Resounding Verse

Stephen Rodgers
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Join music theorist Stephen Rodgers as he explores how composers transform words into songs. Each episode discusses one poem and one musical setting of it. The music is diverse—covering a variety of styles and time periods, and focusing on composers from underrepresented groups—and the tone is accessible and personal. If you love poetry and song, no matter your background and expertise, this show is for you. Episodes are 20-40 minutes long and air every couple of months. 

  1. 09/29/2024

    Labor Day: Lainie Fefferman and Jascha Narveson

    I head back to university teaching tomorrow—and I know many teachers and students who are already back at it. In honor of this back-to-school season, here's an episode on a wild and wonderful song by New-York-based composers Lainie Fefferman and Jascha Narveson. In addition to composing a wide variety of music as individual artists, they are part of a synth-pop duo called The Beverage Station. The duo will release a full album, including this song, on May 30, 2025, from Gold Bolus Recordings.  Labor Day Lainie Fefferman Brand-new faces Familiar halls Tracking paces Feel it in my throat Bones break Back aches I could punch through walls And then there's you Heart explosions Arms aglow Big emotions Pack up its time to go Hours come Seconds go Cut to my fun walk home Where there is you Familiar faces Brand-new halls Making spaces Sharing all I love Calm comes Back stroke Keeping tallies of smiles and cheers I know I've lost what I'm doing here

    34 min

  2. 09/25/2024

    Frosty in Desire: William Shakespeare and Rodrigo Ruiz

    On September 27, 2024, Signum Records will release a recording of Rodrigo Ruiz's cycle of seventeen songs, Venus & Adonis, based on William Shakespeare's poem of the same name. In this episode, I dive into one of my favorite songs from the cycle, where Venus takes Adonis's hand and entreats him to open his heart to her. For more information about Rodrigo Ruiz, you can find him on Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkTree. You can also learn more about his songs from this page on my website Art Song Augmented, and from this episode on his setting of a poem by Heinrich Heine. The recording in this episode features soprano Grace Davidson and pianist George Herbert, who also appear on the forthcoming album of the cycle. Frosty in Desire William Shakespeare (adapted by Rodrigo Ruiz) POET With this she seizeth on his sweating palm, and trembling in her passion, calls it balm, Earth’s sovereign salve to do a goddess good. Pure shame and awed resistance made him fret, which bred more beauty in his angry eyes. So fastened in her arms Adonis lies; still is he sullen, still he lours and frets, 'twixt crimson shame and anger ashy pale. Still she entreats, and prettily entreats;      she red as coals of glowing fire,      he frosty in desire. (25, 27–8, 69–70, 68, 75–6, 73, 35–6)

    30 min

  3. 09/06/2024

    Alleluia: Nathaniel Bellows and Sarah Kirkland Snider

    The Mass for the Endangered, by Nathaniel Bellows and Sarah Kirkland Snider, appeals not to God but to nature itself and (in Snider's words) takes the "musical modes of spiritual contemplation" associated with the Latin mass and applies them to "concern for non-human life—animals, plants, and the environment." The third movement of the Mass, "Alleluia," describes the brutal destruction of the natural world yet at the same time offers a promise of renewal. The episode features a recording of the movement by Gallicantus, under the direction of Gabriel Crouch; an album of the entire Mass was released in 2020 by New Amsterdam and Nonesuch Records. If you're interested in learning about another haunting collaboration by Bellows and Snider, check out my podcast episode on "The River," from their song cycle Unremembered. Alleluia Nathaniel Bellows Sea of cradle, foundling, current, cold and quelled as morning. Braid of vapored ashes, shadowed creche, collapsing. Contour, carve, corrode— breathe through camphor, coal, seed each breeze with gold. Poison, parch, pollute— plow the coast, the dune, flow toward constant moon.  Alleluia Hearth of stone, of tar, of lava, shelter shielding mother. Oh, save us mother!    She who is sleeping, Is she who will wake.   Fracture, foist, defoul— shatter cliff and shoal, sand each stone to whole. Harbored, held, unharmed— she’ll wake, rise, rejoin, her daughters and her sons.  Alleluia

    40 min

  4. 09/01/2023

    You're the One: Rhiannon Giddens

    The title track from Rhiannon Giddens's recent album You're the One—which was just released by Nonesuch Records—is a love song, but not one about two adults; it's about a moment Giddens experienced with her newborn son, pressing her cheek against his and realizing that her world would never be the same again. In this episode I reference a book by Matt BaileyShea called Lines and Lyrics: An Introduction to Poetry and Song. If you're interested in learning more about how words and music relate in pop songs and art songs and everything in between, I'd urge  you check out his book. It's superb, and really accessible to specialists and non-specialists alike. You're the One by Rhiannon Giddens (the song was cowritten with Lalenja Harrington) I knew you were the one  Were my one and only And I knew  That you would always know me  Cause you were the one  Who kept me from feeling  So sad and lonely in my life and I never knew  Life could be so wonderful That there could be someone  Who was so beautiful And I never knew   That I could be so free   To love someone like you and  I wanna love you forever  And I’ll be with you   For worse and for better  And I never thought I’d fall   But you’re the one   I thought my life was drawn   In shades of gray and   That washow  I would live my everyday and   Aimless no direction found My destiny was going through the motions of a life and Then you came along   With your sweet sweet smile and   Then you put your cheek   Right next to mine and   All those shades of gray slowly turned into a   New technicolor world and   I’m gonna love you forever   And I’ll be with you   For worse and for better   And I never thought I’d fall   And I’m gonna love you forever and   I’ll be with you for worse and for better   And I never thought I’d fall   But you’re the one   You’re the one  Your smile contains the sun Rays of glory   You’re the one

    31 min

  5. 08/01/2023

    Songe (Dream): Maurice Bouchor and Mel Bonis

    Have you ever felt as though a single moment—gazing into someone's eyes, listening to a passage of music, looking at a landscape—transports you to another realm? Maurice Bouchor's poem is about just this kind of experience, an experience that the French composer Mel Bonis transforms into a magical sound world that deftly blends Romanticism and Impressionism. The episode features a recording of the song by Hélène Guilmette and Matin Dubé, from an album called L'Heure Rose. For more information about Mel Bonis, go to the Mel Bonis website, maintained by Christine Géliot. You can also learn more about her songs at my website Art Song Augmented. Songe (an excerpt from Vers le pur amour) by Maurice Bouchor Guidé par de beaux yeux candides, Dans ma barque féerique aux reflets d'argent fin, Vers l'amour, je voudrais faire voile sans fin Sur des rêves bleus et splendides, Vers l'amour dont le souffle frais Berce des champs de fleurs dans une île enchantée Et qui, pour apaiser mon âme tourmentée, M'ouvrira de saintes forêts. Et plus tard, quand, loin de la terre, O Viola ! Guérie des brûlantes langueurs, Nous irons caresser les songes de nos coeurs Dans l'île heureuse du mystère. Dans le libre ciel des esprits, Quand nous aurons quitté la nature mortelle, Ne goûterons-nous pas une paix éternelle ? Rêveusement, tu me souris. ——— Guided by beautiful, innocent eyes, In my magic boat with reflections of fine silver, Toward love I would like to sail endlessly On blue and splendid dreams. Toward love, whose fresh breath Cradles fields of flowers in an enchanted island, And which, to appease my tormented soul, Will open holy forests to me.  And later, far from the earth, O Viola, cured of burning languor, We will go to caress the dreams of our hearts On the happy island of mystery. In the free sky of the spirits, When we have left our mortal nature, Will we not taste eternal peace? Dreamily, you smile at me.

    34 min

  6. 07/01/2023

    In Fountain Court: Arthur Symons and Elizabeth Maconchy

    Arthur Symons's poem captures a lazy June afternoon, with a fountain burbling and the moon hanging in the sky, waiting for the coming of night. Elizabeth Maconchy transforms the poem into a song of mesmerizing stillness and beauty. The episode features a world-premiere recording by soprano Joanna Songi and pianist Matthew Fletcher, based on an unpublished manuscript found in the Maconchy archive at St. Hilda's College, Oxford. You can find a YouTube video of their performance here. For an illuminating look at Maconchy's life and work, see the final chapter of Anna Beer's book Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music. Also please check out the Maconchy page on my website Art Song Augmented, which includes another recording by Songi and Fletcher, as well as additional resources and access to scores. In Fountain Court by Arthur Symons The fountain murmuring of sleep, A drowsy tune; The flickering green of leaves that keep The light of June; Peace, through a slumbering afternoon, The peace of June. A waiting ghost, in the blue sky, The white curved moon; June, hushed and breathless, waits, and I Wait too, with June; Come, through the lingering afternoon, Soon, love, come soon.

    29 min

  7. 02/01/2023

    Resevwa Li (Receive Them): A Haitian Hymn Reimagined by Nathalie Joachim

    The Haitian-American composer Nathalie Joachim transforms a Haitian hymn, and in so doing creates a multi-layered tapestry of sound that evokes the many voices of Haiti—past, present, and future. "Resevwa Li" comes from Joachim's Grammy-nominated 2019 album Fanm d'Ayiti (New Amsterdam Records), featuring the Spektral Quartet. Resevwa Li Men n’ap proche devan ou Granmèt Avèk tout ti kado n yo papa Li mèt tout piti kou li ye, Tanpri resevwa li Adye papa souple Kisa pou m ta ba ou Ou ki fè tout bagay Ou ki mèt tout bagay Kado nou pot pou ou Se tout jefò n ap fe Pou peyi n devlope Pou lavi nou pi bèl. Receive Them We come before you, God With all of our little gifts, Father As little as they may be Please receive them Oh father, please What should I give you You, who make everything You, who create everything The gifts we bring to you Are all of our efforts To benefit our country For our lives to be the most beautiful translation by Nathalie Joachim

    34 min

  8. 01/01/2023

    One by One: Connie Converse

    Connie Converse was one of the first singer-songwriters, an uncommon talent who predated Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. But she was barely known in her day, and after making a handful of low-fi recordings in the 1950s, she disappeared in 1974. Her songs weren't widely known until some of those low-fi recordings were released on CD in 2009. This episode looks at one of her most affecting songs, which appears on Walking in the Dark, a recent album by soprano Julia Bullock, in an arrangement by Jeremy Siskind. Julia Bullock performs the song with Christian Reif. For more information on Connie Converse's songs, go to her page on my website, Art Song Augmented. Also, be on the lookout for Howard Fishman's book about Connie Converse, To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse, which is forthcoming in May 2023. One by One Connie Converse We go walking in the dark. We go walking out at night. And it's not as lovers go, Two by two, to and fro, But it's one by one. One by one in the dark We go walking out at night. As we wander through the grass We can hear each other pass, But we're far apart. Far apart in the dark We go walking out at night. With the grass so dark and tall We are lost past recall If the moon is down. And the moon is down. We are walking in the dark. If I had your hand in mine, I could shine, I could shine Like the morning sun, Like the sun.

    38 min
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About

Join music theorist Stephen Rodgers as he explores how composers transform words into songs. Each episode discusses one poem and one musical setting of it. The music is diverse—covering a variety of styles and time periods, and focusing on composers from underrepresented groups—and the tone is accessible and personal. If you love poetry and song, no matter your background and expertise, this show is for you. Episodes are 20-40 minutes long and air every couple of months. 

Information

  • Creator
    Stephen Rodgers
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2024
  • Episodes
    22
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Resounding Verse
  • Show Website
    Resounding Verse