Good Monday morning all! What a beautiful weekend
we’ve had . . . inspiring!
I wanted to share some thoughts about our project for Wednesday, which, as a reminder, is simply to read poems “with effect.” Meaning? What I have in mind is to try getting outside our individual voices, to hear ourselves literally, and to recite poems quite literally in a different voice or different voices. So I guess this challenge calls for a little more explanation . . .
What is “voice”?
When we speak of voice in a poem, do we mean the “speaker”? Do we mean “persona”? Or do we mean the breath that forms sounds (varying air pressures) that enter the acoustic meatus, vibrate the drum, then circle the cochlea, igniting electrical impulses that send signals to the brain, which then converts the sounds to intelligence and emotion? Ha! I think “voice” means all these things. And each one—speaker, persona, breath—is changeable, just like a line ending or an image in a poem; that is, voice is a choice. When we write poems, we adopt (or try) to adopt a certain voice—the “authentic” voice we think of as our true selves, the dramatic voice, the comic voice, the “poetic” voice, the lyrical voice, and so on.
Reading vs. reciting vs. singing
When poets read aloud, that is, when we “breathe out” a poem, we adopt either a stentorian voice (what I am about to impart is Wisdom) or a kind of neutral voice. That neutral tone is our “reading” as opposed to our declaiming or recitative voice. Even less do we sing a poem. And when you stop to think about it, since poems originally were songs and made to be sung (lyre is the root of lyric), it’s oddly prosaic that we merely “speak” poems. Recitation, in opera, is an intoned speaking part. That is, it is language or lines issued not in song but also not merely as the drone of standard speech. It’s something in between these extremes. And this may be what we’re after on Wednesday, a kind of operatic delivery that observes or even accentuates pauses, silences, consonantal sounds, nasals, labials and so forth that are present in a line of poetry. Still, it’s possible to sing a poem, even one that isn’t necessarily set to an identifiable melody. To me, the difference between singing a line of poetry and reciting it operatically is just one of degree.
Voice, sound and meaning
I believe that reading a poem aloud affects not just how it sounds but how it means. When I read a poem silently, I use a voice, to be sure, but it is my Reader’s Voice, which as I say, is relatively neutral sonically and emotionally. One thing I’ve learned or re-learned when working on poems for Program for Jazz is how giving voice to a poem—literally—can influence my understanding of it. I often try different voices, rhythms, timbers, resonances, articulations when reciting or singing a poem, just to experience the different ways the content can be understood.
For Wednesday
I recommend the following for this Wednesday’s session . . .
See you on Wednesday!
I wanted to share some thoughts about our project for Wednesday, which, as a reminder, is simply to read poems “with effect.” Meaning? What I have in mind is to try getting outside our individual voices, to hear ourselves literally, and to recite poems quite literally in a different voice or different voices. So I guess this challenge calls for a little more explanation . . .
What is “voice”?
When we speak of voice in a poem, do we mean the “speaker”? Do we mean “persona”? Or do we mean the breath that forms sounds (varying air pressures) that enter the acoustic meatus, vibrate the drum, then circle the cochlea, igniting electrical impulses that send signals to the brain, which then converts the sounds to intelligence and emotion? Ha! I think “voice” means all these things. And each one—speaker, persona, breath—is changeable, just like a line ending or an image in a poem; that is, voice is a choice. When we write poems, we adopt (or try) to adopt a certain voice—the “authentic” voice we think of as our true selves, the dramatic voice, the comic voice, the “poetic” voice, the lyrical voice, and so on.
Reading vs. reciting vs. singing
When poets read aloud, that is, when we “breathe out” a poem, we adopt either a stentorian voice (what I am about to impart is Wisdom) or a kind of neutral voice. That neutral tone is our “reading” as opposed to our declaiming or recitative voice. Even less do we sing a poem. And when you stop to think about it, since poems originally were songs and made to be sung (lyre is the root of lyric), it’s oddly prosaic that we merely “speak” poems. Recitation, in opera, is an intoned speaking part. That is, it is language or lines issued not in song but also not merely as the drone of standard speech. It’s something in between these extremes. And this may be what we’re after on Wednesday, a kind of operatic delivery that observes or even accentuates pauses, silences, consonantal sounds, nasals, labials and so forth that are present in a line of poetry. Still, it’s possible to sing a poem, even one that isn’t necessarily set to an identifiable melody. To me, the difference between singing a line of poetry and reciting it operatically is just one of degree.
Voice, sound and meaning
I believe that reading a poem aloud affects not just how it sounds but how it means. When I read a poem silently, I use a voice, to be sure, but it is my Reader’s Voice, which as I say, is relatively neutral sonically and emotionally. One thing I’ve learned or re-learned when working on poems for Program for Jazz is how giving voice to a poem—literally—can influence my understanding of it. I often try different voices, rhythms, timbers, resonances, articulations when reciting or singing a poem, just to experience the different ways the content can be understood.
For Wednesday
I recommend the following for this Wednesday’s session . . .
- Go through a number of your own AND others’ poems and try reading them aloud, just to get a feeling for how they each might be “mouthed.”
- Select the ones that seem most receptive to different styles rhythmically, tonally, etc. and try different tempos with these examples.
- Choose two poems that seem to you to call for different styles of delivery aloud and spend some time with each . . . Varying tempo, pitch, intonation, “force,” articulation (even mumbling a line can be an option!); in front of a mirror, watch yourself as you recite/sing.
- If you’re especially brave or curious, try recording yourself. You will find how much recording affects delivery, how much more conscientious you are about how you say the poem!
- Bring two poems to the session prepared to deliver them outside your normal style. (Let’s limit them to one page, if possible, please.)
See you on Wednesday!
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