Music and Stevie Smith

Stevie Smith felt that one of the influences on her poetry were the hymns she sang as a child, and she often half sang her poems to the tune of carols or traditional songs or hymns. One of her poems is even titled 'To the Tune of the Coventry Carol', although the subject has nothing to do with the carol. A number of musicians have written musical adaptations to Stevie's poems and prose.

Musical adaptations by Elisabeth Lutyens

The composer Elizabeth Lutyens composed musical settings for some of Stevie's poems, and in 1949 there was a performance of these by the singer Hedli Anderson. The audience was enthusiastic, and Barbera and O'Brien in their biography wonder if this encouraged Stevie to incorporate more singing and chanting in the performance of her poems as time passed. In 1967 some of Elisabeth Lutyens settings  were included in a performance of poetry and music. Whether Stevie actually liked the settings or not seems doubtful , she apparently had very demanding requirements and often disliked professional performances of her poems.

Musical adaptations by Simon Rowland-Jones

The composer Simon Rowland Jones  has been interested in Stevie Smith's writing, since he was a child and an aunt used to quote her poems.  He is a  friend of Hermione Lee, who was the editor of a selection of Stevie Smiths poems and prose (Stevie Smith: A Selection, Faber and Faber, 1983). Simon Rowland Jones composed a setting for seven of Stevie’s poems:  The River Debden, Frog Prince, Not Waving but Drowning, Harold’s leap, River Humber, She Said …, and The River God.  He and Hermione Lee performed  this 'River God Sequence' in the late 80’s at various venues, including the Cheltenham Festival.

More recently, Simon Rowland Jones was given a copy of Me Again, Uncollected Writings of Stevie Smith, and was fascinated by her radio play A Turn Outside. He liked the idea of working on a more substantial setting of Stevie’s work and adapted this play for Dame Josephine Barstow and it was first performed at the First North Norfolk Music Festival which was held in the Church at South Creake in 2005. The work had its London premiere at the Wigmore Hall  in October 2007. For more details of A Turn Outside click here.

Musical adaptations by Paul Mitchell-Davidson

The composer Paul Mitchell-Davidson was touring America in the 70's and bought a copy of Stevie's poems  from a shop.  It was so different to anything he had read before that he became an immediate admirer, and has set a number of her poems to music. He began in 1978 with Away Melancholy five songs for counter tenor and guitar, which was written for the counter tenor Owen Wynne. A revised version was written in 1996.

1978  Away Melancholy - . Five songs for counter tenor and guitar. Revised version in 1996. Written for counter tenor Owen Wynne. Comprising: Away Melancholy, Cool and Plain, I was so Full, The Broken Heart, Not Waving but Drowning. Away Melancholy' was extensively performed by Paul Mitchell Davidson and Owen Wynne from 1978 and throughout the 80's at recitals and festivals. The 1996 revised version was done as a birthday present for Owen on his 70th birthday.