It's Shakespeare's birthday and National Poetry Month, so here's one of his sonnets, a particularly bitter one in a small orchestral setting. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music, visit frankhudson.org
Bob Dylan released a new song during National Poetry Month called "I Contain Multitudes." People picked up on the William Blake and Edgar Allan Poe references, but too many missed the reference to America's first punk rock poet: Walt Whitman. Let me fix that with this performance of the last part of Whitman's "Song of Myself." For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
W. B. Yeats' poem seems to be about aged regret, even though it was written when he was in his 20s. Doesn't matter-still lovely. I perform it with acoustic guitar and piano for National Poetry Month today. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
Wallace Stevens' contrasting nighttime reveries performed by a piano trio for National Poetry Month. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
Claude McKay's wrote a lovely lyric about experiencing Easter as a non-believer, and I performed it today. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music, visit frankhudson.org
Sara Teasdale wrote in this unusual form: a premature self-elegy. I preform it with a short orchestral instrument lament and acoustic guitar while thinking of those that have succumbed to the Covid-19 pandemic. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
Sara Teasdale's extraordinarily compressed expression of aloneness and infinity performed for #NPM2020. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
An LP-side-long musical performance of the largest section of the Modernist poetic landmark presenting a bleak look at love and sex. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music, visit frankhudson.org
Wordsworth wrote this joyous ode to the beginning of spring--but what if it was performed with driving slide guitar? For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org for our celebration of National Poetry Month #NPM2020
Keats song of almost and not interrogates art and beauty. His poem speaks of "unheard music," but in my performance I eventually allow music to intrude. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
For this World Poetry Day, Emily Dickinson practices social distancing and shelters in place. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
Guest reader Heidi Randen performs Frances Cornford's haunting ghost story with eerie music. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
A performance of another unusual short lyric from British poet Frances Cornford today. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
Dave Moore's song of the starling performed by the LYL Band. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music flock to frankhudson.org
Frances Cornford's catchy lyric is much remembered and much dissed. Here it is performed along with G. K. Chesterton's retort. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
Not leaving winter yet? Sara Teasdale's short lyric meditation stays there, and I perform it today. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
For Leap Year Day, a Dave Moore song about mysterious cosmologies and the quantum states of love. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
Paul Laurence Dunbar's famous poem about the Afro-American experience performed as a song for #BlackHistoryMonth. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
Paul Laurence Dunbar's most famous poem performed with an orchestral folk arrangement for Black History Month. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music go to frankhudson.org
Two episodes from Carl Sandburg's Abraham Lincoln biography: Lincoln's birth and the death of his mother when Lincoln was nine are performed with a surprising introductory quote. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
An orchestral spoken-word piece about love and partnership that will perhaps suite this Valentine's Day. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music go to frankhudson.org
Marianne Moore's poem explores some implacable problems in American culture in her characteristic way: both plain spoken and knotty at the same time. Perhaps my musical performance can help illuminate it? For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
I created this from part of a talk by Angela Davis during this Black History Month, weaving a few sentences from that into this poem. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
The close of William Blake's story of the creation of the world in its fallen state performed with saxophone, piano, bass & drums. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
In this original ballad, a young woman accompanies a man who comes to her town seeking to revenge the killing of his brother. For more about this and other combinations of various words and various music visit frankhudson.org