Poetry

Poetry and music have been linked through song, chant, theatre, and oral tradition since antiquity. In popular and classical forms, poems may become lyrics, librettos, art songs, hymns, or spoken-word pieces. The tag gathers stories where the words carry unusual weight, whether through literary sources, symbolic imagery, political meaning, or the close relation between rhythm and speech.

26 articles related to Poetry:

Poetry
Alfonsina y el Mar: the poem behind Argentina's farewell song

Alfonsina y el Mar appeared on Mercedes Sosa's 1969 album Mujeres argentinas, a song cycle about notable women in…

July 19, 2026
Orchestra
Greensleeves: the folk melody behind Vaughan Williams' Fantasia

Greensleeves is one of the best-known English folk melodies, first published in 1580 as a broadside ballad titled A…

May 24, 2022
Meditation
Vinayagar Agaval: medieval lyrics linking Ganesha with yoga practice

Vinayagar Agaval is a popular sacred hymn of South India praising Ganesh—one of the most worshipped deities in the…

January 6, 2022
Piano
Ständchen from Schwanengesang serenade as Schubert's last testament

Originating in Europe in the Middle Ages, the serenade (ger. ständchen) is a love song composed for one vocal line and…

October 7, 2021
Songwriter
Longfellow Serenade and the fireside poet that kindled Neil Diamond's song

Longfellow Serenade is a notable 1974 hit released by Neil Diamond, a prolific American songwriter who sold more than…

September 9, 2021
Piano
La fille aux cheveux de lin: Parnassian poem behind Debussy's most recorded piece

La fille aux cheveux de lin or The Girl with the Flaxen Hair is the best-known piano prelude by the French…

August 11, 2021
Songwriter
The Bells of Rhymney: two major modal modes of famous protest song

The Bells of Rhymney is one of the best-known protest songs of the past century, first recorded in 1958 by the American…

June 29, 2021
Piano
Suite bergamasque: did Debussy record his best-known piano piece?

Suite bergamasque is one of the best-known piano works of the French impressionist Claude Debussy written in 1890 and…

March 12, 20211 comment
Poetry
Guantanamera: meaning and origin of the Cuban song

Guantanamera means a woman from Guantánamo, the Cuban city that gives the song its title. The word is a demonym—a name…

December 4, 2020
Orchestra
Gabriel Faure's Pavane as the key to modern revival of early genre

The pavane—a slow processional dance of Italian origin—was quite common in Europe during the transition period from the…

November 3, 2020
Poetry
12,000 Annamayya songs discovered in a Hindu temple after 300 years of oblivion

It is believed that Tallapaka Annamacharya—a 15th-century songwriter who lived in South India—wrote over thirty…

October 4, 2020
Poetry
On the Massacre of Glencoe: Walter Scott lyrics set to Beethoven's arrangement of folk melody

The Massacre of Glencoe is one of the darkest chapters in Scottish history which saw the treacherous slaughter of…

August 27, 2020
Songwriter
Salma Ya Salama: historical record by Sayed Darwish, the father of Egyptian popular music

Salma Ya Salama is a famous song written by songwriter Sayed Darwish who is considered to be the most influential…

April 19, 2020
Poetry
The Ektara: traditional music instrument of the Bauls, wandering minstrels from Bengal

Bauls are the wandering minstrels of the Indian subcontinent whose history traces back to the 15th century as mentioned…

April 16, 2020
Poetry
Down by the Salley Gardens: famous Yeats poem evoking old Irish love ballad was set to the traditional air

Down by the Salley Gardens is a famous two-stanza poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats whose contribution to the…

April 8, 20201 comment
Collaboration
Shakespearean characters expressed through atonality in atypical guitar sonata by Hans Werner Henze

Royal Winter Music is one of the most atypical works for classical guitar that reveals incredible possibilities of the…

March 22, 2020
Poetry
Lamento de la Ninfa: Monteverdi's song of love, fire and ice

Lamento de la Ninfa is one of the most famous vocal pieces of Claudio Monteverdi, a leading Italian composer whose work…

March 11, 2020
Poetry
The best Qawwali lyrics performed by prominent singers of the century

Phool Khil Jaaye by Abida Parveen and Asrar Shah Mere dil ki banjar zameen pe Oh maula Mere dil ki banjar zameen pe…

December 23, 2019
Poetry
Peter Sinfield: the songwriter whose lyrics embellished the formative prog rock albums of the 1970s

Peter Sinfield is an iconic songwriter who has written for most influential albums of the prog-rock genre released…

December 15, 20193 comments
Poetry
Zefiro Torna: famous madrigal by Monteverdi lauds the west wind that brings spring

Originating in the 14th century as a poetic form, the madrigal is a short poem of lyrical content. During the…

September 11, 2019
Manuscript
Rich music collection of the Trecento times recovered from Florentine palimpsest

It is difficult to imagine, in the current digital world, the serious difficulties associated with recording any…

July 23, 2019
Orchestra
The multicultural heritage of Granville Bantock from Celtic folk music to Eastern philosophy of Omar Khayyám

Granville Bantock was one of the most cheerful English composers whose rich heritage comprised more than 800 works…

May 8, 2019
Orchestra
A story of love and friendship in the music of World War I

Frederick Septimus Kelly, a gifted Australian-born musician who spent much of his life in England, was among the…

January 18, 2019
Songwriter
Sūrsāgar: ocean of poetry that expanded for five centuries

Sūrdās was a North Indian devotional poet, musician, and saint who lived in the 16th century. His lyrics, addressed…

October 27, 2018
Poetry
Sufi lyrics expanded all over the world thanks to Qawwali songs

Qawwali is a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia. It is part of a musical tradition that stretches back…

October 5, 20181 comment
William Blake
Prog rock version of Jerusalem was banned by BBC

Jerusalem is a British national song based on a poem by William Blake printed in 1808. At the heart of the poem is the…

July 2, 20184 comments