What the Thunder Said Part 4 and completing our performance of “The Waste Land”

April 24, 2021April 24, 2021 ~ Frank Hudson ~ Leave a comment

During this project’s first April #NationalPoetryMonth back in 2017 I started what has become a 5-year serialized performance of the entirety of T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” And here we are today, finally completing that portion of our Parlando Project. Why “The Waste Land?” for this lengthy each-April presentation? Several reasons. Like a number … Continue reading What the Thunder Said Part 4 and completing our performance of “The Waste Land”

Mystery Baseball

April 9, 2021April 9, 2021 ~ Frank Hudson ~ Leave a comment

OK, you’ve come to the place were music and words meet, and where the blogger never tires of drawing subliminal connections. While writing yesterday’s post about the start of the baseball season, I began to think of American poet Phillip Dacey. Dacey grew up in T. S. Eliot’s hometown of St. Louis, though a few … Continue reading Mystery Baseball

Dusk in Autumn

October 21, 2022October 21, 2022 ~ Frank Hudson ~ 2 Comments

I risked taking the charm and playfulness out of Emily Dickinson’s ghost poem last time by trying to puzzle out exactly what she saw. I won’t risk that today. This next poem in our Halloween series was written by a poet, Sara Teasdale, who wrote some complex adult love poems — but with this one … Continue reading Dusk in Autumn

Death by Water

April 27, 2020April 27, 2020 ~ Frank Hudson ~ 3 Comments

Long-time readers here will know that the Parlando Project has been performing a section of T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” each year to celebrate National Poetry Month.* It’s been a major task, and if one were to listen to all those past sections, you’d get a fair sample of the variety of original music … Continue reading Death by Water

She’s so unusual: "The Trees are Down” for National Poetry Month

April 29, 2022May 1, 2022 ~ Frank Hudson ~ Leave a comment

Americans know little of English poet Charlotte Mew, who wrote today’s poem during “the last Twenties,” but her poetry shows some unusual qualities, particularly for her time.* For example, this poem starts off off-hand and rises at its end to hearing an angel — so beginning like a reserved Frank O’Hara and ending as if … Continue reading She’s so unusual: "The Trees are Down” for National Poetry Month

Teasdale’s Morning

April 5, 2020April 5, 2020 ~ Frank Hudson ~ Leave a comment

It’s easy to figure T. S. Eliot as an English poet—after all, while his “Waste Land” spans history and cultures, its landscape is distinctly English and European—but he grew up in St. Louis Missouri, a middle-of-America river town. I promised you a different poem by a St. Louis poet last time, and so now we … Continue reading Teasdale’s Morning

Her Lips are Copper Wire for National Poetry Month

April 20, 2022April 20, 2022 ~ Frank Hudson ~ Leave a comment

Even with its most popular and well-known poems, poetry works, works its impact, one reader, one listener, at a time. Doing this project leads me to read a lot of poems. I’ll go through whole collections, entire anthologies, looking for things that I suspect I can create music for. That sense, “This could work with … Continue reading Her Lips are Copper Wire for National Poetry Month

Sappho’s Old Age (Rimbaud version)

June 9, 2021June 9, 2021 ~ Frank Hudson ~ Leave a comment

The ancient Greek poet Sappho is one of the oldest poetic voices we have record of. Like the Greek epic poet Homer, her work likely predates written literature and was originally intended to be sung. How much more do we know about her? Almost nothing for sure — or even by likelihood. As with Homer … Continue reading Sappho’s Old Age (Rimbaud version)

Soul Selector Blues for National Poetry Month

April 12, 2022April 12, 2022 ~ Frank Hudson ~ Leave a comment

Just suppose that back in the 1920s someone wanted to record a Blues song based on Emily Dickinson’s “A Soul selects her own Society,” and so they waxed a 78 rpm platter at Paramount records “New York Recording Laboratories,” located back then in, well, Wisconsin.* If they did, it might sound a little like this. … Continue reading Soul Selector Blues for National Poetry Month

Why Now, Vocalissimus

September 12, 2021September 12, 2021 ~ Frank Hudson ~ 2 Comments

Today’s piece uses a very short poem I wrote in immediate reaction to some sad news I heard this weekend. Despite that news’ immediacy and particular sadness, the poem that resulted became something else, and I’m not sure why, even as I was writing it, revising it, and then figuring out today’s music and performing … Continue reading Why Now, Vocalissimus

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Frank Hudson

The Parlando Project – Where Music and Words Meet

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