Graham Fawcett
writer, teacher, translator and broadcaster
e-mail: grahamkfawcett@gmail.com
telephone: 020 7405 3997
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Past Events
with Graham Fawcett
Earlier this summer
Saturday 28th June 2008
ALDEBURGH, SUFFOLK
THE POETRY SCHOOL
POETS' ENGLAND 2 - Benjamin Britten's PoetsThe Swiss soprano Sophie Wyss remembers that in 1938 she and Benjamin Britten “were travelling back by train after having given a recital together, when he came over to me very excitedly . . . and said that he had just read the most wonderful poetry by Rimbaud and was so eager to set it to music . . . He was so full of this poetry he just could not stop talking about it”.
The result was an orchestra song-cycle after Rimbaud, Britten’s Les Illuminations for solo voice and strings, and illumination, in the obvious sense of flooding with light and as the monks did, elaborating and gracing with shape and colour the substance of a page of text, is Britten’s business as he sets words. William Blake’s poems were revisited several times by Britten, and Blake had a whole vocabulary of light. W B Yeats described Blake’s The Songs of Innocence and The Book of Thel as
“illuminated missals of song in which every page is a window open in Heaven”.
Britten, like any skilled photographer, chose to deal in light with a subject which already contained a light the composer senses is implicitly there and can be worked with, brought out, even enhanced. We will watch, read and hear Britten at work on location, his sense of the light and contour in a poem palpable as he recreates Tennyson’s bugle and sea-creature, handles the mechanisms of sonnets by Donne, Keats, Michelangelo and Owen, takes the Latin mass onto the World War One battlefield to stand alongside Owen’s eye-witness in the War Requiem, and inhabits Crabbe’s dramatic narrative in Peter Grimes.
COMMENTS:
It was a marvellous day for all sorts of reasons: the weather was lovely; it was a fascinating way to learn about Britten's life and music (walking the walk?); the different places we stopped at on the way - bracken path, shingle beach, Aldeburgh with Crabbe thrown in, the Red House; above all, learning of Britten's love of literature and that poetry is so bound up in some of his music. My knowledge of Britten's music was small and what I'd heard I hadn't enjoyed very much, so hearing the extracts you played opened my ears to a new experience of it. Another reason the day went so well, as far as I'm concerned, was your enthusiasm and the way you had organised it. It was one of those occasions that stays in the memory and can be taken out and looked at in the days to come.
Rosalynde Price
What a fantastic day we had last Saturday in Aldeburgh. It was the most stimulating and interesting day that I have had in a long time. It was especially interesting for me as being a musician and a painter too as well as writing poetry the day incorporated all of these cross overs in the arts. Thank you for all the work that you put into it to make it such a wonderful day for us. I have told several people all about the day and two people want to come on your Little Gidding day and East Coker day as well as myself!
Someone has lent me several CDs of Britten's music as my local library had nothing by Britten. So I am all set to listen to this great man. I found it such a privilege to walk in his footsteps across the dunes to the sea where he composed his music in his head. What an amazing feat to hear all of the instruments in his head and all of the composition.
I can't say enough wonderful things about this day, it was truly a nourishing and happy day.
Rosalind Beeton
Thank you for an excellent day. It was so informative, and enjoyable, and I now listen to the Serenade for Tenor Horn and Strings with a new level of interest - musically it was always one of my favourite Britten works, but now I understand it so much better! The same goes for the other poems we studied with you. Also, as an Aldeburgh resident it was great to learn more about the walks taken by Britten, which I had never tried, and then what a treat to see the various manuscripts.
Robert Lane
I too was greatly inspired by the day and am keen to go in a leisurely way through all of the materials and the music.
Fred Ellis
Enquiries - from groups or individuals - for a re-staging of this day to: grahamkfawcett@gmail.com
Monday 14th July and Tuesday 15th July 2008, 1030am-430pm
LONDON
THE POETRY SCHOOL
POETRY SCHOOL SUMMER SCHOOL TRANSLATING THE POEM SPECIAL SUMMER SCHOOL EDITION
These two days of sessions to give you the practical experience of translating poetry reflect the growing popularity of the Poetry School’s new Translating The Poem courses. These courses, first over ten and more recently over twenty weeks, have offered poets, many of you for the first time, the chance to make English versions of poems from other languages with the help of specially compiled 100% vocabulary sheets.
Now, in four sessions spread over two days – open to all (you do not need to have attended Translating The Poem courses so far) – you will be given poems to translate from French, Latin, Welsh and Japanese. No previous knowledge of these languages is needed and the course are designed so that you benefit most by coming to each session unprepared.
Where vocabulary clues are not enough, and the grammar and syntax prove a mystery to you, you will be encouraged to respond transcreatively to the text, letting it take you where you will.
Published versions of the poems will be provided at the end of each session for comparison and discussion in the workshop sessions and there will be opportunities to read your finished and unfinished work.
COMMENTS:
Thank you for an extremely engaging and productive couple of days, expertly piloted. I'm also grateful for your introducing us to Jaccottet and the Basho travel journal, both very welcome news to me, and to be pursued. Barry Taylor
Thank you very much for your 'Translating the Poem' classes. I enjoyed them very much, Your translation exercises stimulated my brain and brought me into contact with foreign poetry I knew little about before (Welsh, for example!). The discussions of translation were interesting too.
Dennis Tomlinson
A short note to say how much I enjoyed the Translation course. Exhilarating !
Jeremy Solnick
I really enjoyed your 2-day translation summer school in July, and it has reinvigorated my interest in translating poetry. I intend to tackle more of Horace and some Spanish poetry (and have a few Russian items up my sleeve for later).
Rod Riesco
Enquiries - from groups or individuals - for a re-staging of these days in London or beyond, to grahamkfawcett@gmail.com