Sunday, September 20, 2020

Symptoms of Love for voice and guitar

Some years ago I wrote a cycle of songs titled Songs from the Poets which, for various reasons, I didn't make very available. On recent request, I put together this video for the song "Symptoms of Love" on a poem by Robert Graves. I tried to make each song setting reflect something about the poem itself. In the case of this one, which is about the problems of love, my idea was to have a song in which the voice and the guitar, the two imagined lovers, never actually get together! In the whole song, they alternate phrases, never sounding together.

The photos were taken at the recording sessions. The music was recorded in the studio of Ken Basman in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

I hope you enjoy the song. Here is the text:

Symptoms of Love

Love is universal migraine,
A bright stain on the vision
Blotting out reason.

Symptoms of true love
Are leanness, jealousy,
Laggard dawns;

Are omens and nightmares -
Listening for a knock,
Waiting for a sign:

For a touch of her fingers
In a darkened room,
For a searching look.

Take courage, lover!
Could you endure such pain
At any hand but hers?


I am still getting the hang of posting to YouTube, so I forgot to actually give this a name and now I don't know how to go back and edit it. But never mind! You can chastise me in the comments.

2 comments:

  1. There is that wonderful scene at the end of Monte Python's 'The Meaning of Life' where Death shows up at the dinner party; he gets so exasperated with the American guest; he says, "Shut up! You Americans are always saying 'Let me tell you something' and 'I just wanna say this' ....!"

    Well Bryan, as your American guest (I've got my loud plaid sports jacket on) ... Let me tell you something: I just want to say that I think this poem setting to guitar and voice is wonderful; it enhances the beautiful voice, the lovely colors of your guitar and highlights Graves' already exquisite poem ...

    Cheers and congrats ...

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  2. Oh, Dex, thanks very much indeed. Writing these songs was a kind of rite of passage for me, taking me from being a retired performer to being a composer of some variety.

    If I get a chance in the next couple of days I will put together a little clip of the third Graves song, Spoils.

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