The Poem Dear March, Come In - Essay Example

Using Musical Elements To Analyse The Poem, “Dear March, Come In!” With Relation To the Song, “Dream Variations” Introduction The poem, “Dear March, Come In!” is a simple piece by a person who loves the month of March so much that he/she has been waiting for it year long. Perhaps due to the events taking place on the month or the season, the author is extremely delighted when the month finally arrives. The author shows excitement at the arrival of the month, warmly welcoming the month home. The author expresses his joy just as he would have to a long lost friend or a person he has missed in a long time. This paper is an analysis of the poem, “Dear March, Come In!” in a musical setting. It will explain the choices made in order to place the song in a musical setting. It will then compare the poem with a recorded version of the song, “Dream Variations” and finally draw conclusions on whether there were any effects of the recorded version of the song to the poem. Part I: Poem Analysis in a Musical Setting The poem, “Dear March, Come In!” is a cheerful song, one in which the author expresses joy and happiness in the arrival of the month of March. In the poem, the speaker, while expressing his joy to the arrival of March, uses different expressions and words to explain his feelings. In a musical setting, I would use the through-composed form of music in order to express these feelings of the speaker. Since through-composed form contains different music for every stanza, and the poem has different ideas and mixed feelings in the various stanzas, then, this would be the best way to go about the song. In a musical setting, using the correct singers, combined with the right instruments is the best way of creating the best record song. In a musical setting, due to the high range of the poem, I would use singers with a high range of voice, signifying the mood of the song, which is cheerful. As the song starts, I would use baritone, which is the voice falling between tenor and bass. Coupling this with tenor, which is the highest male voice, I would get a good combination expressing the speaker’s feelings in the song. The entire sing would then have a rich tenor. However, there would be the harmony in the singer’s voices in the last stanza. These, combined with the piano, a saxophone and a violin would blend well enough to make a great piece. While creating a musical setting of the poem, I would use a number of musical elements in order to get the right combination and come up with a great piece. Texture in a song, often regarded as the density, thickness, range, or width between the lowest and the highest pitches, determines the relationship between the various voices in a particular song (Stein 64). A song texture comprises of the monophony, homophony or polyphony. While monophony describes a clear text setting, polyphony describes a less clear setting. Since the poem, “Dear March, Come In!” has a clear text setting, I would use monophony in the first and second stanzas, but later switch briefly to homophony at the beginning of the third stanza to the line, “As soon as you have come”, but pick up homophony from the line, “That blame is just as dear as praise.” Tone in a song describes the system or the language of music, describing the hierarchical relationship between the pitch, based on the key centre. Tone in a song could be either happy or sad (Rumery web). In a musical setting of the poem, “Dear March, Come In”, there are tonal variations in the verses, as the singer expresses his emotions to March. At the beginning, the author indicates a cheerful tone, one that shows delight and the happiness of the singer, in celebration of March. However, after the stay and April knocks on the door, the author shows reluctance in opening the door. This shows some of sadness, after realizing that match is about to leave. Analysis and Comparison After listening to the recorded version of the song, it is possible to draw a number of conclusions. The mood in a text represented by the choice of words used by the author is similar to the mood portrayed by the singers in the recorded version of the song. Thus, two texts having a similar mood and expressing similar feelings will have the same kind of performances and recording. Similar moods require same voices and instruments in order to express the exact feelings in the song. There is thus little difference between the text and the recorded version of the song. It is possible to determine the pitch and the notes in a song through textual analysis of a song or a poem. In most cases, there are minimal differences between the two, if the composer of the recorded version strictly followed the same script without any form of alterations. Even before a composer embarks in composing a song in the actual recorded form, he/she has a well-crafted idea of what to incorporate in the song and what to avoid (Rose 151). Subsequently, different singers, by analysing closely related songs, will have closely related ideas. While listening to the song, most of the decisions I had made of the musical setting of the poem remained (Stein 64). Due to the comparison in the tonal variations in the song, there was no difference whatsoever. The singer chose high-pitched voices in the song, which compared to my already high-pitched male voices. Therefore, there was no significant change in the interpreted version of the song that I had developed. However, I had to decide on the choice of the instruments used in the song. i realized that the piano and the trumpet would stay, but I had to change the violin, as it would have made the song rather slow. With the high tempo of the song, a violin was not a good choice. After listening to the song, I realized that I could have incorporated tremble in the song, to make it livelier, just like song. To do this, I should in corporate tempo in the musical setting of the song. As I realized, a cheerful song having a high tremble was more interesting to listen to than one that did not incorporate any tremble. Describing the slowness of the fastness of a song, and the ability to dance to the music, tempo could be either meditative or exciting (Surmani et al. 29). When excited, the tempo of a song rises, while meditative, the tempo of a song becomes slow. In the song, “Dear March, Come In”, the singer will have a high tempo as he has an excited mood. This will however not change throughout the song. Conclusion Although the difference between a song and a poem is the composition, where a song has instruments, elements that are absent in a poem, in their textual nature, both compare in many ways. Whenever analysing a poem in a musical setting, the mood of the singer in the song in most cases determines the kind of voices to incorporate in the song as well as the instruments. Music expresses the feelings of a person. Thus, a happy person will have cheerful moods, which when expressed in a song, will have a fast tempo, a high tone and a smooth texture. Works Cited Rose, Marilyn G. Translation Spetrum: Essays an Theory and Practice. Albany, 1981. Print. Rumery R., Kenneth "Analysis of Melodic Contour, Continuity, and Skeleton" Composer's Tools An Interactive Idea List. Web. 25 November 25, 2013 http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~krr2/mel_anal.html Stein, Deborah J. Poetry into Song: Performance and Analysis of Lieder. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print. Surmani, Andrew, Karen F. Surmani, and Morton Manus. Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory: Lessons, Ear Training, Workbook. Van Nuys, Calif: Alfred Pub. Co, 1998. Print. Read More