Choosing Texts

When you compose for voice (choir, solo, anything) how do you choose a text? Do you write your own lyrics? Do you see a text out in the world and think "Wow, I want to set that to music," or do you start composing the music and then find something that fits.

I do my own lyrics... but then again that's why I haven't done much for voice to begin with.

I've done both approaches. I originally used to compose a piece and then realize come across a poem that seems to fit so then I would rework my piece to accommodate it. However, I found that it was messy and I never was really happy with that way.

Most of the time, I find something I think would go well with music and work around the melody I find for the voice. I should note that I rarely keep a text as it is. I often change stuff in there for it flow better.

When it comes to art music, I've yet to use a text of my own. I usually find a text I like, and conceive the nature of the piece around it.

I used my own text once and that was enough, at least for a while! I simply look for a text that I identify with or look for a text that has some great action words in it. The words come first for me, then I shape the music around the words.

If I have been asked for a song or chorus piece for a particular occasion, then that is obviously taken into consideration. For example, a friend has asked me to write a piece for her recital in which she must perform a contemporary song. As she will do it at the very end, I looked for a text which had some theme of departure or ending. Otherwise, the overall theme of the text and any passages that suggest musical effects is what will appeal to me. I also try and consider how easily the text can be set to words and how it will shape the form. A sonnet or a psalm setting immediately suggest a particular verse structure and length, whereas a more free-form poem will require more thinking to present it in music. Often the best texts to set are actually not the best poetry, for this approach allows the music to add something rather than compete with already-excellent verse. Another consideration is the metre. A text with a regular meter, like a Renaissance hymn, is much easier to translate into musical phrases - particularly if the piece is for chorus - than something like Walt Whitman or Pushkin. That said, very few texts are impossible to set well.

I occasionally write my own texts, but only in conjunction with composing the music. My poems which are written as poems don't tend to lend themselves to musical settings very well!

When it's a dramatic piece, like an opera or a musical, I either write my own lyrics or work with a librettist/lyricist to come up with original text before I begin composing. In an art song, I find a poem that I "feel" the music in. That is, when I speak the text, I can imagine music going along with it. The types of poem that I feel work with music often change over time, as I explore new musical ideas, so I doubt I'm being very helpful. Really any text can be set to music, if you try hard enough.

I write music to words that I find beautiful. I'm a musician not a poet, so I write music, not words.

That's a true problem for me, I can't write an easy song, I found poor and silly all what I write,

I can hardly pic the name for my works ... I simply don't work for texts, ...

With me my vocal works tend to take a more sacred approach so using Biblical reference or other spiritual references like Celtic blessings or aboriginal philosophy.

My friend just introduced me to the Tao te Ching... I'm set for texts for a while! (Plus this is some of the most eye opening poetry I've ever read.)

The Tao te Ching has some beautiful words in and from an art music approach I've written a vocal trio which is based on the texts of Psalme 117 and harmonically is based mostly on a Wholetone scale which sounds beautiful

If I am setting a previously written text I almost always find the poem before I even begin to touch the music (though there have been times when a motive or theme comes to me, after which I find a suitable text and proceed to set the rest of it). I am very picky in what texts I use and typically will search for months, reading through hundreds of works in various languages (Latin, Italian, Spanish and English mostly...I'm not much of a fan of many others, esp French, German, Russian and oriental languages...I just don't feel that they sing that well) before I will finally discover one that I POTENTIALLY could one day use in a piece. I gather these potential texts up in a folder on my computer and when I feel like writing a new piece I simply browse through my collection of texts I already know will work well.

I also write my own lyrics quite often, but usually only when I have a specific feeling, emotion or thought in mind to write about and can't find a text that fits just right. In this case I rarely have the poem complete before I begin working on the music, but rather work on them at the same time. Technically the lyrics still come first (I've found writing the music first and then trying to set words to it is pretty much impossible and pointless and it has kinda become a pet peeve of mine when I see a choral work with no words <_< ), but I often write a single line of words just before setting it to a phrase of music, then move to the next line.