This discussion explores the links between music and poetry and how much each art form contributes to the other, as well as what common features these art forms share. Common foundations include public performance and private listening, abstract patterns, rhythm, register, tone, breathing and the emergence of tight form from apparently limitless possibility. But music and poetry are partially distinct in the imaginative light they shine, and the panel also discuss how successfully the two art forms complement one another in some of the greatest unions of music and poetry from Homer’s Iliad to Schubert’s Lieder and Britten’s War Requiem.
Ian Bostridge (@Ianbostridge) is a tenor and Humanitas Professor of Classical Music at the University of Oxford. Ian’s international recital career has won wide acclaim for his performances as an opera and lieder singer. He is author of A Singer’s Notebook and Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession.
Armand D’Angour (@ArmandDAngour) is a Fellow in Classical Literature at Jesus College, Oxford. Initially trained as a cellist before taking a PhD in Classics, Armand is currently working on a project to bring to life the sounds and effects of ancient Greek music. He is author of The Greeks and the New.
Fiona Sampson is a poet and Professor of Poetry at Roehampton. Initially trained as a concert violinist, Fiona has published some 25 books of poetry, criticism and philosophy of language. Her most recent volume of poetry is Coleshill and she is author of Music Lessons and the forthcoming Lyric Cousins: Poetry and Musical Form.
Richard Bronk is a Visiting Fellow in the European Institute, LSE and author of The Romantic Economist.
This event forms part of the LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2015, taking place from Monday 23 - Saturday 28 February 2015, with the theme 'Foundations'.
Podcast
A podcast of this event is available to download from Music and Poetry: common foundations
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