{"id":4535,"date":"2011-08-01T00:10:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T05:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/nashvillereview\/?p=4535"},"modified":"2015-03-25T13:59:14","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T19:59:14","slug":"my-true-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/4535","title":{"rendered":"Jim Clark"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>My True-Love<\/h6>\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-4535-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-wordpress-0\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2011\/08\/19123309\/My-True-Love-1.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-wordpress-0\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2011\/08\/19123309\/My-True-Love-1.mp3\">https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-wordpress-0\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2011\/08\/19123309\/My-True-Love-1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<h6>Saying Goodbye<\/h6>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-4535-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-wordpress-0\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2011\/08\/19123309\/Saying-Goodbye.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-wordpress-0\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2011\/08\/19123309\/Saying-Goodbye.mp3\">https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-wordpress-0\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2011\/08\/19123309\/Saying-Goodbye.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<h6><a href=\"\/nashvillereview\/archives\/4418\">Jim Clark<\/a><\/h6>\n<p> is the Elizabeth H. Jordan Professor of Southern Literature and Chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages at Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina. \u201cMy True-Love\u201d is a poem by Byron Herbert Reece set to music composed by Jim Clark. \u201cSaying Goodbye\u201d is an original poem composed and recited by Jim Clark.<em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong> Interviewer: What initially motivated your decision to add musical accompaniment to the poetic line and do you believe this alters or changes the original rhythm of the verse? Because the verse in \u201cMy True-Love\u201d was already written did it hold more influence over the shape of the melody, versus a song where the lyrics and melody can adjust to one another more symbiotically?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Clark: In regard to the whole project of setting Byron Herbert Reece\u2019s poems to music which culminated in the CD <em>The Service of Song<\/em>, the initial motivation was a question from my friend and former colleague at the University of Georgia, poet Coleman Barks.\u00a0 On behalf of someone else, he was looking for musical settings of Reece\u2019s poems, and asked me if I had ever set any of them to music.\u00a0 That set me to wondering why I had not, so I tried one, and ultimately ended up with twelve.\u00a0 Now, regarding this specific poem, \u201cMy True-Love,\u201d the musical accompaniment was inspired by what seemed to me the overall \u201cRenaissance\u201d feel of the poem.\u00a0 Of course the phrase \u201cmy true-love\u201d is often found in Renaissance poems, and the imagery in the early lines of the poem also seems straight out of the Renaissance sonneteer\u2019s repertoire.\u00a0 In fact, when my co-producer Phil Valera first heard my crude demo of this song, he remarked, \u201cI hear recorders.\u201d\u00a0 We did ultimately end up with John Wright\u2019s duet recorders on the track as a dominant motif, as well as Terry Phillips\u2019 \u201clute-like\u201d lead guitar figures, my autoharp (standing in for a harpsichord, I think), and an acoustic bass.\u00a0 However, the imagery later in the poem takes on a more modern and conflicted cast.\u00a0 Ultimately, the poem reminds me somewhat of a Leonard Cohen lyric, or perhaps even of the poem \u201cLove Song: I and Thou,\u201d by Alan Dugan, which similarly ends with a metaphor of crucifixion.\u00a0 Katy Adams\u2019 high, \u201cangelic\u201d harmonies were inspired by the production on some of Leonard Cohen\u2019s songs.\u00a0 It initially concerned me that there are only two chords in the whole song \u2013 D minor and C \u2013 and that there are only verses and no chorus.\u00a0 I was afraid that might be too repetitive, too static.\u00a0 But my general practice in setting Reece\u2019s poems to music was to trust my instinct, and then get feedback from professional musicians whose opinions I valued later.\u00a0 In most cases, my instincts proved trustworthy.\u00a0 I personally think this poem represents a successful wedding of words and musical arrangement.\u00a0 The music to me seems very much in keeping with the rhythm and the tenor of the words.\u00a0 Most of Reece\u2019s poems are metrically formal, and I think that helped a lot.\u00a0 My feeling during the process of composing the music was often that the music seemed to be already embedded, or latent, within the poem; I just teased it out.\u00a0 So yes, I\u2019d say that the pre-existing text shaped the melody considerably.<\/p>\n<p><strong> Interviewer: It seems in some ways that the difference between poetry and song could be one of presentation. Does this sound like an accurate assertion? Is it possible to distill what is the most common through line of a song versus a poem in regard to what makes them unique art forms?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Clark: As someone who is both a poet and a musician, I\u2019ve thought about this a lot.\u00a0 I do think the presentation is an important, perhaps a crucial, element.\u00a0 Poems are written so that they contain and make their own verbal music.\u00a0 They are typically not written, in most cases, with an eye toward being set to actual music at some point.\u00a0 Songs, on the other hand, are definitely written with music in mind.\u00a0 In most cases, I think it\u2019s useful to maintain a distinction between song lyrics and poems, though it\u2019s fairly common to treat certain serious songwriters\u2019 lyrics as poems in anthologies and in classrooms these days.\u00a0 Usually, though, when you take away the music of a song and just regard the lyrics, it\u2019s clear that something is missing.\u00a0 The lyrics by themselves are simply not as powerful or as aesthetically pleasing as the lyrics when heard in conjunction with the music.\u00a0 It\u2019s a tricky business, making such distinctions, but for example I consider Leonard Cohen a poet, even though most people think of him as a songwriter, whereas I tend not to think of Paul Simon, as marvelous a songwriter as he is, as a poet.\u00a0 People always ask about Bob Dylan, whose music and words I love.\u00a0 About him, I suppose I\u2019d say I do think of him, in some ways, as a sort of \u201cpost Beat\u201d poet, as well as a songwriter.\u00a0 Back to Reece\u2019s poems, when I was trying to decide which poems of his to set to music, some of them, both lyrics and ballads, seemed to offer themselves as very clear and obvious candidates, while others, just as clearly, seemed inappropriate or unworkable.\u00a0 I think even those poems probably could have been set to music, in a clever \u201cmusical theatre\u201d or \u201cart song\u201d sort of style, but not as organic folk songs, which is what I was looking to do.\u00a0 So I suppose musical genre, or style, factors into the equation, too.\u00a0 I have also heard musical settings of poems about which I\u2019ve said to myself, \u201cWell, that\u2019s interesting, but I don\u2019t think it works.\u201d \u2014<em>Rebecca Bernard<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My True-Love Saying Goodbye Jim Clark is the Elizabeth H. Jordan Professor of Southern Literature and Chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages at Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina. \u201cMy True-Love\u201d is a poem by Byron Herbert Reece set to music composed by Jim Clark. \u201cSaying Goodbye\u201d is an original poem composed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[32],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-1b9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4535"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11602,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4535\/revisions\/11602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}