Scored Beckett: Earl Kim
The last thing a guy like Samuel Beckett wants is some schlemiel turning his words into a song. Someone who wrote so economically is naturally going to oppose a florid meditation on his own texts; so, it's surprising that anyone ever got permission to set his poetry.
Earl Kim's Now and Then (1981) uses two of Beckett's poems, mixed with some Chekhov and some Yeats. The Chekhov is actually the germ of the cycle ("For thousands of years the earth has borne no living creature/on its surface and this poor moon lights its lamp in vain."), which is based on his experience flying over Nagasaki the day after America bombed it needlessly. The cycle is an articulate and eclectic call for peace in the classic anti-nuke mold that would reach its peak a few years later.
On the Meadow (from The Seagull by Anton Chekhov)
Thither (Samuel Beckett)
Roundelay (Samuel Beckett)
Thither (Reprise) (Samuel Beckett)
Among the Deepening Shade (from The Tower by William Butler Yeats)
Earl Kim's Now and Then (1981) uses two of Beckett's poems, mixed with some Chekhov and some Yeats. The Chekhov is actually the germ of the cycle ("For thousands of years the earth has borne no living creature/on its surface and this poor moon lights its lamp in vain."), which is based on his experience flying over Nagasaki the day after America bombed it needlessly. The cycle is an articulate and eclectic call for peace in the classic anti-nuke mold that would reach its peak a few years later.
On the Meadow (from The Seagull by Anton Chekhov)
Thither (Samuel Beckett)
Roundelay (Samuel Beckett)
Thither (Reprise) (Samuel Beckett)
Among the Deepening Shade (from The Tower by William Butler Yeats)
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posted by jodru at 21:03
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