BBC Proms - 2010 - Proms Plus - Proms Literary Festival - Poetry about Music

Ian McMillan presents a Proms Literary Festival programme recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music, exploring poetry about music. Poetry and music have been associated from the earliest tradition of oral epic poetry, and music has inspired poets from Shakespeare to Emily Dickinson, for example in her work "Musicians wrestle everywhere" Tonight's guests, David Harsent and Jo Shapcott, have both been inspired to writer poems about music. David's recent collection includes "Duet" and "Harp Strings" and he has regularly worked with Harrison Birtwistle to write libretti for opera, including The Minotaur. Jo Shapcott poems include "Shapcott's Variations" and she has written lyrics for or had her words set to music by composers such as John McCabe, Detlev Glamert, Errolyn Wallen and John Woolrich. David Harsent and Jo Shapcott join Ian McMillan to explore how the subject of music itself inspires poets, the difference between writing poetry and writing libretti, and the orchestration of a poem.