Poetics Movement 5

Movement 5 is based on a cinquain, which is an American Poem invented by Adelaide Crapsey. It is five lines long and uses a syllable count of 2,4,6,8,2 to determine the line breaks. Three possible variants are mirror 2,4,6,8,2,4,6,8,2; butterfly 2,3,6,8,2,2,4,6,8,2; and reversal 2,8,6,4,2. I combined mirror and reversal in my poem therefore creating a syllable count of 2,4,6,8,2,8,6,4,2.

Uncertainty

Sy Brandon ©2011 Sy Brandon

Soft hugs

Warm caresses

Words of deep affection

Your beauty ignites my senses

Hoping

Can my thoughts be echoed by you?

How can I let you know

What my heart feels?

Don’t know

The syllable count is reflected in the number of notes in each phrase with the exception of measures 13-16 and 30-end where I repeat the two syllable (note) phrase "don't know" four more times to add to the uncertainty. M. 17 begins a repeated variant of the poem as the music was too short without it. I tried to keep the music mostly homophonic in order to not obscure the syllable (note) count, but it also serves the purpose of creating a calm, contemplative movement that is in contrast to the other movements of the piece. The only place I depart form the homophonic style is in measures 8-10 and 25-27 as these sections are canonic reflecting the words "Can my thoughts be echoed by you?"

I am now using flip pdf technology for the musical examples that go along with my posts. It uses Flash Player that most browsers come with. You will be hearing an mp3 of sampled sounds playing the music and you will see the score at the same time. You will need to turn the pages by clicking on the arrows at the appropriate time. To see and hear what I have discussed, go to http://www.cooppress.net/poetics_blog.html.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Dr. B