Thursday, May 13, 2010

"Leave Your Sleep"


One of the best parts of being a teacher is what you yourself learn—a truism, perhaps, but valid in my experience. Because without what I’ve learned from one of my students, this post would not have been written.

My student’s name is Heather, & she’s a Natalie Merchant fan. I was a young fellow in the 1980s, so I knew of Merchant, but had at most a passing acquaintance with her music. Then, as part of Heather’s lessons, I began arranging songs like “Motherland,” “Life is Sweet,” “San Andreas Fault,” “When They Ring the Golden Bells”—& I was hooked. For my money, Natalie Merchant is an extraordinarily talented songwriter, & a performer & singer who also should be discussed in the most superlative terms. Her voice is not only superb in terms of range & timbre, but in her ability to express emotion, which she has to a rare degree. Her songwriting displays depth & a complex musicality that doesn’t stand in the way of immediacy.

So, when Ms Merchant released her first cd after a 7-year hiatus—time off to raise her daughter, which all in all seems a pretty sane act for someone in the entertainment biz—I was curious to hear what she might be doing. When I learned from Heather & from co-RFBanjo-conspirator Audrey Bilger that the 2-cd set would be 19th & 20th century poems Merchant had set to music, I decided I’d not only buy the cd but would review it in this space. After all, I’d had a running joke with myself for the first several months of blogging here that I’d write about the connection between music & poetry, & so, I thought, here’s my chance.

Leave Your Sleep (Nonesuch) has the appearance of a labor of love, & in fact the project began as Merchant introduced her daughter to poetry. Merchant writes in the liner notes, “I tried to show her that speech could be the most delightful toy in her possession & that her mother tongue is rich with musical rhythms & rhymes.” Describing speech as the “most delightful toy” is a wonderful starting point for defining poetry, because even in the most serious poems, there must be some sense of play for the words to rise above the everyday.

Because the project had its genesis as a way of Merchant bringing poetry to her daughter, & by extension, to other children, it relies heavily on children’s poems. This is far from a drawback. For one thing, the best children’s poems are simply very good poems; an adult reader can certainly appreciate Edward Lear & Ogden Nash & Mother Goose, or should be able to, as the skilled poets they were. For another, Merchant’s settings & arrangements are transformative—why, for instance, does it make so much sense to hear Edward Lear’s “Calico Pie” sung as a hoedown? Believe me, once you’ve heard it, it’s hard to imagine a different setting.

However, as Merchant explains in a PBS interview (which you can watch here on YouTube], the project grew beyond its original scope—she says, that “to really convey childhood thru these poems, & all aspects of childhood, we had to address the loss of innocence.”

This theme raises what would have been a worthwhile & enjoyable project in any event to another level. To my mind, the album really peaks with the art song settings of “Nursery Rhyme of Innocence & Experience” by British poet Charles Causley, Hopkins’ “Spring & Fall: to a Young Child” & amazingly enough, a heartbreakingly beautiful setting of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Land of Nod.” The Causley poem, which leads off cd 1 with a timeless ballad about a child’s encounter with war, sets the tone—while we can be amused by a number of catchy tunes, these songs & others like them give the project a real depth. By the way, please stop by Just a Song for my review of “Nursery Rhyme of Innocence & Experience” posted on Friday morning!

Leave Your Sleep is a smorgasbord, both musically & thematically. In musical terms, we can go from the art song orchestration of “Spring & Fall”to the hook-filled reggae of “Topsyturvy World”; from the old-time country of “The Adventures of Isabel” to the almost Beatlesque pop of “It Makes a Change”—I think the latter is one of the album’s great successes in terms of the pop songs, as the arrangement dovetails so nicely with the surreal nonsense of Mervyn Peake’s poem.

Of course, as a smorgasbord, the listener isn’t likely to appreciate all dishes equally. Despite some interesting authentic Chinese instrumentation, I don’t get much from “The King of China’s Daughter,” & I can’t see myself listening repeatedly to the baroque novelty, “The Sleeping Giant” (tho again, the instrumentation is cool—viola da gamba!) But the album would be diminished considerably if it erred on the side of too much seriousness—after all, Merchant points out in the PBS interview that her own perception of poetry’s sententiousness had kept her away from it until she was in middle age—in many ways, this album seems about Ms Merchant discovering poetry itself thru her daughter.

Merchant composed all the music & did much of the arranging, but she also enlisted the help of Wynton Marsalis, Lúnasa, the Klezmatics (love “The Dancing Bear” which they appear on!), Hazmat Modine, The Fairfield Four, Medeski Martin & Wood & the Ditty Bops, as well as arrangers Michael Leonhart & Sean O’Loughlin.

There are a fair number of cuts from this album on YouTube—I’d thought about including a video for “Spring & Fall: to a young child,” but there were problems with those videos—so I’m sticking with Merchant’s great setting of the Mother Goose Rhyme, "The Man in the Wilderness." If I had to pick another? Perhaps her setting of e.e. cummings “maggie and milly and molly and may,” which interested parties can listen to here.

I’m winding up the post & I still really haven’t written about the connection between poetry & music, have I? My suggestion—get yourself a copy of Leave Your Sleep & learn the connection firsthand!



24 comments:

  1. My sister-in-law kept nagging me to check Natalie out, so I went to see her a few years back. As a live performer, she has a spellbinding, enchanting presence that commands attention. A wonderful show; the only problem was that opening with such a great song as "Motherland" made the next few numbers seem anti-climactic. It took that long to come down!

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  2. Hi K: I've never seen her, but will be seeing her in early August at the Maryhill ampitheater--quite looking forward to it. This was supposed to post tomorrow morning, but my usually reliable scheduler skills failed me this evening--the Just A Song post on Nursery Rhyme of Innocence & Experience is all queued up for tomorrow morning.

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  3. K: Have you ever seen this version of Motherland? Talk about powerful!

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  4. John,

    Ooh, have you heard The Wishing Chair? I think it's the first 10,000 Maniacs recording. I think she was very, very young when they recorded it. But it has some of the most beautiful music, and some of the most nicely, classically crafted lyrics...

    One of my all time favorites. I recommend! I recommend!

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  5. Hi Ray: I haven't heard it--or if I have it was so long ago that it all amounts to the same thing--but I'll definitely check it out. Thanks for stopping by. I miss you Bay Area folks!

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  6. Boy, was that ever a weeper. Even a Republican might wipe a tear from his eye after seeing that. Maybe. Nah.

    This version isn't as emotionally packed, but it's awfully good.

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  7. Great review! Thank you. For me it's hard to get past my constitutional aversion to her voice. I recognize she is a good musician, but I can't stand to listen to her. Oh well!!

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  8. Hi K & Reya:

    K: That is a really good cover version--just a heartfelt straightahead reading.

    Reya: Ah well, we all have something like that I expect. With me--& this may shock some readers--it's Springsteen!

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  9. What a pleasing post, John! I've been a great fan of Natalie Merchant since the days of 10,000 Maniacs and I've followed her circuitous career ever since. This new album looks very exciting. I'm looking forward in particular to hearing the Charles Causley, whose poems are ideal for setting to music. Thanks for this.

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  10. Hi Dick: It's an exciting album--strong throughout, with a number of sublime moments.

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  11. Talking about the connection between music and poetry, I'm reminded for the first time in many years of The Daniel Jazz by Vachel Lindsay. Who said rap's new?

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  12. (That Dominic was me by the way! I signed in wrong...)

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  13. Beautiful, beauty-filled post. I'm a big Natalie Merchant fan but hadn't heard this ... it's utterly gorgeous! I'm hastening to grab the set for myself.

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  14. Hi Dominic & Nana Jo

    Dominic: Vachel Lindsay! I wonder if folks read him anymore. I had a brief period when I was rather interested in him!

    Nana Jo: Thanks so much, & happy to put you on to this.

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  15. Always enjoyed her poetry and style. "This House is on fire" does it for me every time.

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  16. Hi Cathy: This House is on Fire=Natalie in rock-out mode.

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  17. Wonderful post. I wasn't even aware of this album. I'm a big fan of her music, but don't keep up on new releases, so thanks! My partner is an even bigger fan than I am. I have a landmark birthday coming up next week (eek!), and I think I will surprise him by giving him a present of this wonderful music!

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  18. P.S. Both my partner and I have seen Natalie merchant perform. I feel that she is really at her best in a small performance space. She seems to get swallowed up in large venues.

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  19. Hi Christine: Thanks--& happy upcoming birthday! You can hear selections from the songs on Merchant’s site. I think it would make a great gift.

    Have never seen her live, but will be seeing her this summer, & it will be at a fairly small venue--looking forward to it.

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  20. Oddly enough, Dmininc and John, I just bought a first British edition of 'The Daniel Jazz' on Amazon. Indeed, bundle him up with Lord Buckley and the Last Poets and suddenly hip hop loses some of its zeitgeist edge!

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  21. John,
    Thanks for the link. After listening to a few, I was ready to go out and buy it. I especially liked The Peppery Man.

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  22. Hi Christine: Glad the link was helpful. Enjoy!

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  23. Hi Dick: Vachel Lindsay & Lord Buckley! You just wrote about him (LB)on your space, didn't you?

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  24. Re Vachel Lindsay. They should if they don't. I looked it up on the net when I wrote the first comment and it is read outloudable. I'd forgotten how good it was.

    http://www.archive.org/stream/danieljazzotherp00linduoft#page/n11/mode/2up

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