Voice to Voice Match Up

We have heard from all six composers about which of the 60 submissions they will turn into artsong original musical pieces.

Two composers committed to doing three songs. Another person is tackling two. Most of the composers are each doing one. This means we have 11 poems that will become artsongs.

Composer Brian Topp has accepted the challenge of doing the collaborative poem we wrote in class – this means ALL OF US will share the experience of watching our words become song.

All the composers mentioned how strong the 60 submissions are and how difficult it was to choose. Strange factors go into choosing a text: it could be the topic is new/old to the composer, the length, the sound of the words, something that reminded them of something else, the fact that they read the text while listening to music or over breakfast, and/or a range of factors beyond our control- who knows?

One thing is certain: the texts that will become art song are not BETTER or WORSE poems than the ones that will stay as text.

All 60 submissions to the composers will be published as texts in our book Voice to Voice this spring. We have already been invited to do readings from it. And we will continue generating more material before our final book deadline in March.

Here are the pairings. The writer’s name is first, then the title, then the composer.

I’m sorry we couldn’t set all 60 pieces.

d.n. simmers, Rainstorm, Michael Ducharme

Ruth Dato, The Soundtrack, Lucas Oickle

Jan Tse, Soundscape, Brian Topp

Ghia Aweida, The Soundtrack of Genocide, Brian Topp

Thursdays Writing Collective, Drop the Beat, Brian Topp

Erol Almelek, Sounding in Silence, Martin Ritter

Gilles Cyrenne, Trout Lake Park, Christiaan Venter

Donna Dykeman – It’s Late, Gene Emerson

Graham Cunningham – Hear Me, Gene Emerson

Joan Morelli, Small Can be Beautiful, Gene Emerson

Henry Doyle, Fuck the Poets, Lucas Oickle