Original poem by Robert Frost, music by Eric Whitacre
As the poet Dana Gioia wrote more than three decades ago in The Atlantic Monthly, poetry should be recovered as a public art form through a variety of means. Gioia urged poets and artists to work together to breathe life into poetry as a performative art. In particular, Gioia recommended that poets and producers “mix poetry with the other arts, especially music.”
Now that several of Robert Frost’s poems are in the public domain, Eric Whitacre is getting to work on poetry mixed with music. Listen to “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” and see how the music renders Frost’s classic American lyric.
