The Whitman Connection
Update RequiredTo play audio, update browser or
Flash plugin.
Walt Whitman portrait by Thomas Eakins
"I sing...the body electric," "a song of myself, "a song of joys," "a song of occupations," "a song of the broad-axe," "a song of the rolling earth," "a song of the universal..."
For Walt Whitman--the most influential American poet of the 19th century--music was a central force in his life and work—and so his poetry’s appeal to composers should come as no surprise. But they have responded to more than his passion for song. They also find inspiration in his democratic spirit, his sensuality, his grief in the face of war, and his mystic vision.
In this hour, Whitman settings by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frederick Delius, Kurt Weill, Howard Hanson, John Adams, and Leonard Bernstein.
FEATURED RECORDINGS
|
CD Title
|
Group/Artist
|
Catalog #
|
UPC
|
|
Celluloid Copland (for promo/opening music
|
|
Telarc CD-80583
|
089408058325
|
|
To the Soul
|
Thomas Hampson, Craig Rutenberg
|
EMI 724355502827
|
724355502827
|
|
Vaughan Williams: Dona Nobis Pacem, Toward the Unknown Region
|
Corydon Orchestra and Singers, Matthew Best.
|
Hyperion DA66655
|
034571166551
|
|
Vaughan Williams: Dona Nobis Pacem, etc
|
Bournemouth Symphony, Bach Choir, Winchester Cathedral Choristers, Matthew Brook, David Hill,
|
Naxos 8.572424
|
747313242474
|
|
Delius: Sea-Drift
|
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox.
|
Chandos CHAN 9214
|
095115921425
|
|
Music of Howard Hanson
|
|
Delos DE 3705
|
013491370521
|
|
Hanson Conducts Hanson
|
Eastman School of Music Chorus, and Eastman-Rochester Orchestra, Howard Hanson
|
Mercury 432 008-2
|
028943200820
|
|
Shaker Loops [for “The Wound Dresser”]
|
Nathan Gunn, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra,
Marin Alsop
|
Naxos 8.559031
|
636943903124
|
|
The Pity of War [for “Dirge for Two Veterans”]
|
Mark Padmore, with Iain Burnside, piano
|
BBC Music MM235
|
[none]
|
|
Symphony No. 1 (A Sea Symphony)
|
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Robert Spano
|
Telarc 80588
|
089408058820
|
