I chose Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare as inspiration to my composition. In the beginning, I started off with a dark tone, reflecting the initial negativity of the sonnet: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun". I then changed the mood with a computer-synthesized loop, establishing a more upbeat and cheerful tone. This loop reflects the change in word choice and how although Shakespeare is still somewhat belittling his mistress, he admits, "I love to hear her speak". Finally, I finished the composition with part of Minuet on the piano and a pastoral loop, reflecting the words, "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare." Shakespeare states that although his mistress is flawed, he loves her so, ending the sonnet on a hopeful and happy tone which I tried to convey through my composition.
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I chose the poem “Fog” by Carl Sandburg. I tried to represent the mood of the poem through my piece. The poem starts out by saying that the fog comes on “little cat feet.” I took this to mean that the fog comes rapidly and and then moves along the city slowly later as if assessing it. So, the beginning of my peace starts ominously but has eight quick, rapid harmony along with a long, deeper in tone melody. The next part of the poem talks about how the fog ends up looking over the city and then moves on. I developed the same theme from earlier and added some French horn to add a ray of hope above the deep dark bass part. I then added a bit of flute to add some light, innocent tones to the piece. The piece then goes back to strings and section A repeats. It ends with a tonic chord, where it started, just like in the poem the fog comes into the town and then goes out at the end of the poem, ending up where it started. To make the piece, I used an electronic keyboard and GarageBand. I played tunes on the keyboard and transformed them into different instruments using GarageBand.
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For the poem Fog, I immediately pictured someone looking out at the city from the harbor at night. To translate this image into a song, I decided to use softer and more jazzy sounds that I associate with a cityscape. Some things I used were saxophone loops, bell loops, and piano loops. I kept the song very simple and soft to match the image in my head.
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My poetry composition was inspired by the poem "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein. I happen to be a really big fan of Silverstein's poems just because I grew up reading them, which is why I chose it. The poem is pretty happy and relaxed for the first verse but then takes a sudden, dark and twisted turn, conveying a sad mood. I tried to translate this to my composition with an upbeat beginning and much slower bridge in the middle. I include mostly major triads with a steady, allegro drum beat and a catchy bass line in the background, and then for the slow part I included a very slow drum beat with some mellow strings and a minor piano melody. I ended the composition with the upbeat intro because although the poem conveys a slightly sorrowful mood, it also sounded brave to me because the children keep walking.
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For my composition I used the poem The Panther by Rainer Maria Rilke. I mainly focused on the final stanza but incorporated the idea of bars in the first stanza through a repeated metallic beat throughout. I chose to use an organ for the melody because it reminded me of a circus tune. The beginning is the anticipation before the curtains lift and a the lift of the curtain. Then there is a measure of silence as the world stops before the world rushes in for the last section at a faster background beat like a heart-beat.
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The poem I chose was "The Panther". I wanted to make my composition sound like the words of the poem, but did not want to make it sound like song lyrics. I decided to make the beginning soft, hopeless, and sad, just like how the panther was depicted as being in the first stanza. In the second stanza the panther acts and sounds frantic, pacing everywhere. I recreated this by adding a bass line which sounded to me like someone pacing back and forth. Finally, in the last stanza, the panther imagines people entering into its cage. I created this by adding harsh violin and cello sounds, with some symbols as well.
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For my project, I picked the poem Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shell Silverstein. The poem itself evoked a sad, but hopeful mood in me when I first read it. In my composition, I also attempted to evoke this particular mood for the audience. I started the song off slowly for the first half and then changed the mood of the song by making the tempo faster and louder. I also incorporated a variety of loops to help transition the listener from one section of the song to the other. I used instruments such as the guitar, piano, and violin to build up my music and convey the poem's message in a meaningful way.
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