Compositions based on literary sources

Hi dear community,

I recently thought a lot about literary inspirations for musical works. In my Œuvre there are already a few pieces with are inspired by great novels. As I was reading Philip Reeve's “Mortal Engine” a film-music-like theme came in my mind.

This is just a short snippet, but I think I will do some major work based on that novel (maybe a Suite?) and maybe also about the sequels.

Do you have any suggestions, ideas or experience with literary musical rendering?

All the best,
Roland

The only musical work I know about that it is inspired by literature is Franz Listz's Faust Symphony, S.108. It is inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's tragedy or drama Faust.
I am a Goethe maniac, so at the moment I am reading the original German tragedy.

More information about the symphony can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust_Symphony

A recording of the work can be found here:

I think it is great when artists (in this case a composer) tries to make a bridge between the various isles of art; music, literature, dance, architecture etc.

Well, any time you are dealing with choral music, there is a text, and choices are made about how best to express that text musically.  Sometimes the text and music are written concurrently by the same person, but other times an existing literary text is set.  I know this isn't exactly what you were asking about, but the treatment of the text musically and the orchestration behind it all goes to the sort of effects you are interested in exploring.  

If you're familiar with Robert Frost's poetry, take a look at Randall Thompson's 'Frostiana' song cycle on youtube.  It's a setting of several of Frost's poems, and Thompson is one of the great choral composers of recent times.  "The Road Not Taken" is particularly nice.  https://youtu.be/ahjYPkA1QYc. Like Frost's poem it's presented very simply, and feels quintessentially "American," and the last verse, while still exquisitely uncomplicated and quiet makes you stop and pay attention, and always moves me to tears.  

Or try Vaughan Williams' 'Dona Nobis Pacem.' It combines poems by Walt Whitman, a political speech by John Bright, in which he tried to prevent the Crimean War, and quotes from the Bible.  It was completed in 1936, and was a plea for peace after the ravages of World War I, which Vaughan Williams saw first-hand as a stretcher bearer for the ambulance crew.  The tensions of World War II were already gathering while the piece was composed.  Here's a youtube that conveniently has the score rolling by for your analyzing pleasure.  https://youtu.be/ovBDDfB1s0w. The sounds of military fanfares are combined with percussion to create the illusion of battle scenes, the military dirge for a veterans' funeral passes by the listener and singers in one section.  What always makes me cry is the irony of setting the most soaring, triumphant, glorious military fanfares over the saddest texts.  It's a compositional choice that clearly illustrates Vaughan Williams' view that there is nothing glorious about war and that patriotic fervor for the military is just a thin covering over great personal tragedy for many wasted lives.  

Thanks for your replies. 
@pateceramics you're right. I'm not quite searching for choral adaption of a literary text, although the approach of choral adaption is really interesting.
In earlier compositions I tried to make symphonic poems like Liszt, Strauss etc. did. This would be something I could imagine for this piece of work too. But there are also very different approaches. For example Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique has a very different theoretical strategy as for example Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel, or Also Sprach Zarathustra. (@Maarten Bauer: symphonic poems from Strauss, Mahler and others are quite related to the work of Liszt, because Liszt developed the idea of symphonic poems)

32 minutes ago, Roland Mair-Gruber said:

 (@Maarten Bauer: symphonic poems from Strauss, Mahler and others are quite related to the work of Liszt, because Liszt developed the idea of symphonic poems)

 

Correct. However, I do not know if these composers have composed literature based compositions as Listz has done.

Yes they have. That's the point about symphonic poems.. :-P

For example:
R. Strauss - Also sprach Zarathustra (based on Friedrich Nietzsche)
R. Strauss - Don Juan (based on Nikolaus Lenau)
R. Strauss - Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (based on Stories about Till Eulenspiegel)