\u201cMusic and poetry have ever been acknowledg\u2019d Sisters, which walking hand in hand, support each other; As Poetry is the harmony of Words, so Musick is that of Notes; and as Poetry is a Rise above Prose and Oratory, so is Musick the exaltation of Poetry. Both of them may excel apart, but sure they are most excellent when they are join\u2019d\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Henry Purcell wrote that in 1650, reflecting on vocal music. But poetry has often been a supporting sister for purely instrumental music as well, especially in the Romantic era, when instrumental composers were fascinated with extra-musical inspiration. Here are seven compositions for instruments which were inspired by poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inspired by George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788 \u2013 1824)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Byron was one of the most influential poets of the early Romantic, and his work appealed to many of music\u2019s Romantic avant-garde, especially Hector Berlioz (1803-1869). Berlioz\u2019s most famous Byron work is Harold in Italy<\/em>, Op. 15, (1834) which he called a \u201cSymphony in Four Parts with Viola Solo.\u201d Harold in Italy was inspired by the title character of Byron\u2019s Childe Harold\u2019s Pilgrimage<\/em>, an epic poem published in parts between 1812 and 1818. Childe Harold was so influential that world-weary Romantic literary characters like Harold came to be known as \u201cByronic heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n [My] intention was to write a series of orchestral scenes, in which the solo viola would be involved as a more or less active participant [with the orchestra] while retaining its own character\u2026I wanted to make the viola a kind of melancholy dreamer in the manner of Byron\u2019s Childe Harold. – Hector Berlioz<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,<\/em> – Lord Byron, from Childe Harold\u2019s Pilgrimage<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,<\/em>
There is society, where none intrudes,<\/em>
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:<\/em>
I love not Man the less, but Nature more,<\/em>
From these our interviews, in which I steal<\/em>
From all I may be, or have been before,<\/em>
To mingle with the Universe, and feel<\/em>
What I can ne\u2019er express, yet cannot all conceal.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n