Resounding Verse – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

Resounding Verse

Stephen Rodgers

Music

Arts

Frequency: 1 episode/64d. Total Eps: 24

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.

Read moreCollapse

Site

RSS

Apple

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇨🇦 Canada - musicCommentary
24/03/2026
#90
🇨🇦 Canada - musicCommentary
23/03/2026
#63
🇬🇧 Great Britain - musicCommentary
26/02/2026
#87
🇺🇸 USA - musicCommentary
08/09/2024
#100
🇬🇧 Great Britain - musicCommentary
03/09/2024
#91
🇬🇧 Great Britain - musicCommentary
02/09/2024
#53
🇺🇸 USA - musicCommentary
01/09/2024
#90

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

See all

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

See all

RSS feed quality

Good

Score global : 78%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

Recent episodes with titles, durations, and descriptions.

See all

Alleluia: Nathaniel Bellows and Sarah Kirkland Snider

Season 4 · Episode 1

Friday, September 6, 2024 • Duration 39:54

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

Read moreCollapse

You're the One: Rhiannon Giddens

Season 3 · Episode 3

Friday, September 1, 2023 • Duration 30:43

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 sunRays of glory You’re the one

The River: Nathaniel Bellows and Sarah Kirkland Snider

Season 1 · Episode 9

Monday, November 1, 2021 • Duration 29:23

Nathaniel Bellows’ poem and Sarah Kirkland Snider's haunting setting of it—from her song cycle Unremembered—revisit the site of a childhood trauma and meditate on innocence and the mechanisms of memory.

The performance of the song features vocalists Padma Newsome, DM Stith, and Shara Worden, and the Unremembered Orchestra (members of ACME, Alarm Will Sound, ICE, The Knights, and Sō Percussion), conducted by Edwin Outwater.

In the episode I discuss Nathaniel Bellows' illustration that accompanies his poem; you can find this illustration, as well as the others associated with the song cycle, on the Unremembered website.

The River
by Nathaniel Bellows

On the banks
The wash so brown
The shadows blue
They’re black

I saw the form
Astride the loam
Splayed out upon
Its back

A bear, a dog
A bed, a log
A child’s eyes
Are pure

Until the hands
Of the missing man
Were clear against
The dew

The river’s flow
A blackened bow
That tied around
Our town

Had sapped his life
Like a lantern’s light
Buried
Underground

Read moreCollapse

Room in Brooklyn/A Gradual Dazzle: Anne Carson and Caroline Shaw

Season 1 · Episode 8

Friday, October 1, 2021 • Duration 29:27

Anne Carson's poem and Caroline Shaw's mesmerizing setting of it meditate on the feeling of being in and out of time.

The recording of the song, which appears on the album Let The Soil Play Its Simple Part (Nonesuch, 2021), features Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion (Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting).

Read moreCollapse

Sag, wo ist dein schönes Liebchen (Tell Me, Where is Your Beautiful Sweetheart): Heinrich Heine and Rodrigo Ruiz

Season 1 · Episode 7

Wednesday, September 1, 2021 • Duration 26:46

The 21st-century Mexican composer Rodrigo Ruiz sets a text by the 19th-century German writer Heinrich Heine. In so doing, Ruiz channels 19th-century musical style and offers a deeply moving interpretation of a poem about the loss of love and the death of an artistic tradition that Heine once held dear.

The performance of the song features soprano Grace Davidson and pianist Christopher Glynn.

The song appears on the CD An Everlasting Dawn. Check out Ruiz's recent CD of chamber works, Behold the Stars, on the Signum Classics label, and be on the lookout for Signum's release of his song cycle Venus & Adonis.

Sag, wo ist dein schönes Liebchen
by Heinrich Heine

Sag, wo ist dein schönes Liebchen,
Das du einst so schön besungen,
Als die zaubermächtgen Flammen
Wunderbar dein Herz durchdrungen?

Jene Flammen sind erloschen,
Und mein Herz ist kalt und trübe,
Und dies Büchlein ist die Urne
Mit der Asche meiner Liebe.

———

Tell me, where is your beautiful sweetheart
That you once sang of so beautifully
When the magical flames of love
Wonderfully pierced your heart?

Each flame is burnt out,
And my heart is cold and grey,
And this little book is the urn
With the ashes of my love.

Strawberry Man: Kendra Preston Leonard and Lisa Neher

Season 1 · Episode 6

Sunday, August 1, 2021 • Duration 21:43

Kendra Preston Leonard's poem and Lisa Neher's song—about a man who sells fresh fruit on a summer day—celebrate something sumptuous where we would least expect it.

The performance of the song is by Arwen Myers, who is also featured in a previous episode about a song by Florence Price.

Be sure to check out other collaborations by Kendra Preston Leonard and Lisa Neher, especially the works in their micro-opera festival.

Strawberry Man
by Kendra Preston Leonard

The Strawberry Man
and his little pinto pony
Sweetness, slaked
in the city street

Poem reproduced with permission from the author

Read moreCollapse

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: Robert Frost and Margaret Bonds

Season 1 · Episode 5

Thursday, July 1, 2021 • Duration 28:07

Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is one of the most famous poems in the English language, and it has been set to music by many composers. This episode explores an extraordinarily inventive setting by the Black American composer Margaret Bonds (1913–1972), recently recorded by bass-baritone Justin Hopkins and pianist Jeanne-Minette Cilliers.

This recording comes from a playlist created by Hopkins and Cilliers, which includes performances of music by Florence Price and Margaret Bonds.

To access a published score to the song, see Louise Toppin's anthology Rediscovering Margaret Bonds: Art Songs, Spirituals, Musical Theater and Popular Songs. Toppin, a professor of voice at University of Michigan who has been a longtime advocate for Bonds's music and the music of other African American composers, has also done a wonderful video recording of the song. See also the list of Bonds works published by Hildegard Publishing Company.

Learn more about Bonds's songs, access her song scores, and hear another performance by Hopkins and Ciliers on Art Song Augmented, my website devoted to art songs by underrepresented composers.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

To My Little Son: Julia Johnson Davis and Florence Price

Season 1 · Episode 4

Tuesday, June 15, 2021 • Duration 22:08

In Julia Johnson Davis's poem "To My Little Son," a mother imagines what her baby boy will look like when he's twenty-one years old, and wonders whether, when he's grown up, she'll see glimmers of the boy in the man. Thinking of her own son, Florence Price turned to Davis's poem and created a song that is nuanced, affecting, and deeply personal.

The recording of “To My Little Son” is by soprano Arwen Myers and pianist Monica Ohuchi.

Learn more about Price's songs, access scores, and hear video performances of her songs by bass-baritone Justin Hopkins and pianist Jeanne-Minette Cilliers, and countertenor Darryl Taylor and pianist Deborah Hollist on Art Song Augmented, my website devoted to art songs by underrepresented composers.

To My Little Son
by Julia Johnson Davis

In your face I sometimes see
Shadowings of the man to be,
And eager, dream of what my son
Shall be in twenty years and one.

But when you are to manhood grown,
And all your manhood ways are known,
Then shall I, wistful, try to trace
The child you once were in your face.

Read moreCollapse

Branch by Branch: Edna St. Vincent Millay and H. Leslie Adams

Season 1 · Episode 2

Tuesday, June 1, 2021 • Duration 23:28

The protagonist in Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem looks upon a tree that has died and wonders what caused it to wither. She stands apart from the scene, awed and perplexed, but at a crucial moment enters the scene and takes a decisive action. In H. Leslie Adams's song, that action seems even more decisive—and even more brutal.

The recording of "Branch by Branch" is by Darryl Taylor and Robin Guy, and comes from a CD called Love Rejoices: Songs of H. Leslie Adams.

Branch by Branch
by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Branch by branch this tree has died.
Green only is one last bough
Moving its leaves in the sun.
What evil ate its root,
What blight,
What ugly thing?
Let the mole say,
The bird sing,
Or the white worm behind the shedding bark
Tick in the dark.
You and I have only one thing to do,
Saw, saw, saw the trunk through.

Read moreCollapse

Scheideblick (Parting Glance): Nikolaus Lenau and Josephine Lang

Season 1 · Episode 3

Tuesday, June 1, 2021 • Duration 22:37

In Nikolaus Lenau's poem "Scheideblick" (Parting Glance) a man leaves his beloved and, as he departs, imagines sinking his happiness into the ocean. Josephine's Lang's setting of the poem evokes the ebb and flow of the sea, and also the ebb and flow of the emotions associated with it.

For more on Josephine Lang, see Harald and Sharon Krebs's book Josephine Lang: Her Life and Songs.

The recording of “Scheideblick” is by mezzo-soprano Milagro Vargas and pianist Susan Manoff.

Learn more about Lang's songs, access her song scores, and hear video performances of six of her songs by tenor Kyle Stegall and pianist Eric Zivian on Art Song Augmented, my website devoted to art songs by underrepresented composers.

Scheideblick
by Nikolaus Lenau

Als ein unergründlich Wonnemeer
Strahlte mir dein tiefer Seelenblick;
Scheiden musst’ ich ohne Wiederkehr,
Und ich habe scheidend all mein Glück
Still versenkt in dieses tiefe Meer.

Like an unfathomable ocean of joy
Your soulful gaze shone for me;
I had to take leave, knowing I would never return,
And as I departed I quietly sank
All my happiness into this deep ocean.

Read moreCollapse

Resounding Verse – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Resounding Verse – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other74

Youtube4

Buzzsprout3

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other74

Youtube4

Buzzsprout3