Gerald F. Sweeney's new book is titled "US Composers and Poets - The Intersection of American Classical Music and American Literature."
The relationship between American composers and American writers has always been close. Creating the music to accompany and enhance the prose and poetry pf our greatest writers has given us a treasury of musical masterpieces, including Ives' "Concord Sonata" after Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and the Alcotts- as well as Copland's "Poems of Emily Dickinson," Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" with DuBose Heyward, and Lukas Foss's "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" after Mark Twain.
This new soft cover book contains the musical offerings of 300 American composers who have embellished the literary creations of over one hundred and fifty American writers. This includes thirty-five musical versions of poems set by Walt Whitman and twenty-five by Emily Dickinson, indicating the devotion shown to our favorite poets by American troubadours.