Parlando - Where Music and Words Meet

I've turned this late William Butler Yeats poem about worldly and spiritual battles into a song, because, at least to this one reader, this poem from another era of ravenous authoritarianism seems to speak to today's world and heart.  The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Here's William Blake's other poem about children, poverty, and Ascension Day performed as a song.  The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear them all and read about our encounter with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

We may think of English poet Willam Blake as the writer of majestic mystical visions, but here he is simply observing the civic use of children of poverty on a religious holiday in this first of a pair of poems with this title. I've turned this poem from his Songs of Innocence  into what it says on the tin: a song.  The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done of 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them and read our accounts of our encounters with the words at our blog and archives, located at frankhudson.org

This is Edna St. Vincent Millay's bald statement of mortality and grief performed with music. Her title says it's without music, because she wished to express that beauty does not mitigate loss, and perhaps my far-from-bel canto voice here follows her intent. The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations and you can hear any of them and read about our encounters with the words at the Project's blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Here's a knotty poem about virtue, life, and star-dust by Langston Hughes that I've turned into a song.  The Parlando Project takes words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations and you can hear any of them at our blog and archives at frankhudson.org

The great Afro-American poet Langston Hughes was a pioneer in Jazz Poetry, so it is appropriate that managed to finish this piece for International Jazz Day and the last day of National Poetry Month:  a performance of a short poem of his about Jazz, "Cabaret." The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Celebrating National Poetry Month and  International Jazz Day with this new sonnet about poets and poetry performed along with original music played by a Jazz quartet.  This is what the Parlando Project does regularly: we combine various words (usually literary poetry) with music we create in various styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them at our blog and archives, located at frankhudson.org

Emily Dickinson wrote these words in The Sixties, the 1860s. I just got done with this song performance of her poem as if it was the 1960s and this was a West Coast Folk-Rock band. I think Dickinson here is writing about those things left behind, missing, even in the delights of Spring. The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

I set Emily Dickinson's "I dreaded that first Robin, so" to this music for National Poetry Month. Dickinson's poem casts a skeptical eye on Spring, at once alienated from it and yet closely, wittily, observing. My music mutates throughout to carry forward the coming of Springtime. The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in varying styles. We've done over 800 of then combinations, and you can hear any of them and read about our encounters with the words at the Project's blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

An odd notion I had while planning for this year's National Poetry Month: could I perform an Amy Lowell poem with a rock band in the spirit of the Patti Smith Group?  Well, the result still sounds like me, but sections of this Amy Lowell poem do presage methods of later poetic expression. The Parlando Project performs various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear all of them and read about our encounter with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org 

A. E. Housman's poem of fleeting wildflowers set to music as part of our celebration of this month's U. S. National Poetry Month.  The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations and you can hear all of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

William Butler Yeats wrote this oft-quoted poem of the rise of evil in the world. I found it more challenging that many other Yeats poems to put to music and to sing, but tonight I've judged this full-rock-band version complete.  The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations over the years, and you can hear any of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org  

Here's another Edna St. Vincent Millay poem turned into a short spell-song for Spring and Poem in Your Pocket Day. The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

This is a song made from a section of Carl Sandburg's 1928 poem "Good Morning America"  which I sang this month in order that it shed some light on the nation's current state. The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations and you can hear any of them and read about our encounter with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

I started doing an English translation of a poem from Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's youthful series of love poems, and in that process I thought of something else on my mind, and so began to connect the poem with two husbands taken from the US and their families based on dubious charges this Spring.  This poem from Neruda's series speaks of lovers separated. It was not so wild a leap to finish the translation and set it to music as a song regarding this fresh injustice. I note too that Neruda notes that his poem was after a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, so the poem is already an adaptation. The Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry, and combines them with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations and you can hear any of them and read more about our encounter with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org  

Our National Poetry Month celebration continues with a musical presentation of this sensuous Edna St Vincent Millay poem. Since I awoke this April morning to tree branches covered with wet April snow in my northern clime, I felt part of "the shared world" with this poet as I completed this song setting today. The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations. and you can hear any of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

I might think of this as the first piece of my National Poetry Month observance this year, or as a piece the follows on from my Alice Dunbar Nelson "I Sit and Sew"  performance earlier in March.  "She Dreams of Sewing Machines"  is part of my set of Memory Car sonnets dealing with a daughter's experience of her mother's dementia.  The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these, and we will be adding several more as part of our April  #NPM2025 participation.  You can hear any of our previous audio pieces and read about experience performing them at our blog and archives, located at frankhudson.org

John "Paddy" Hemingway died this St. Patrick's day. Dublin born, and in Dublin he died, but he was in the news because he was the last surviving RAF pilot from the Battle of Britain during WWII.  I immediately thought of this Yeats poem, about a fatalistic Irish pilot during WWI who flew into battle having no love for the British Empire. His Wikipedia summary mentions nothing about his weighing of the enormous risks he took in RAF battles, but a recounting of the number of times he was shot down and got back to flying again makes me think he'd accepted his death as a probable result of his service. Fate had sport with him, he lived to be 105. In his honor then, I performed Yeats poem with music I wrote this week. The Parlando Project has done over 800 of these combinations over the years, using various words (mostly literary poetry) with music in different styles. You can hear any of them and read about our encounter with the words at our blog and archives, located at frankhudson.org

Poet e. e. cummings hopscotched across a page with this classic Spring poem. I've now made it into a little song for the first day of this year's Spring. The Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of those combinations over the years, and you can hear any of them or read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives, located at frankhudson.org

Instead of literary poetry, here's a little SciFi. This is a Dave Moore song about R. A. Lafferty, the electrician turned daft Speculative Fiction writer, whose stories often sounded like they were spoken by an intoxicated man at a bar who needs just one more drink to wrap up his tale.  This is older piece, recorded as the Parlando Project was starting, that I remastered today in order to finish our St. Patrick's Day series honoring Irish-American writers.  The Parlando Project normally takes various words (usually literary poetry) and combines them with original music in differing styles.  We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them and read what we write about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Two Irish-American poets, now dead, used to lead a poetry reading every St. Patrick's Day in St. Paul. Earlier this week I presented a performance of a poem by one of them, Kevin FitzPatrick. Tonight, I release this song I adapted from a poem by the second poet, Ethna McKiernan.  I saw "Barn Burning" as a beautiful, wild, mystical poem. I hope my version presented as song with guitar, bass, piano and harmonium brings out those qualities.  The Parlando Project combines various words, mostly literary poetry, with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them and read about our encounter with the words at the Project's blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Here's a performance of a poem from FitzPatrick's final collection done in remembrance of the St. Patrick's Day poetry readings he used to lead every year. That poetry collection, Still Living in Town, told of his life working on his life-partner's farm in Wisconsin. One of the characters in that book's series of poems about rural life was the farm's dog, an incongruous poodle named Katie. 

"I Sit and Sew"  is likely Alice Dunbar-Nelson's best-known poem, a strongly worded statement of a woman wishing to assuage the suffering of war. I've now made it into a short song, as that's what the Parlando Project does. I'll write a bit more about the particulars of the poem at the Project's blog and archives later today, but I thought her poem could speak well for itself on this International Woman's Day.  That blog and archives is located at frankhudson.org by the way.

Long work this week to find a set of words I could use and sing, ones that would meet our world and times with some measure of hope and purpose. These are the ones I chose, written over a hundred years ago by early American Modernist poet and publisher Alfred Kreymborg.  The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these, and you can hear any of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives, which are located at frankhudson.org

This February during Black History Month I've been writing about the discovery, history, and my subsequent impressions of a scrapbook featuring the life and career of a mid-20th Century Afro-American musician and singer Lawrence "Hank" Hazlett who played with a swing Jazz quartet The Cats and the Fiddle from Chicago and then with his own Hank Hazlett Trio out of Minneapolis.  In the scrapbook this creased and folded sheet of 6 numbered inspirational quotes was pasted on a page. They must have been meaningful to him, so I composed some music and read the quotes as a spoken word with music piece this month. The quotes are from (in order) M. B. Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Lloyd C. Douglas, Helen Keller, Herbert Kaufman, and Ambrose Bierce. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them and read about our experiences with the pieces at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Here's Alice Dunbar Nelson's passionate love poem from the last decade to be called The Twenties performed as a song. I just saw this poem this morning, but I was so taken with it that I spent my afternoon composing some music to perform it with.  The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear them all and read about our encounters with them at hour blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Our Black History Month celebration this month is more focused on new articles on the Parlando Project blog, but I thought it'd be good to provide some new musical pieces too. Here's Langston Hughes' poem "Dreams"  which I've cast as a blues for acoustic guitar, bass, and piano for this performance. The Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry) and performs them with original music (in differing styles). We've done over 800 of these combinations over the years and you can hear them all and read what I wrote about our this Project at our blog and archives, located at frankhudson.org

Here's the somewhat forgotten Modernist poet Carl Sandburg in a weird mode. I still don't know what this elusive poem of his, titled "Couples," is describing, but I felt compelled to make it into this short song anyway. That's what the Parlando Project does. We take various words (mostly literary poetry) and combine them with original music. We've done over 800 of these combinations over the years, and you can hear any of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

I start this piece singing the refrain of a song attributed to Robert Burns, and then the music continues as I read a sonnet from my memory care series.  The Parland Project combines words (usually literary poetry) with music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations and you can hear any of them and read about our encounter with the words and making the recordings at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

What is poet Emily Dickinson describing in this poem I've turned into a song? Is it soldiers marching off to the American Civil War? Or is it just maybe a partisan political campaign march in time that her country's political failure was leading it to that war? There's more on this, and over 800 other combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing style at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

This William Carlos Williams short poem of disappointment and survival seemed apropos for this American January, so now I've made it into a song, just me with my rough-hewn voice with a lonely acoustic guitar. "Dreams are not a bad thing" he says. Perhaps it will speak to you too. The Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can read more about this and hear all of the previous audio pieces at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

What if one of the Three Wise Men left a Yelp review after their Epiphany visit to the manger? Presented that way it sounds like a sketch-comedy bit, doesn't it? But T. S. Eliot had an ear for poetic dialog, and he wrote a poem that approaches the sacred on the back of a sore camel. I took Eliot's poem and performed it with some original music yesterday. Today, I mixed the recording so you can hear it. That's what the Parlando Project does: we made over 800 combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) and combined them with differing styles of music I can record. You can hear all of those pieces and read what I wrote about the experience of making them at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Kenneth Patchen wrote this poem sometime before the middle of the 20th century, but it seemed so apt today that I felt that I had to sing it as a statement for the end of our year. The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear all of them and read about our experiences with the words at the Project's archives and blog located at frankhudson.org  

Once more we put an Emily Dickinson poem into a song setting. Today's piece weighs fears: haunted houses, ghosts, graveyards, assassins, but says the greatest fear is, or should be, ourselves. A full rock ensemble for this one: bass, drums, piano, two electric guitars and a 12-string acoustic.  The Parlando Project takes various words, mostly literary poetry, and combines them with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations over the years, and you can hear them all at our blog and archives at frankhudson.org

As a young woman, Mina Loy adventured through many avant-garde artistic scenes in early 20th century, and her series of poems of desire, its attractions and disaffections, "Songs to Joannes," still stands out for its exciting use of language. Here are two small excerpts from that series turned into a song. The Parlando Project has combined over 800 sets of works (mostly literary poetry not intended to be sung) with original music in differing styles. You can hear all of the released pieces and read short reports on our experiences with the word and the music we combine with them at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Emily Dickinson wrote a short poem about looking at the face of someone that disgusted her. It's now a song here, because that's what the Parlando Project does: we take words (mostly literary poetry not intended to be sung) and combine it with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear them all at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

For our 800th official release I've chosen this, with words and music by the Parlando Projects alternative voice, Dave Moore. Dave sings this and plays keys, just as he did in the earliest days of this project, and its predecessor the LYL Band.  "The Fade" is an unusual rock song, even if you file it under "Indie" or "Alt Rock," because it talks about something a genre associated with younger people doesn't: aging, its infirmities, particularly memory loss. I think of Dave's lyric here as being in the tradition of the Velvet Underground: like the songs on their famous 1st LP, Dave's song describes something not often sung about while making no judgement or framing it in any sentimentality.  The Parlando Project takes various words (usually literary poetry) and combines them with original music in differing styles. We've done this for over 8 years, and you can hear all the released pieces and read what I wrote about our experience with the words at our blog and archives, which is located at frankhudson.org

A sonnet about the small number of records I can recall from my childhood household. performed with an acoustic duo. Yes, thinking back, this odd combination of disks might have given me part of the inspiration for the Parlando Project. That Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry not intended by its writers to be sung) and combines them with music in differing styles. We've presented nearly 800 of them over the years. and you can hear any of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives, located at frankhudson.org

Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote a poem about her fears and blessings on the American holiday of Thanksgiving nearly 75 years ago. I think it might speak to some Americans this year, so I've put together these excerpts from her longer poem for you to hear. The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done nearly 800 of these combinations over the years, and you can hear them and some words we write about our experiences with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Edna St. Vincent Millay's early poem of a late Autumn tinged with ambiguous longing, now sung with original music.  The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. As of this date we've released almost 800 of these combinations and you can hear them and read about our encounter with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

A sonnet about reaching a time of separation now made into a song.  The Parlando Project combines various words, usually literary poetry, with original music in differing styles, We've done nearly 800 of these combinations over the years. You can hear them all and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Here's Edwin Ford Piper's unflinching yet sensuous description of an early 20th century Midwestern farmer's November harvest performed with original music by the Parlando Project. This is but one example of what the Parlando Project does. We combine words (mostly other people's words, mostly literary poetry) with music we create and record in differing styles. We've done almost 800 of these combinations and you can hear all of them and read about our encounter with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Elinor Wylie was an American poet who reached an audience during the last decade called The Twenties.  Some of her poems might still be appreciated if we were to come upon them today, and in that regard, the Parlando Project has turned this poem of hers into a short Indie-Folk song. The Parlando Project has done over 750 of these combinations taking words (mostly literary poetry) and combining them with original music in differing styles. You can hear all of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

One of this Project's mottos is "Other People's Stories," which means that I'm usually setting and performing other poets' work. Today's piece is one of the exceptions, using a sonnet I wrote. At least I think I wrote it. I found a draft of today's piece among some old papers this Fall and recognized it as being in my own handwriting -- but I have no memory of writing it. I found its mysteriousness compelling, and so went about setting it to music for the performance you can hear today. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 750 of those combinations and you can hear all of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

The LYL Band takes a poem by William Carlos Williams about aging and an oncoming winter and turns it into a song. This is what the Parlando Project does: we take various words (mostly literary poetry) and combine it with music in differing styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations and you can hear them all and read what I wrote about our encounter with the words at our blog and archivers located at frankhudson.org

A change of pace for this Project:  I adapted a short story by the British master of the subtle supernatural into a 10-minute audio play. So, sit back and enjoy as The Parlando Project Theatre of the Air presents Walter de la Mare's story of a man with a problem: he can see something past the Samhain veil. How will his two friends react to what he tells them? The Parlando Project usually combines other people's literary poetry with original music in differing styles. We've done nearly 800 of these combinations over the years, and you can hear them all and read about our experiences with the words at our blog and archives, located at frankhudson.org

When it comes to the poetic-spooky presented though inference and understatement, Walter de la Mare is a master; so I wanted to get this poem of his turned into a song in time for our Halloween series.  The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can hear them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Edgar Allan Poe's poem has been turned into a song as part of our Halloween series featuring fantasy and supernatural poems this year.  The Parlando Project takes words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with original music in differing styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can hear them and read about our encounters with the poets and their words at our blog and archives locate at frankhudson.org

Our Halloween series continues. Irish poet Joseph Campbell has a twist on the idea of a goblin spirit casting a spell on a human. In this encounter, a downhearted man comes upon a puca, and the human's dissatisfaction and weariness changes the goblin. I came upon this poem, and now I've changed it into a song. The Parlando Project takes words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with original music is differing styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can find all of them as well as accounts of our experiences with the words at our blog and archivers, which can be found at frankhudson.org

Is this a Halloween piece? I'm not sure, but the poem, one of Wilfred Owen's strangest, says it's being sung by a ghost. My musical setting here is one of my orchestral ones. The Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry) and sets them to original music in differing styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can hear all of them and read short accounts of our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Here's a fresh translation into English of a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke performed with original music as our Halloween series continues this October.  The Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with music we create and record. We've released over 750 of these pieces over the years, and you can hear any and all of them, as well as read our short accounts of the experience of working with the poems, at our blog and archives which are located at frankhudson.org