Composition beginning with text

[jster]

"Can't fit it anywhere else?"

I guess there is no composition section!

Anyway here is my question: There is a method/theory -- probably going back to the 19th century at least -- for how to take a poem and come up with a melody. One looks at vowel sounds, distinguishing low to high, and syllable length, distingiushing long and short, and using scansion and what not to come up with the shape of a melody. Does anybody know what it is called? And more to the point, can anybody recommend any book? Or know the name of any book.

Thanks in advance.

[rocklandpiano]

Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.
See this website:http://www.courses.unt.edu/jklein/1180-3080

[jazzbluescat]

Originally Posted by jster

"Can't fit it anywhere else?"

I guess there is no composition section!

Anyway here is my question: There is a method/theory -- probably going back to the 19th century at least -- for how to take a poem and come up with a melody. One looks at vowel sounds, distinguishing low to high, and syllable length, distingiushing long and short, and using scansion and what not to come up with the shape of a melody. Does anybody know what it is called? And more to the point, can anybody recommend any book? Or know the name of any book.

Thanks in advance.

Very interesting. I've heard and thought about the rhythmic relevance between poetry and music but not melodic relevance/connection.

[page]

Hi jster,
I have a copy of a study by Sieb Nooteboom, he's is a Dutch professor in phonetics, which is called 'The Prosody of speech: Melody and Rhythm'. I think you would find it interesting since it is related to what you are looking for. Prosody is the study of poetic metre and of the art of versification, including rhyme, stanzaic forms, and the quantity and stress of syllables
While I want to compose to my own poems I was searching for a study about melody in speech and found this one. It is really interesting and has helped me in composing by looking for the natural melody of the phrases I want to express and use those. I try to stick the most to how I would say it with the true emotion and make the melody sounding like that with duration of the syllables and tone difference in mind.
I think there might be still some of his studies to read online but if you can't find them I could upload this one for you somewhere since it is in pdf. You can send me a pm in that case.
regards, page