Thoreau - Poems in Song
Sometime in the 1970's, after reading Walden and The Maine Woods, I discovered a book of poems by H. D. Thoreau. Much to my surprise, Thoreau had been quite a poet and had written many poems from 1839 through 1942. Although he was published, he wasn't all that successful and by the late 1850's he abandoned poetry to focus on his prose.
One of the poems, entitled The Voyager's Song, gave me the obvious idea to put this poem to music. Once that was finished, I wrote some more and ended up with about 10 songs. A few of these songs were released on previous CDs, but I have decided to finish this project. Here is what I have right now.
I finally got a chance to listen to these Thoreau songs. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I really like your folky-acousticky stuff like this, and just can't get over what a great, clear, clean mix you get. Very, very nice work! - Robert Arconti
| Voyager's Song |
This was the first Thoreau poem that I put to music and is my favorite song. Apparently, the basis of this poem is a Spanish ballad, translated in Percy's Reliques. Another possible influence was Thomas Moore's A Canadian Boat Song. |
| Brother |
Thoreau's brother John died in 1842 at the age of 27 of lockjaw, tetanus that he had gotten from shaving. This poem is perhaps one of Thoreau's most moving pieces. The original poem was entitled Brother where dost thou dwell. I had to arrange this poem to make the lyrics work. I also used some alternate verses that were included in earlier drafts. |
| The Darkest Night | This is my favorite poem, probably because it is the most autobiographical of all the poem/songs. It is reportedly about Thoreau's troubled love for Ellen Sewall to whom he proposed in 1841 and was turned down. |
| Love | I was immediately attracted to this poem, with it's simple message and cosmological images. This was also one of the first pieces of music that I wrote in an alternative guitar tuning (open D). |
| A Winter and Spring Scene | This poem captures the transition of winter to spring in the Northeast better than anything I've ever read. The poem itself is rather long, so I had to "trim" it down to make it fit into song verse. The original poem can be viewed here Original Poem. |
| The Eagle's Wing | This poem is called My Love Must Be as Free but I liked the image of the eagle's wing so I choose that title of the song. I really like Thoreau how expresses his views on love through the metaphors in this poem. |