#ClassicsaDay #PoetryMonth 2025

 April is Poetry Month. The Classics a Day challenge for April is to post examples of classical music inspired by poetry. The most obvious cases are poems set to music. But sometimes, inspiration runs deeper. 

Here are my posts for the third week of #ClassicsaDay #PoetryMonth.

04/14/25 Ralph Vaughan Williams: Toward the Unknown Region (Walt Whitman)

This cantata was composed in 1906. It's one of RVW's first settings of Whitman's poetry. It wouldn't be his last.

04/15/25 Paul Hindemith: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (Walt Whitman)

This work was commissioned in 1945 after the death of FDR. Its subtitle is "A Requiem for those we love (An American Requiem).

04/16/25 John Adams: The Wound-Dresser (Walt Whitman)

This 1989 work was written for baritone Sanford Sylvan, who made the first recording of it. The poem was based on Whitman's experiences as a hospital volunteer during the Civil War.

04/17/25 John Alden Carpenter: Sea Drift (Walt Whitman)

Carpenter's inspiration for this 1933 tone poem was Whitman's "Sea Drift." This was a section of sea-themed poems in "Leaves of Grass."

04/18/25 Frederick Delius: Sea Drift (Walt Whitman)

Delius used selected texts from "Sea Drift" for this work. It was composed in 1906 for baritone, chorus, and orchestra.