The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #29944 Message #2665597
Posted By: Paul Burke
26-Jun-09 - 07:18 PM
Thread Name: Writing a melody to given words
Subject: RE: Writing a melody to given words
When I have invented (not written- I'm musically mostly illiterate) a tune around words, the process has been generally to start out from what it should sound like. Say, it's a Scottish song from Sir Walter's books. OK, a Scottish tune. None that fits, right, a Scottish sounding one. But then the words don't fit. Poem's aren't songs and vice-versa, so change the words a little bit so they fit. Keep evolving it till it flows like a song.
Example:
Wlater Scott had
O HEARD ye na o' the silly blind Harper,
How long he lived in Lochmaben town?
And how he wad gang to fair England,
To steal King Henry's Wanton Brown?
and between tune and words the song evolves as:
Have you heard of the harper blind,
How he came fronm Lochmaben town,
And how he went into fair England
To steal the Lord Warden's stallion brown?
Changes to make it flow and scan; to take out Scots formations if you don't speak it; to translate dialect words- keep people listening to the story, not wondering what you're talking about; and Henry doesn't pop up again, so use a character that does.