Literary Music

I was spending time in my women's art group this evening. One of the ladies had painted a series of portraits of literary greats and I was thinking of it as a juncture where art and literature crossed paths.

So, I got to thinking about the possibility of a similar juncture between music and literature and tried t think of songs that combined those elements.

The very first song that came to mind combines music, literature and chess... of course:

"White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane which references Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland," highlighting the chess elements.

The next song is Dire Strait's (Mark Knopfler) "Romeo and Juliet," which, of course refers to Shakespeare's play but also the 1961 musical film, "West Side Story."  

the final song I thought of is the powerful "Virginia Woolf" by the Indigo Girls.

Of course, sometimes songs are poems put to music, but that's really not what I'm thinking about.

I'd be curious if anyone knew of other songs that collide with literature.

https://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/5541

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bob-dylan-desolation-row_b_4800547

The first to come in mind was the Idiot by Iggy Pop, inspired by Fyodor Dostoevsky. But this was just an album title. Then remember his friend Bowie. Not my favorite from his songs but is said to be inspired by Orwell's 1984

My mother-in-law recently died from cancer.  She was a prolific painter, and not particularly talented.  I have one unsigned monstrosity taking up space, done in a cubist motif.

I was thinking of listing it on eBay as a Hunter Biden. 

"Tales of Mystery and Imagination Edgar Allan Poe" by The Alan Parsons Project.

Terrific album. One of my top all-time favorites.

Wouldn't "Turn, turn, turn" fit this category?  I mean, it's biblical, but that is literature, too, true?

Musicals of classics, e.g. "A Tale of Two Cities" and such, oftentimes are done very well.  Cinematic works of classics also usually have pretty good soundtracks.  The consistently best example of musicals, beyond that, some would argue is opera.  That all varies for me.  On balance I tend to lean towards classical musicals more, but like some operas very much.  Beyond that, I'm certainly familiar with Jefferson Airplane and Dire Straits.  Two notable works that I like as well.

I read the Dylan articles. I think it's less a literary connection than overreach and intellectualizing.   

I can see it.   I would have preferred "Animal Farm" though. 

Here's Paul Simon's take on an animal farm:

Mahler's The Song of the Earth.
Mahler put in music some poems published by Hans Bethge, those poems were a rendering in German of Chinese poems from the Tang Dynasty.

I'd never listened to Clifford T. Ward before.  That's a lovely, sentimental song.  But I wouldn't consider it in what I'm looking for the same reason I discounted Simon and Garfunkel's "Dangling Conversations" in which they sang, "You read your Emily Dickenson and I, my Robert Frost. And we note our place with bookmarkers that measure what we lost."

I hate to admit I'd never heard of the Alan Parsons Project.  I listened to "The Raven," "Cask of Amontillado," "Fall of the House of Usher: Prelude," and "The Tell-Tale Heart."   From the comments after each song, there's no doubt that Alan Parsons has a very dedicated fan base.  

My tin ear left me on the other side of the room.  I didn't much care for any of it. However, it is definitely a literary-musical juncture... so thanks.

Unless it would be considered a poem set to music, I'd say yes.  
But Seeger said, "I improvised a melody to a short poem in the Old Testament."

I hadn't ever considered songs from musicals or operas in my hastily considered idea.  I was thinking more of popular music. For instance, West Side Story references Romeo and Juliet, but I didn't consider it, though Romeo and Juliet by Knopfer- which references both the play and and musical, I did consider.    I am walking a tightrope here... 

I'm too ignorant to even make an intelligible comment.  

But I did discount poems put to music in the OP.  

What about plays which were later transposed in opera, like Beaumarchais' The Marriage of Figaro" which was made in an Opera by Mozart?

I was only asking a question, not trying to make a statement, because I wasn't really sure what you were looking for.  The band Renaissance did an extended song on their album "Scheherazade and other stories"; is that more in line with the topic?  You chose a tough one for this post.

Thanks. I'd never heard of Renaissance.  They're good.  I listened to "Ocean Gypsy" and the "Song of Scheherazade." I'm going to listen to it all later.

I think that fall within what I'm looking for.... songs based on literature.