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Poetry has been defined as “words that want to break into song.” Musicians who make music seek to “say something”. Parlando will put spoken words (often, but not always, poetry) and music (different kinds, limited only by the abilities of the performing participants) together. The resulting performances will be short, 2 to 10 minutes in length. The podcast will present them un-adorned. How much variety can we find in this combination? Listen to a few episodes and see. At least at first, the ...
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A podcast documenting a group of Bolivar High School students' journey to discovering true authority in a world of competing voices. Hoping to better understand their essential question "What is power?" these seniors spend a semester hosting Q&A discussions with a variety of guest speakers. Cover art photo provided by Devin Avery on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@officialdavery
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Pioneering Canadian poet Bliss Carman included this fantastic prose poem in his breakthrough 1894 collection "Songs from Vagabondia." Is it the slightly intoxicated wonder-talk of two tipsy young men, or the account of two angels playing with the universe? That Carman seems to have designed that blurring makes for an interesting 19th century SciFi …
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Pioneering Canadian poet Bliss Carman's break-through collection was called Songs of Vagabondia, a popular 1894 book which extoled the adventurous and sensuous life. In this selection he jauntingly compares Robert Burns and Robert Browning. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in different styles…
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Ancient Greek poet Sappho's poetry survives in fragments and spaces, but in 1904 a Canadian poet imagined Sappho's poems as if they were complete. The audacity of that project undertaken by Bliss Carman must be conceded, but the results can be judged on their own merits. The Greeks said that Sappho's poems were sung with lyre music, and the Parland…
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August 6th is the 8th anniversary of the launch of the Parlando Project — but it is also the 23rd anniversary of my late wife's death and Hiroshima Day. The Parlando Project is largely about performing other people's words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in various styles, but for this August observance I used a poem I myself wrote abo…
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Not sure it's advice only useful for young women, but a savvy poem of love's boundaries none the less. The Parlando Project takes various words (usually literary poetry) and combines them with original music. We've done over 750 such combinations and you can find more at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org…
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Sara Teasdale with a short heartbreak poem I've set to music and sung. That's what the Parlando Project does: we take various words (usually literary poetry) and combine them with original music in differing styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and they're available at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org…
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An Edna St. Vincent Millay sonnet of youth and aging is turned into a song, which is the thing the Parlando Project does. We take various words (usually literary poetry) and combine them with original music. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can find them at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org…
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It's a poem, but in it Robison Jeffers wants to deliver a speech about political speech. I may not agree with Jeffers aims at the moment he wrote his poem, but I can feel the frustration he speaks of. You might too. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in various styles. We've done over 750 of th…
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Emily Dickinson's in a goth mood again, but she makes such things sound lovely, so we sing her poem of everlasting nature and non-everlasting life today. Not just Dickinson, but that's what the Parlando Project does: takes various words (usually literary poetry) and combines them with original music. We've got over 750 such combinations in our arch…
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The Guitar after a poem by Federico García Lorca
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I made my own English translation of from Lorca's Spanish poem "La Guitarra" and performed this with my own simple guitar accompaniment. That's what the Parlando Project does: combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music. We've done over 750 of these combinations over the past 8 years. You can find more at our blog and archi…
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Today's musical setting is Carl Sandburg's short ambiguous poem about a strong-dreaming woman. The reader is left to decide, why the poem's Chick Lorimer is gone. Has she left with her flags flying high? Or is the poem's seeming praise of many lovers and her uninhibited nature hiding a more complex relationship with the town? As a singing performer…
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For Juneteenth, a song from the 1860s written by George F. Root, a white songwriter, depicting an enslaved mother sending her child to the Union lines alone for freedom. I revised Root's melody a bit and performed it for today's holiday. The Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry) and usually combines them with original music.…
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Goth Emily Dickinson again, with a poem about what stirs the sharpness of our attention now turned into a song. The Parlando Project combines words (usually literary poetry) with original music in various styles. You can find more than 750 of these combinations at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org…
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Williams melds birdsong, rain, and dawn into one instantaneous thing. I turned his poem into a short musical performance.By Frank Hudson for the Parlando Project
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American poet Emily Dickinson's enigmatic short Spring poem performed with new music as a Spring song. For more than 750 other combinations of various words (usually literary poetry) with original music visit our blog and archives located at frankhudson.orgBy Frank Hudson for the Parlando Project
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Your presenter with an acoustic guitar galloping through Emily Dickinson's exhortation of Spring today.By Frank Hudson for the Parlando Project
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Robert Frost tells a little tale of nature and gardening for May. Being that it's Frost, there's a sharp observation woven into the story about man and nature. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can hear them and read more …
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John Sinclair writes 2 poems of Thelonious Monk
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John Sinclair (who died during this National Poetry Month) did a lot of things in his life, generating so many stances and actions that I suspect no one can agree with all of it. But one thing he did throughout his life was write Jazz Poetry, and so for International Jazz Day this year I thought I'd seek out and perform a couple of his poems. The P…
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Rose Fyleman wrote charming and popular children's poems in the early 20th century, like this one. I set her poem for performance in a jaunty rock'n'roll trio as I approach the end of my National Poetry Month look-back at poems aimed at children in the first half of the 20th century. The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poet…
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I continue to examine poems from a pair of books of verse meant for the children who grew up to become "The Greatest Generation." This one's not a sunny day holiday for the kids: Matthew Arnold's at the beach, he puts a seashell to his ear, and hears....the future, or perhaps time itself, and it's harrowing. The Parlando Project takes various words…
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A short Spring poem with a famous ending couplet that seems to be about contentment -- and after all, I found it inside a 1922 book of verse for children I'm looking at for National Poetry Month. In the context of the longer work Browning placed it in, it may not be that simple, but I perform it today as if it was. The Parlando Project combines var…
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For National Poetry Month this year I've been looking at poems from a pair of 1920s books of verse for children. Today's selection is a charming poem by Robert Louis Stevenson performed with an electric folk-rock band. The Parlando Project does this, takes words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with original music. We've done over 750 of …
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Hills: Children's poetry, but written by a child
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To observe this National Poetry Month I've been diving into a pair of poetry anthologies for children published in the 1922/1923. One poet included in them was an unusual case: Hilda Conkling, a child herself. That this grade-schooler was composing poems that often seemed to share Imagism's approaches intrigued some Modernists. Here's one of her po…
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Sarojini Naidu's poem of stalwart Bengali fishermen asked to be sung, so I sang it. The author may have had a melody in mind, as she published this in a section of her poetry she called "Folk Songs." Naidu began as a promising poet ("The Nightengale of India") but left verse to for work for women's suffrage and Indian independence. The Parlando Pro…
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William Wordsworth's well-known sonnet performed, as the word sonnet means, as a little song. Within the next 24 hour or so, I hope to have more to say about what you may have overlooked in this short poem on the Parlando Project's blog (see below). We've got a lot at the blog celebrating poetry and National Poetry Month. The Parlando Project combi…
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For National Poetry Month this year I'm looking at and performing poems found in a pair of 1920s anthologies of verse for children. The Girls of Verse and The Boys Book of Verse. Though "The Minstrel Boy" was included within books of poetry, this poem by Irish poet Thomas Moore was quicky adapted as a song and is best known as such today. Which sav…
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Today I read a summary of poet Mary Oliver's approach by poet and critic A. M. Juster. He concluded: "I also think her spirit wanted to write religious poetry, but her mind wouldn't let her." Lo & behold I was working this week on a singable version of this 1906 poem that I found in a collection of verse for children published in the 1920s that I'm…
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We're celebrating National Poetry Month with musical presentations of poems taken from a gendered pair of 100-year-old anthologies published as The Girls and The Boys Book of Verse. Today's is John Masefield's famous poem of seafaring. The Parlando Project takes words (usually literary poetry) and combines them with original music we write and perf…
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We continue our National Poetry Month feature examination of a pair of century-old children's poetry anthologies with this famous invocation of book-fed imagination. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done over 700 of these things, and you can listen to them and find …
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My feature this National Poetry Month is going to be examination of two 1920's poetry anthologies, one for girls and one for boys. This William Blake poem invoking childhood visions bringing joy was in the opening section of the girl's volume and it seems like an apt poem to set to music and lead off our celebration this month. The Parlando Project…
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Emmy Hemmings is a forgotten Dada artist, launching the famous Cabaret Voltaire during WWI as am organizer, performer and poet -- yet no one translated her poetry from German until this century. I just got done doing a somewhat free translation of one of her poems, and since Hennings was a performer, it seems fitting to present her work here in the…
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Here's a poem for March, for Spring, and for Easter now turned into a song, The words were written about a hundred years ago by a largely forgotten Midwestern American poet Edwin Ford Piper. This month I wrote music for Piper's words, and today's piece is taken from a demo session where I recorded the freshly made song. The Parlando Project does st…
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Poet Carl Sandburg goes gothic-graveyard for this poem about Love & Death. I decided to accompany my performance of it with some new music in my "punk orchestral" style, which means it's short, not-to-fancy, and uses whatever virtual orchestral instruments I can figure out something for them play. The Parlando Project takes various words (usually l…
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Here's a playful and mysterious Emily Dickinson poem for World Poetry Day. The Parlando Project enlists The LYL Band in this one to create a full-band folk-rock song out of Dickinson's poem. The Parlando Project has done that sort of thing for several years, taking words (usually literary poetry) and combining them with music in different styles. W…
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I remind myself today that I sometimes write lyrics, so here's a piece that features my own words and music. What the Parlando Project usually does is combine other people's words (usually literary poetry) with the variety of original music we compose and make. You can hear over 700 examples of that at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.o…
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William Carlos Williams' Spring poem reminds us that it's never too late to sing. I had to cancel a more pristine time in a recording space this week but produced this quick & dirty version of this song using Williams' words instead. Spring itself, has a way of being quick & dirty -- and I'll remind you of the musicians' and composers' prayer: "May…
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Edwin Ford Piper is an early 20th century Midwestern American poet who's largely been forgotten. I've only started to read him this week, but this poem captured me immediately and I had to perform it with music, Parlando style. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done …
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Poet Dave Moore's song about when "Follow your dream" or "Do what you love..." meets up with reality. Here's the cool thing about this piece: it's not a put-down. I play on it with The LYL Band, and I think the song applies to me. One of the Parlando Project's mottos is "All Artists Fail." You have to accept that and do what you choose to do anyway…
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Black Chicago poet Fenton Johnson published these two free-verse poetic portraits in Others magazine in 1919, gaining him some notice as an Afro-American who was working in the avant-garde forms of Modernism. I performed his two poems with a rock band accompaniment for today's example of what the Parlando Project does: combining various words (most…
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Pioneering Black Chicago Poet Fenton Johnson termed this poem a literary spiritual in his 1915 collection Visions of the Dark. I read it as predecessor to later Gospel songwriting, and so set it to music for this spare solo performance with just acoustic guitar and voice. This is one example of what the Parlando Project does. We explore various wor…
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Bonus Track: Mistah Witch as a simulated worn 78 RPM record
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BONUS TRACK Black Chicago poet Fenton Johnson was using Blues Language as early as his 1913 poetry collection "A Little Dreaming." That could make this poem an early example of a literary page poet using Blues Language. Just for fun I decided to create one of our rare Parlando Bonus Tracks. This version has been made to sound like an old, somewhat …
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Even in 1913, Black Chicago poet Fenton Johnson was already using Blues-language in his literary poetry. In this poem he printed in dialect from his first book-length poetry collection "A Little Dreaming" Johnson may be encoding a message not every listener will understand. There will be a discussion of that and more than 700 other combinations of …
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Early 20th Century Afro-American poet Fenton Johnson again shows his range with this Celtic dark fantasy poem that I've turned into a song. That "turned into a song" is something the Parlando Project does. We've created over 700 combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in various styles. You can find them at our bl…
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Early 20th Century Black Chicago poet Fenton Johnson's dream poem references Virgil's "The Aeneid." I've turned it into a song as part of my month-long celebration of this lesser-known Midwestern poet who preceded the Harlem Renaissance. That's what the Parlando Project does: it takes other peoples words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them w…
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In 1906, Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first Afro-American poet to receive substantial notice, died, only 33 years old. Only a few years later in 1913, a 24 year old Black poet from Chicago, Fenton Johnson, publishes his first poetry collection which in which he pays tribute to Dunbar as he tries to pick up the standard from the fallen Dunbar. I've mad…
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American poet Robert Frost assiduously read the book of nature even when the pages were blank. Here's a beautiful short poem that looks out on a wintery night and sees a blank whiteness. I've made the poem into a song accompanied by acoustic guitar. The Parlando Project takes words, usually other people's words, usually literary page poetry, and co…
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At least on the face of it, this short Emily Dickinson poem asks for a lifetime of experience all at once, all its grief and joy. As I understood it while creating this performance with original music, she weighs grief and joy as Taoist components. My music today for this has a touch of a slowcore approach. but I was also thinking of John Lee Hooke…
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Goethe's short lyric poem in German wanders into this short folksong arrangement via an English translation by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that I slightly modified for this song performance with my music for 12-string guitar, bass, and piano.By Frank Hudson for the Parlando Project
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Here's song version of a Paul Lawrence Dunbar's poem. Dunbar is often reckoned the first successful Afro-American poet, and this poem, now song, shows how Dunbar wrote both of the Afro-American experience and universal themes within his poetry.By Frank Hudson for the Parlando Project
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To not be scared of death that doesn't understand us
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This is a winter sonnet I wrote portraying my thoughts of the mortal illness of another poet Robert Okaji while I, an old man, am bike riding though some winter crows. For the first Parlando piece of this year, I declaimed this with a rock band behind my reading. For more than 700 other examples of various words (usually someone else's', usually li…
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