Some Thoughts on a Song or Two

I thought I'd write a song or two, so I tried, and tried again. It seemed like a perfectly natural thing for a young composer to do. Everyone else was doing it, so why couldn't I? But nothing worked, it felt wrong, it sounded bad, awkward, self-conscious, pretentious, even ugly. Was I just incompetent or was it that my musical frame of mind was antithetical to the task. Since I couldn't accept the former conclusion, and it was too late to change my major, I trudged on assuming the latter. On the other hand I fundamentally believed, and still do, that voice, speech and music are inextricably intertwined, and, as a result, have spent much time and effort during the past twenty years experimenting with ways to use voices in musical contexts. What follows are some observations on this trek. With 20/20 hindsight, it appears that my musical world-view with respect to speech and poetry entails the following beliefs: