Peter,

Regarding work on Pound and drama, I'd like to recommend four additional
resources.  One of Pound's stated critical means was "criticism by
composition".  This is generally taken to mean "poetic composition"
(i.e., translation) but, as you know, Pound had deep interests in drama
and music.  These interests weren't separate from the Cantos, but deeply
informed the Cantos.  In fact, Pound engaged in direct composition of
both drama and music while working on the Cantos.  In addition to his
translations of Greek tragedy, he wrote two complete operas ("The
Testament of Francois Villon" and "Cavalcanti") and left a third
("Collis O Heliconii") unfinished; he also wrote many solo violin pieces.

Pound's operas (dramatic chamber pieces, really) draw on Pound's
engagement with the Noh plays, sometimes in stylization, sometimes in
their organization of a thought or image from beginning to end, and
always in their presentation of a living poet's intimate visit with the
ghost of the earlier poet (subject rhyme to the nekuia scenes of Cantos).

The four suggestions:

1) "Ezra Pound's Radio Operas: The BBC Experiments, 1931-1933"
(Margaret Fisher, MIT Press 2002)

A deep, readable, eminently informative, and fascinating study of the
composition and transformation of "The Testament of Francois Villon" for
live Radio performance (including a great deal of information regarding
Pound's second radio opera "Cavalcanti").

Pounds first opera is "The Testament of Francois Villon", which was
produced for radio by the BBC and broadcast October 26 and 27, 1931.
Though translation is one of his forms of criticism, Pound never
translated the poetry of Villon.  Here we witness Pound's critical
encounter with Villon through the means of composition: most of the
opera is a setting of Villon's poetry to music, which functions not only
as a critique of Villon, but of western music and drama.  Pound received
assistance in the scoring for the opera from George Antheil.

Link: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=8767&ttype=2

2) "Cavalcanti: A Perspective on the Music of Ezra Pound" (Robert Hughes
and Margaret Fisher, Second Evening Art 2003)

This great work begins with a quotation from Canto CV: "Guido had read
the Proslogion / as had, presumably, Villon".  The first line of the
commentary reads, "Pound wrote two operas, an incomplete  third, and his
major violin works for literary reasons".  This is the perfect
summation. Not only does "Cavalcanti" contain the complete score of
Pound's second opera "Cavalcanti" painstakingly assembled and edited by
Robert Hughes from all available archival material (plus a piano
reduction by Hughes), beautifully engraved by Margaret Fisher:
Cavalcanti also includes an extensive and clear book-length monograph
discussing Pound's artistic process as it relates to his music and
cross-fertilizes his poetry.  The introductory essay by Robert Hughes
and Margaret Fisher (203 pgs including index and bibliography) is an
indispensable contribution to the Pound literature.  A complete
understanding of Pound the poet cannot be achieved without taking into
consideration his musical achievements.  It is well known that Guido
Cavalcanti was a major influence on Pound; that Pound translated all of
Cavalcanti's poems; and that Pound produced a critical edition of
Cavalcanti's poems.  What is not so well known is how Pound HEARD
Cavalcanti's poems.  By setting Cavalcanti's poems to music, Pound
directly shows us how he hears Cavalcanti.

Link: http://www.ezrapoundmusic.com/

3) "Ezra Pound: Complete Violin Works, 1923 -1933" (Edited with
commentary by Robert Hughes, Introduction by Margaret Fisher, Second
Evening Art 2004)

Pound's violin works are transcriptions of poems into music.  They are
NOT music for poems to be sung to.  This is something entirely
different.  This is Ezra Pound displaying his creative genius to its
limits.  A quotation from the book may serve as best introduction:

"The idea of creating a purely instrumental work from the structure of a
poem -- its form, rhythm and, eventually, aspects of its melopoeia --
was inherent in Pound's earliest, simplest, quasi-compositional effort
as transcriber of Faidit's 'Plainte' from the pages of the Ambrosiana
manuscript in Milan into Olga Rudge's partbook on the stage of the
Conservatoire in Paris. From an application of this idea to the
complicated sestina form through its simplification in the 'Sonate
Ghuidonis' to a final flowering in Dante's 'Al poco giorno', Pound
continued to search for the multiform and intricate fusion between words
and music."

To me, this is something like the essence of Ezra Pound: the complete
interpenetration of words and music to the point that each can be
abstracted from the other.  The commentary shows in detail the
connections between each violin work and the particular poem it
encounters.  This is a sterling example of the authentic avant garde.

Link: http://www.ezrapoundmusic.com/

4) "Ego scriptor cantilenae: The Music of Ezra Pound" (Other Minds
Compact Disc)

The indispensable companion to all three books.  The CD provides
excerpts from all three operas and Pound's violin music performed at
various times and in a variety of places.  Included with the CD is a
lovely little booklet that could stand alone as a charming and
informative Pound monograph.  It includes libretti of included excerpts
plus a valuable essay by Margaret Fisher, "Ezra Pound: Composer",
discussions of individual performances, and a lot of other useful odds
and ends (including some rare photographs).  Performances on the CD
include selections from the first stage performance of "Villon",
conducted by Robert Hughes in 1971 and released in 1972 on LP by
Fantasy  (12001).  As additional treats from "Villon", we are given a
1980  performance conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw and a 1992 performance
conducted by John Stringer. Also included are copious excerpts from
"Cavalcanti" and "Collis O Heliconii", as well as some of Pound's
violin  music (performed by Nathan Rubin), recorded on various dates in
1983 and  2001, some of the former supervised by Olga Rudge!

Enjoy!
Dirk

Peter Montgomery wrote:

>Btw. I'm now a proud owner of:
>A GUIDE TO EZRA POUND  AND ERNEST FENOLLOSA'S   CLASSIC NOH THEATRE OF JAPAN
>by  Akiko Miyake, Sanehide Kodama and Nicholas Teele, Editors
>
>Courtesy Ms. Gail Sapiel, Prof. Burt Hatlen, and a dose of mastercard.
>What a piece of work!
>
>Cheers,
>Peter
>
>
>

--
Dirk Johnson
676 Geary #407
San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: 415-771-7734
Work: 510-208-8206
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