Here I take inspiration from a late, short poem by Emily Dickinson and redo it as a bottleneck-slide guitar Blues. My sense of her original gnomic poem was that Dickinson was writing of Autumn's end of the growing season with the knowledge that this close of a yearly cycle is a phase that will be followed by another Summer. The Parlando Project presents various words (usually literary poetry) combined with original music in differing styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations. You can read more about our experience with the poems and hear all the musical pieces at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org
Once more in this late September series, I turn a mysterious Emily Dickinson poem into a song. This one accompanied with a sparce trio of 12-string guitar, tambura, and viola. The Parlando Project has done over 750 of these new musical combinations of various words (usually literary poetry) with music we compose and record. You can find more of them and more about the experience of creating them at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org
I'm celebrating Emily Dickinson this week, and this is a poem, extraordinary even for her, the tragic story of a faithful gun. Since this is the Parlando Project I took Dickinson's poem and turned into a strange little song. That's what the Project does and has done over 750 times. We take various words (usually literary poetry) and combine them with original music in differing styles. You can read about the experience or hear all the audio pieces at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org
Another Emily Dickinson setting where my music seeks to bring out the strangeness that sits in-between some of her poems' lines. This lesser-known Dickinson poem might be paired with her "Because I could not stop for Death." She's singing here before the carriage arrives. For more than 750 other combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.org
I'm planning a short series of Emily Dickinson poems combined with a variety of original music as I look forward to spending next week attending (online) a number of events in the Emily Dickinson Museum's Tell It Slant festival. Today's example is a musical setting for acoustic steel-string guitar of a poem portraying a day's sunset viewed in an intimate female world. The Parlando Project has over 750 such combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) combined with different music in different ways. You can read more about the experience of doing this and hear all the musical pieces at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org
Each year on September 18th I do something to commemorate composer and guitarist Jimi Hendrix. This year I set this famous short poem by classical Chinese poet Li Bai. Later this morning I'll post more about thoughts on how this poet and that musician might fit together. This just one example of what the Parlando Project does: we combine various words (mostly literary poetry) with music in different styles and then write about the experience of that at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org
The Parlando Project is less often able to present the live rock band performances that it started out with, but here's a little piece from one of those performances, one telling about the aftermath of a large hail and high-wind storm that struck in August of 2023. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations and you can hear them all and read more about our experience with the poems at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org
Late 19th century American poet Richard Hovey translated many French Symbolist poems; but this sonnet, published in a posthumous collection, is apparently Hovey's own work in French under the title "Au Seuil." Hovey's poem considers dying and the possibility of a judgement and afterlife. I translated Hovey's French into English for this musical performance. The Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with original music in different styles. This is the 775th one we've published, and you can hear them all and read about our encounters with the poems at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org
Here's a short love poem by written for the 1894 Songs From Vagabondia by Richard Hovey. This book found favor with young men in its day for eschewing moral uplift and earnest toil to write instead of wine, women, and joyful travels. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can hear them and read more about this at our blog and archives at frankhudson.org
Labor Day weekend in America is often the occasion for end of Summer activities. In this poem from the 1894 Songs from Vagabondia, poet Richard Hovey rows down a river in Maine connecting a lake and ponds. What does he find? The sense that Summer feels like a dream. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've released over 750 of these combinations. You can hear any of them and read more about our experience with the poems at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org
Pioneering Canadian poet Bliss Carman included this fantastic prose poem in his breakthrough 1894 collection "Songs from Vagabondia." Is it the slightly intoxicated wonder-talk of two tipsy young men, or the account of two angels playing with the universe? That Carman seems to have designed that blurring makes for an interesting 19th century SciFi vignette which I perform today. The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can find them at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org
Pioneering Canadian poet Bliss Carman's break-through collection was called Songs of Vagabondia, a popular 1894 book which extoled the adventurous and sensuous life. In this selection he jauntingly compares Robert Burns and Robert Browning. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can find more at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org
Ancient Greek poet Sappho's poetry survives in fragments and spaces, but in 1904 a Canadian poet imagined Sappho's poems as if they were complete. The audacity of that project undertaken by Bliss Carman must be conceded, but the results can be judged on their own merits. The Greeks said that Sappho's poems were sung with lyre music, and the Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with original music we create. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can find all of them and what we write about our encounters with the work at our blog and archives, located at frankhudson.org
August 6th is the 8th anniversary of the launch of the Parlando Project — but it is also the 23rd anniversary of my late wife's death and Hiroshima Day. The Parlando Project is largely about performing other people's words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in various styles, but for this August observance I used a poem I myself wrote about grief and have now turned into a song. The Parlando Project blog and archives is where I write about my encounters with the words combined with music. There are more than 750 examples there. You can find them at frankhudson.org
Not sure it's advice only useful for young women, but a savvy poem of love's boundaries none the less. The Parlando Project takes various words (usually literary poetry) and combines them with original music. We've done over 750 such combinations and you can find more at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org
Sara Teasdale with a short heartbreak poem I've set to music and sung. That's what the Parlando Project does: we take various words (usually literary poetry) and combine them with original music in differing styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and they're available at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org
An Edna St. Vincent Millay sonnet of youth and aging is turned into a song, which is the thing the Parlando Project does. We take various words (usually literary poetry) and combine them with original music. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can find them at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org
It's a poem, but in it Robison Jeffers wants to deliver a speech about political speech. I may not agree with Jeffers aims at the moment he wrote his poem, but I can feel the frustration he speaks of. You might too. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in various styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, so if you'd like to read or hear more, go to our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org
Emily Dickinson's in a goth mood again, but she makes such things sound lovely, so we sing her poem of everlasting nature and non-everlasting life today. Not just Dickinson, but that's what the Parlando Project does: takes various words (usually literary poetry) and combines them with original music. We've got over 750 such combinations in our archives available at frankhudson.org
I made my own English translation of from Lorca's Spanish poem "La Guitarra" and performed this with my own simple guitar accompaniment. That's what the Parlando Project does: combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music. We've done over 750 of these combinations over the past 8 years. You can find more at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org