Thursday, January 21, 2021
Literary Reviews
  • Home
  • OUR BOOK SHOP
    • Erotic Novels
    • BEST SELLING BOOKS
    • Science Fiction Books
    • Business and Management
    • Computing and IT
    • Cooking
    • Education
    • Religion & Spirituality
    • Self Help
    • Teens & Young Adults
  • Literary Review
  • Literature
  • Book Writing
  • Kindle Publishing
  • Romantic
  • Science Fiction
  • Cooking
  • MORE
    • Erotic
    • Mysteries, Thrillers
    • Literary Themes
    • Business and Management
    • Literary Agents
    • Literary Devices
    • New Books
    • Self Help
    • Teens & Young Adults Novels
    • Computing and IT
    • Education
    • Religion & Spirituality Novels
No Result
View All Result
Literary Reviews
Home Literature

5 Albums Directly Inspired by Literature

admin by admin
July 13, 2020
in Literature
0
5 Albums Directly Inspired by Literature
0
SHARES
1
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Related posts

London Centric, Uncanny, On Spec, Pulp Literature, and The New Yorker – Locus Online

London Centric, Uncanny, On Spec, Pulp Literature, and The New Yorker – Locus Online

January 20, 2021
Bottle Openers wins digital mandate for virtual Jaipur Literature Festival 2021

Bottle Openers wins digital mandate for virtual Jaipur Literature Festival 2021

January 20, 2021


I love when art jumps medium. Like watching the many productions of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, whether it was shadow puppet group Manuel Cinema’s version or the National Theater’s epic production with Benedict Cumberbatch. Or finding out that writer Gerard Way of the Umbrella Academy was a lead vocalist of My Chemical Romance. Or learning that the painting titles of my favorite artist René Magritte served as inspiration for some of my favorite murder mystery writer Rex Stout’s novels.

So as an amateur musician, I was super stoked about finding entire albums directly inspired by literary works, whether William Shakespeare or Dorothy Parker. Here’s a list of five albums that are inspired by masterpieces of literature.

William Shakespeare: Such Sweet Thunder by Duke Ellington

This jazz album is honestly the inspiration for the piece.  It’s an entire album inspired by Shakespeare, with each track tied to a specific person. I had never known about this album until we played the title track in my Swing Band class. The phrase comes from A Midsummer’s Night Dream: “I never heard / So musical a discord, such sweet thunder” but the track refers to Othello. Other songs refer to Lady Macbeth, Cleopatra, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and many others. The entire album is bursting with liveliness and  genius, much like Shakespeare’s work himself. Ellington does to notes what Shakespeare does to words, in my humble opinion.

Here’s a version of “Such Sweet Thunder”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxW3-cLVcmA?feature=oembed

Book Deals Newsletter

Sign up for our Book Deals newsletter and get up to 80% off books you actually want to read.

Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox.

By signing up you agree to our terms of use

Edward Lee Masters: The Hill by Richard Buckner

Edward Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology lends itself to the world of music easily. The poetry book is a series of epigrams written from the perspectives of people in a town…in their graves in a cemetery. They tell the complex tale of a town where it doesn’t matter if secrets are exposed—the bad wives and husbands, the illegitimate children, or the town drunkard chortling because he’s buried near the respectable people. Richard Buckner, American singer songwriter, has put the poems to song on his album, the name taken from the introduction poem “The Hill” in the Anthology.

Here is Buckner’s “Elizabeth Childers”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yYsBEPF_hY?feature=oembed

Dorothy Parker: Little Words by Katie Ernst

While most people think of Dorothy Parker and her sharp tongue, Parker was also a poet with beautiful, sometimes heart-wrenching poems like “A Very Short Song” or “Bric a Brac.” Chicago-based musician Katie Ernst has taken these poems and others and set them to jazz that she sings and plays bass with her quartet. It’s a beautiful album, full of gravitas that I hadn’t expected when I learned the source material.

Here’s Katie Ernst singing “The Last Question”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hp3EEbaYC8?feature=oembed

John Dowland: Song of the Labyrinth by Sting

I learned of this album thanks to my guildmaster Nikolaus der Ausländer when I played in a Medieval/Renaissance  recorder band in graduate school. John Dowland (born 1562/63, died 1626, London) was an English musician, singer, composer, and letter writer. The album is a mix of Dowland’s songs as well as letters about courtly life. Sting sings it more akin to the style of the time instead of making the songs more jazzy or rock and roll, so it warms my heart that loves period music. There are other versions over the years—some more operatic but I agree with Nikolaus’s assessment that Sting has the right voice for it—full of anguish and woe that blends well with the content matter.

Here is Sting singing “Come Again”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4EmIPY8yqY?feature=oembed

Pablo Neruda: Neruda by Luciana Souza

Last but not least is Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, best known for his love poetry and The Heights of Macchu Picchu. Brazilian singer and composer Luciana Souza created this 10-track album of English translated poems in honor of his 100th birthday. Songs include poems like “We are Many” and the heart-wrenching “Tonight I Can Write.” As a closet percussionist, I love the combination of her voice with various percussion instruments.

Here Souza sings “Sonnet 49”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4THL1sFioE?feature=oembed


These are just a few of my favorite albums directly inspired by literature. Want more music and literature? Check out this list of 29 Popular Songs that Reference Classic Books and 9 Perfect Book-Song Pairings.

Tags: AlbumsinspiredLiterature
Previous Post

New Issue of 'Taco Bell Quarterly' Literary Journal Is Coming

Next Post

Woman folds vibrant colors into pie dough to create a culinary, literary masterpiece

Next Post
Woman folds vibrant colors into pie dough to create a culinary, literary masterpiece

Woman folds vibrant colors into pie dough to create a culinary, literary masterpiece

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

RECOMMENDED NEWS

Greatest rom-com motion pictures from the final decade

Greatest rom-com motion pictures from the final decade

5 months ago
The Lessons of Reading Every Book About Trump

The Lessons of Reading Every Book About Trump

3 months ago
Facial Hair Is Biologically Useless. So Why Do Humans Have It?

Facial Hair Is Biologically Useless. So Why Do Humans Have It?

1 month ago
Author Cassandra Buittner’s new book “Violet” is a riveting drama pitting human personifications of the elements against a villain with the power to destroy them

Author Cassandra Buittner’s new book “Violet” is a riveting drama pitting human personifications of the elements against a villain with the power to destroy them

5 months ago

Products

  • Reshuffle (Stacked Deck Book 2) £4.99
  • wagamama Feed Your Soul: Fresh + simple recipes from the wagamama kitchen £14.46
  • A Curious History of Sex £8.96
  • Compute-IT: Student's Book 1 - Computing for KS3 £17.99
  • Wakenhyrst £0.99

BROWSE BY CATEGORIES

  • Book Writing
  • Business and Management
  • Computing and IT
  • Cooking Books
  • Education
  • Erotic
  • Kindle Publishing
  • Literary Agents
  • Literary Devices
  • Literary Review
  • Literary Themes
  • Literature
  • Mysteries, Thrillers & Suspense
  • New Books
  • Religion & Spirituality
  • Romantic Novels
  • Science Fiction
  • Self Help

RELATED PRODUCTS

  • Cooking for Family and Friends: 100 Lean Recipes to Enjoy Together £12.99
  • Her Best Friend's Daughter £0.79
  • The Flood: The Dangerous Exploits of Three Girls, a Cat and a Boat: Volume 4 (The Elizabeth Books) £7.71
  • The Ankh-Morpork Archives: Volume One (Discworld Anthology) £17.69
  • The Religion £4.99

PRODUCT CATEGORIES

  • Best Selling Books
  • Erotic
  • Science Fiction Books
  • Cooking
  • Business and Management
  • Education
  • Computing and IT
  • Religion & Spirituality
  • Teens & Young Adults
  • Self Help
  • Mysteries, Thrillers & Suspense
  • Romance Books
Literary Reviews

Follow us on social media:

Recent News

  • The Watch Reveals the Romantic Future of Two Major Heroes
  • A career of an eccentric master of surrealism
  • Can great science fiction imagine a utopian future?

Category

  • Book Writing
  • Business and Management
  • Computing and IT
  • Cooking Books
  • Education
  • Erotic
  • Kindle Publishing
  • Literary Agents
  • Literary Devices
  • Literary Review
  • Literary Themes
  • Literature
  • Mysteries, Thrillers & Suspense
  • New Books
  • Religion & Spirituality
  • Romantic Novels
  • Science Fiction
  • Self Help

Recent News

The Watch Reveals the Romantic Future of Two Major Heroes

The Watch Reveals the Romantic Future of Two Major Heroes

January 21, 2021
A career of an eccentric master of surrealism

A career of an eccentric master of surrealism

January 21, 2021
  • Home
  • OUR BOOK SHOP
  • Literary Review
  • Literature
  • Book Writing
  • Kindle Publishing
  • Romantic
  • Science Fiction
  • Cooking
  • MORE

© 2020 literaryreviews

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • OUR BOOK SHOP
    • Erotic Novels
    • BEST SELLING BOOKS
    • Science Fiction Books
    • Business and Management
    • Computing and IT
    • Cooking
    • Education
    • Religion & Spirituality
    • Self Help
    • Teens & Young Adults
  • Literary Review
  • Literature
  • Book Writing
  • Kindle Publishing
  • Romantic
  • Science Fiction
  • Cooking
  • MORE
    • Erotic
    • Mysteries, Thrillers
    • Literary Themes
    • Business and Management
    • Literary Agents
    • Literary Devices
    • New Books
    • Self Help
    • Teens & Young Adults Novels
    • Computing and IT
    • Education
    • Religion & Spirituality Novels

© 2020 literaryreviews

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In