that performance. Which words are stressed, drawn out, enunciated with particular articulation? Do the lines flow quickly or slowly from one to the next, fluidly or with pauses? Is the poem’s interior rhyme scheme and rhythm emphasized or downplayed? Does it speed up or slow down, grow louder or softer? Does your ear – or eye – linger upon a particular word or phrase?
Then, as you reflect upon all these performative qualities, ask yourself the most difficult question to answer: how do all the subtle nuances of this unique performance combine to influence your interpretation of the poem?
Under the hands of musicians, a poem becomes a malleable medium that can be re-imagined and transformed. Like the reader, the composer can emphasize and articulate words, shaping the text to coax out the meanings that lie buried between the literal lines. In turn, the musical performer can further emphasize and articulate, becoming an additional hand that guides the composer’s re-working of the text. Musical nuances can convey an idea with extra weight, or conversely, soften a line that otherwise might invite forceful delivery. The musical score acts as a fresh canvas: brushing on colour, blurring lines, stretching, shaping, and even adding details until what results is a new work of art in its own right.
The enigmatic power of a poem set to music is its ability to elicit a unique response each time it is by performed and by each listener who chooses to hear it.
Form refers to the way a work of music is structured through the presentation of new musical materials and/or patterns of repetition. For example, think of some popular Christmas carols, such as “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” or “Deck the Halls”, or folk tunes such as “Greensleeves”. These songs have a strophic form: each verse of the text is sung to exactly the same lines of music (or, in other words, there is a single musical strophe that is repeated with each poetic stanza). A song that is in a modified strophic form also sets each poetic verse to mostly the same musical material, but – as the name implies – with modifications. For instance, one of the stanzas might open with a new musical idea before transitioning back into the familiar melody that is used for the other verses. ABA (or ternary) form is another commonly used structure, especially for texts with three stanzas. In an ABA form, the first and last stanzas are set to the same (or a very similar) musical material – hence why they’re labelled with the same letter – while the middle verse is set apart with a new, sometimes distinctly contrasting strophe. When a musical work has little to no repetition and it becomes difficult to recognize patterns or recurring material across verses, its form is referred to as through-composed. A composer can use the musical form to make connections across verses, to suggest similarities between poetic ideas, or conversely, to set a line of text as standing apart.
Text-setting refers to the relationship between poetic syllables and musical notes. For instance, take the Christmas carol “Ding, Dong Merrily on High”: at the opening, each syllable of text is matched to just one musical note (or pitch); then when the chorus begins, the opening syllable of the word “Gloria” (i.e., “glo-“) unfolds over a series of many musical notes. The text-setting at the opening – one note per syllable is termed syllabic while the text-setting at the chorus – several (or many) notes per syllable) is referred to as melismatic. Switching between text-setting styles can be a way to place emphasis on certain words or lines of text.
Metre refers to the recurrence of “stressed” (i.e., slight emphasis) syllables or beats. Speech or music is considered metrical when those “stresses” occur predictably at regular intervals, and unmetrical when there is no discernible pattern. For example, if you sing “Happy Birthday” – tapping your foot to the beat as you do – you’ll notice a little stress occurs every 3 beats. This song is thus in triple metre. When we speak conversationally, our speech inevitably has stresses but these happen irregularly; poetry, on the other hand, often has a metre (e.g., iambic pentameter). In rhymed poetry, the rhyme scheme creates a regular pulse or pattern of stresses. A performer, though, can change or subvert a poem’s internal metre by adding their own stresses. For instance, try reading the opening of “In Flanders Fields” as follows by stressing the bold text, speaking each syllable at the same speed:
In Flan-ders Fields the pop-pies grow be-tween the cross-es row on row
This performance (which is how the poem is often read by children!) is in a duple metre, with stresses occurring every two syllables/beats. Next, try this unmetered performance of “In Flanders Fields”, again reading the syllables at the same speed but noticing how the stresses occur irregularly:
In Flan-ders Fields the pop-pies grow be-tween the cross-es row on row
Another characteristic you might note (and which is found in numerous “In Flanders Fields” settings) is changing metres, which is when there are recognizable patterns, but these occasionally change (e.g., the overall triple metre is occasionally “interrupted” by a bar or two in duple metre). When a poem does have a regular metre, a musical setting can enforce that regular sense of pulse with a matching musical metre. Or, it can subvert the poetic metre by overlaying a musical metre with a different pulse pattern. By varying the words’ rhythm, a musical setting can also put a poem with an irregular metre into a regular metre. Changing musical metres is another way to accommodate a poem – like “In Flanders Fields” – that doesn’t have an entirely regular metre or perfectly equal line lengths.
Rhythm is a tricky term to define, but ultimately refers to the comparative length of notes/syllables. For example, take the words “In Flan-ders Fields”, which have a combined total of 4 syllables. How many different rhythms can you create? You could say them all equal lengths, you could say the first fast and the others slowly, you could say the first slowly and the others fast, and so on – there are many possibilities! When we speak, we rarely give each syllable equal value, but often draw some syllables out and move others along faster. A musical setting can subvert the spoken rhythm of a text by placing it in a different musical rhythm. A declamatory rhythm is when the musical rhythm mimics how that word or phrase would likely sound when spoken. A rhythmic pattern occurs when the same musical rhythm recurs for different passages of text. (For an excellent example, listen to Stephen Chatman’s “In Flanders Fields” setting – the entire piece, which is in triple metre, is based on a single rhythmic pattern.)
Tempo refers to the speed at which the music moves. The tempo can remain consistent throughout an entire piece, or it might speed up or slow down. Tempo changes can happen suddenly (i.e., verse two begins faster or slower) or gradually (i.e., the middle of a verse might speed up – accelerando – or the end of a verse might slow down – ritardando).