Sometimes whether the music drowns out the verbal subtlety of the poem (that's been set to music) depends on the singer. I have several recordings of the Vaughan-Williams song cycle On Wenlock Edge taken from Housman. My least favorite is the one where the tenor (I won't mention his name) just sort of belts it out, as if admiring his own vocal richness and power. My favorite is by Ian Partridge, where he used a thinner voice for the ghost in "Is My Team Ploughing" than for the rest of the song (and by the way, I'm with V-W that the poem was improved by leaving out one stanza). So it's not all the composer's fault. And maybe I just like poems set to music, but for instance I love the Peter Schickele setting of Cummings's "All in Green Went My Love Riding". Sometimes, one particular aspect of the poem is underlined by a musical setting (thinking now of Hamilton Camp's version of Yeats's Innisfree poem, which is quite melancholy). I too, am bothered when I read liner notes that proclaim, say, Neil Young "the leading poet of our times" or some such. Much as I like ol' Neil when I'm in the mood for him. I also think that in our society it's a much higher compliment to be compared to a poet than to be called one, e.g. a true poet among garbage collectors, and the "star-maker machinery" (to quote Joni Mitchell) especially applies this to pop singers, such that we're often surprised to see how weak some lyrics are when divorced from their music.
I do admire many lyrics of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, and others. At their best, they can stand alone. Annette Peacock comes to mind here as well, but I don't have any of her lyrics written out. Just recalling them from the music now.
And by the way, some musical settings are just good for a laugh. Thinking now of Thomas Rapp's country-western setting of part of Shakespeare's Sonnet #65.
Well, enough rant. I realize I'm straying from the thread's intent, but I wanted to lend additional support to Janet, not that she needed any.
[This message has been edited by Mark Blaeuer (edited January 25, 2005).]
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