I'm celebrating Emily Dickinson this week, and this is a poem, extraordinary even for her, the tragic story of a faithful gun. Since this is the Parlando Project I took Dickinson's poem and turned into a strange little song.  That's what the Project does and has done over 750 times. We take various words (usually literary poetry) and combine them with original music in differing styles. You can read about the experience or hear all the audio pieces at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org ..read more

Another Emily Dickinson setting where my music seeks to bring out the strangeness that sits in-between some of her poems' lines. This lesser-known Dickinson poem might be paired with her "Because I could not stop for Death."  She's singing here before the carriage arrives. For more than 750 other combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.org ..read more

Each year on September 18th I do something to commemorate composer and guitarist Jimi Hendrix. This year I set this famous short poem by classical Chinese poet Li Bai. Later this morning I'll post more about thoughts on how this poet and that musician might fit together. This just one example of what the Parlando Project does: we combine various words (mostly literary poetry) with music in different styles and then write about the experience of that at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org ..read more

The Parlando Project is less often able to present the live rock band performances that it started out with, but here's a little piece from one of those performances, one telling about the aftermath of a large hail and high-wind storm that struck in August of 2023. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations and you can hear them all and read more about our experience with the poems at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org ..read more

Late 19th century American poet Richard Hovey translated many French Symbolist poems; but this sonnet, published in a posthumous collection, is apparently Hovey's own work in French under the title "Au Seuil." Hovey's poem considers dying and the possibility of a judgement and afterlife. I translated Hovey's French into English for this musical performance. The Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with original music in different styles. This is the 775th one we've published, and you can hear them all and read about our encounters with the poems at ou ..read more

Here's a short love poem by written for the 1894 Songs From Vagabondia by Richard Hovey. This book found favor with young men in its day for eschewing moral uplift and earnest toil to write instead of wine, women, and joyful travels,  The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can hear them and read more about this at our blog and archives at frankhudson.org ..read more

Pioneering Canadian poet Bliss Carman included this fantastic prose poem in his breakthrough 1894 collection "Songs from Vagabondia." Is it the slightly intoxicated wonder-talk of two tipsy young men, or the account of two angels playing with the universe? That Carman seems to have designed that blurring makes for an interesting 19th century SciFi vignette which I perform today. The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can find them at our blog and archives located at frankhu ..read more

Pioneering Canadian poet Bliss Carman's break-through collection was called Songs of Vagabondia,  a popular 1894 book which extoled the adventurous and sensuous life. In this selection he jauntingly compares Robert Burns and Robert Browning. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can find more at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org ..read more

Ancient Greek poet Sappho's poetry survives in fragments and spaces, but in 1904 a Canadian poet imagined Sappho's poems as if they were complete. The audacity of that project undertaken by Bliss Carman must be conceded, but the results can be judged on their own merits. The Greeks said that Sappho's poems were sung with lyre music, and the Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with original music we create. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can find all of them and what we write about our encounters with the work at our blog and archi ..read more

August 6th is the 8th anniversary of the launch of the Parlando Project — but it is also the 23rd anniversary of my late wife's death and Hiroshima Day. The Parlando Project is largely about performing other people's words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in various styles, but for this August observance I used a poem I myself wrote about grief and have now turned into a song.  The Parlando Project blog and archives is where I write about my encounters with the words combined with music. There are more than 750 examples there. You can find them at frankhudson.org   ..read more