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Mutual Inspiration

Mutual Inspiration

The next two cases present examples of works inspired by the sister art – music written as reaction to poetry and vice-versa. Well-known examples include the entire genre of program music – with pieces such as Vivaldi's The Four Seasons or Liszt's Mazeppa – where a literary text provides the guideline for a musical composition.

But the relationship between the "inspiring" and the "inspired" can be much more multifaceted than it appears. Paul Blackburn's "Listening to Sonny Rollins at the Five Spot" and Annie Fields's "Andante" take the memory of a musical experience to a new level of metaphorical meaning. The inspiration can work at the level of form, as in the Henry Dumas poem on display, which imitates the typical structure of the musical blues.

The "inspired" can remain in close conjunction with its source of inspiration, but also take on a life on its own. Conceived as incidental music for Shakespeare's play, Mendelssohn's A Midsummer's Night Dream is now often performed as an independent concert piece. Few listeners (or performers) of Liszts "Dante" Sonata are aware of its complex genesis. Two very different but related poems – the Divina Commedia and Victor Hugo's "After a reading of Dante" – inspired it at various creative stages, establishing a circular relationship among the three works.

Annie Adams Fields. "Andante." Columbia Granger's World of Poetry Online. 2008. Columbia University Press. 18 Feb 2008.

Fields (1834-1915) is best known for her influence and writings on the literary and cultural milieu of her day. However, she saw herself as a poet and published continuously (often anonymously) throughout her lifetime. Several of her poems refer to music or musical events, such as this one evoking the emotions occasioned by listening to Beethoven's 6th symphony.

Paul Blackburn. "Listening to Sonny Rollins at the Five Spot", The Music Lover's Poetry Anthology. New York: Persea Books, c2007.

Francis Wolff photographic postcard. Sonny Rollins, Sonny Rollins Volume II Session, Hackensack New Jersey, April 14, 1957.
[Personal Collection of the Chicago Jazz Archive Curator.]

Here, jazz photographer Francis Wolff's image of Sonny Rollins and Paul Blackburn's poetic homage to Rollins' signature saxophone style combine to provide a visual representation of the work of jazz's Saxophone Colossus. Like a Rollins solo, Blackburn's poem introduces themes in sentences, then improvises on individual words ("someone", "another") just as Rollins states themes from the song upon which he will improvise, then reduces the song to its basic elements and discourses upon them. Music and poetry become one.

Sun Ra Arkestra Live at the Pit-Inn Tokyo Japan 8.8.1988.

Sun Ra's music and poetry were informed by a mix of Ancient Egyptian history and the post-Sputnik era. The collision of these influences in his stage shows, which featured bright costumes and a jazz band as expert with electronic music as with straight-ahead jazz, proved influential for a generation of jazz musicians.

Stephen Longstreet. Drawing and poem, "Jazz at Carnegie Hall." In Jazz Solos: Poems and Images, Joseph Regenstein Library and the University of Chicago Press, 1991. Ltd Ed of 1,000 copies for private circulation only.
[John Steiner Papers, Chicago Jazz Archive]

Stephen Longstreet, poet and artist, was also a jazz fan. Possessed of a keen eye, a steady hand, and a rapier wit, he haunted the dives, clubs, and – eventually – the concert halls, where jazz lived from its beginnings until his death in 2002. Here, he contrasts jazz's humble beginnings with the home of classical music, the Symphony crowd in their boxes and main floor seats with the less wealthy jazz fans up in the gallery. Longstreet's sketches, paintings, and poetry can be found in the Special Collections Research Center in Regenstein Library.

Franz Liszt. "Après une lecture de Dante," Années de pélerinage. In Sämtliche Werke. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1974.

"Après une lecture de Dante." Autograph changes of the title. Sharon Winklhofer. "Liszt, Marie d'Agoult, and the "Dante" Sonata," 19th Century Music I/1 1977, pp. 15-32.

Dante Alighieri. La Divina commedia. Firenze: Borghi, 1827

Victor Hugo. "Après une lecture de Dante." Les Voix intérieures. Paris: Hachette, 1879.

Liszt and Marie d'Agoult in 1839. Luciano Chiappari. In Liszt a Firenze, Pisa e Lucca. Pisa: Pacini, 1989.

During his travels across Italy with his companion Marie d'Agoult (1837-39), Franz Liszt sketched a piano piece inspired by Dante's Divina commedia The two lovers – fascinated by Italian culture – had been reading and discussing the poem, possibly using a pocket edition such as the one on display here, published in Florence in 1827. Only ten years later did Liszt decide to publish the piece as part of his Années de pélerinage. He changed the title several times, finally setteling for "Après une lecture de Dante" ("After a Reading of Dante"). The definitive title was inspired by a poem by Victor Hugo, which reflects on the meaning of the Commedia as an allegory of life itself.