Mark,
I can't resist telling you that I sang with Ian Partridge once, or beside him anyway. He was the marvellous Evangelist in Bach's St Matthew Passion and I was the alto.
Katy, in theory of course you are correct about the self-sufficiency of poetry but I know so many songs where the accompaniment alone--let alone the vocal line--illuminates the essence and nuances of the poem. I honestly don't think it's possible to generalise.
What worries me most about many people's idea of song is a loss of a sense of the possibilities of the human voice. They seem positively embarrassed by a voice which does more than speak.
I remember hearing an interview with De Los Angeles who talked almost entirely about her love of poetry. I have always been fascinated by the apparent barrier between music and poetry. It wasn't always the case.
We all want to write a poem that is so complete any musical interference would interrupt and lessen it.
Sometimes the music raises even a great poem to greater heights. Most often in a successful song a good poem is realised and shown in a new but not destructive light. Debussy is one of those. Schubert another.
Janet
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