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Exploring Catullan Verse through Music Composition

2005; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 99; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/clw.2006.0017

1558-9234

P. Jesse Rine,

Historical and Literary Studies

Exploring Catullan Verse Through Music Composition P. Jesse Rine Teachers face a classic dilemma when approaching Advanced Placement Latin courses, namely, attempting to complete the course syllabus without compromising student comprehension. This tension can be far more pronounced when the subject matter is Catullus, as literal readings of his poems do not always yield complete meanings. Consequently, additional time must be spent on translation, and formal treatment of elements such as rhythm and tone often fall by the wayside. While accurate translation may produce success on a standardized test, it alone cannot convey the overall essence of poetry. Thus, an effective, yet efficient, vehicle for exploring Catullan verse in its entirety is needed. Music composition can function as such a vehicle. Setting Catullan verse to music requires one to delve below the surface of subject matter and explore the depths of cadence and tenor. Notable individuals, such as composer Carl Orff and author Ezra Pound, have utilized Catullan themes to animate their works. Orff's Catulli Carmina—a scenic cantata consisting of prologue, three short acts, and epilogue—traces the love affair between Catullus and Lesbia, while Pound's third opera, Collis O Heliconii, offers a setting of the marriage hymn found in Catullus 61. Furthermore, some poems have inspired more than one work. For example, Catullus 3 serves as the subject of Gian-Francesco Malipiero's Passer Mortuus Est as well as Alan Rawsthorne's Lament for a Sparrow, while Dominick Argento's I Hate and I Love and Jacob Handl's Odi Et Amo both pay homage to Catullus 85. Each of these compositions possesses its own distinct character, and yet they all share one common trait—their authors understood the tone and rhythm of Catullan verse, as well as its subject matter, a competency all Latin teachers hope to instill in their students. The neophyte, however, brings no such understanding to Catullan verse. Nevertheless, music composition fulfills a valuable function for beginners. Whereas the expert sets verse to song in order to display personal knowledge, the novice does so to gain competency. Thus, requiring beginners to compose settings of Catullus forces them to consider his poetry's meter and tone. Modern technology has greatly simplified the task of music composition. Apple's GarageBand, for example, enables students to create their own musical arrangements by placing notes on a virtual staff. Then students can select any number of simulated instruments to play their arrangements. Students can also save their completed arrangements as audio files and burn them to a compact disc. A second application, Finale's PrintMusic, includes an additional feature—students can compose printable scores by playing tunes on electronic keyboards. Most importantly, because the necessary functions of each application are relatively easy to learn, students with scant musical backgrounds can successfully interact with the software.1 My personal experience has confirmed the pedagogical value of utilizing music composition applications to investigate Catullan verse. On one occasion, I asked each of my students to choose a poem and then compose [End Page 67] a score that expressed its rhythm and tone. After playing a couple of settings of Catullus for inspiration, I provided the task's only formal requirement—one full sheet of music. I granted my students the freedom to take as much artistic license as they wished, provided that they could justify their decisions based upon the content of the poetry. This latitude encouraged my students to focus on the essence of the poetry rather than the parameters of the assignment. Because each student possessed a unique musical aptitude, the compositions contained various degrees of complexity. For the most part, however, each arrangement accurately expressed the essence of its poem. For example, one student's composition, based upon Catullus 8 and entitled "Miserable Catullus," used a solitary piano to express cascading sadness. Another student created "Attis and Cybele," a representation of Catullus 63, which combined a driving piano with an energetic panpipe. Its author remarked that the activity "helped me get an in-depth perspective on the poem and analyze its mood and emotions. Writing music made me pay closer attention to the poem's rhythm and sentence structure." Catullus 101 was the inspiration for...