Algorithm&Blues - Draft

Transcreating poetry into song: ‘Remembering Evie M. Poem by Jim Ferguson’

The piece of work I present for Analysing Creativity: Assignment 2 is a transcreation of the poem ‘Remembering Evie M’ which was originally recorded as a spoken word piece by it author, Jim Ferguson, in 2013, to commemorate the death of his mother, Evie M. His recording is here: https://youtu.be/T4rYeJp0NDA At his request, my brief was to set the words to music. To ‘transcreate’ a work is to adapt the message of an original piece through a language: in this case, I adapt the message of the spoken word piece into a song by setting it to a melodic structure which retains the content of the original and imitates its meaning by communicating it through a new medium. To the words of the poem, I made no substantive emendations: I edited out the word ‘down’ on the line ‘August sun beating down’ and the word ‘and’ on the line ‘and dead lavender sharp’, but neither of these edits detract from the content. The vocal melody retains the syllabic rhythms of the poem and extrapolates particular assonances, e.g. ‘A walking concussion’. A refrain is made of the line ‘begged for love from the sky’ which functions as a non-conventional hook. I retain the base structure of the poem, adding an inversion of the last stanza, repetition of the first two stanzas at the end, and end on the hook. The melodic structure and chord progression of the guitar is deliberately predictable so as to allow the listener some comfort under the emotively disconcerting lyrics. On the piano line, I allowed some sequential discordance to provide a layer of distortion to communicate the morose theme. To adapt the spoken word to singing, my delivery of the vocal line is intentionally in my lowest register with most attention paid to emotion, rather than traditional vocal quality. My creative investigation seeks to align poetry with song, and provide a novel piece of music to accompany the original and progress is poetic purpose: remembering Evie M. My role in this project is as a songwriter rather than producer, and so the work is presented in demo form.

Remembering Evie M (words by Jim Ferguson)

'Asked the Jester' is a plaintive consideration of the Fool's position in the turning of the world which captures the despondence of an existence fated to oscillate between orthodoxy and heresy. The words play with images of colonialism and the inevitability of revolution while the steady piano persists through the spacey sonic landscape. As the first single released by Lorna Morgan, it sets the scene for a musical exploration of archetypes and our place in the cosmos. The song was released in time with the Hybrid Solar Eclipse, 20th April 2023.  

Written and performed by Lorna Morgan.
Recorded and engineered by Keith Bird at University of West of Scotland.
Mixed and mastered by Lauren Gilmour of Novasound. 

Lyrics:

It looks obscure now
Abandoned by The Fates
We've been set up again to struggle
Set up again to sell
All know it's coming
Many will resist
The rest set us up to struggle
Sent again to exist

Raze the ground, man the ramparts
Put the words in the minds of men
Say "Never Again"
Count the bricks as they build their wall
Light the ceremony once more
It must be found

And it moves in circles
From the inner out to the edge
Skirting the polarity
Too hasty to place your bet
Take your turn til the game is set
The ceremony must be lit
It must be found

It looks obscure now
The shadow becomes just a muse
As we spin on the axis of spheres
Return us unto sanctuary
Resolve us to absolute fear

'Is it time?' asked the Jester
Of The Priest as they poured their wine
We've been set up again to struggle
We've been set up again to sell
You have it coming
And I think you know why
We've been set up again to struggle
We've been set up again to sell

Save our soul
Save us all

Lorna Morgan

Popular tracks