Music and Edgar Allan Poe: A Fourth Annotated Checklist

Burton R Pollin Music and Edgar Allan Poe: A Fourth Annotated Checklist Long introductions precede each of my previous decadaldescriptivebibliographiesof "PoeMusic" (1973,1982,1993),or musiccreated primarilyfor the works of Poe.Thesemay preempt the need to explain again here my methods, aimed for forty years at "filling out" or supplementing May G. Evans's 1939book, Music andEdgar Allan Poe. T e gether, the four installmentsadd nearly 1000Poe compositions to her listed 200, signifying that Poe's works continue to be composers' sourcesof inspirationand targetsfor tribute. The successive lists also represent changes in the available media : from printed and published scores, to shellac recordings, then to plastic CDs, and now to computer-sentscores and "down-loadable"musicalworks . This affects the way my material has to be arranged, since the list of 1993was the last to segregate the music on Poe films, cassettes,and discs from the scores and performances evidencingworksof music. More music now appearsfirst and/or solelyon recordings.Therefore all items are here merged, alphabetically,accordingto the composers' names in most cases. That vital element too has been altered greatly,since so many of the popular bands, largelyplaying rock music, composetheir "Poepiece"togetheror collectively. By recording a continuityof playingsor "vocalizations '' and then drawing from it a selective combination of excerptsorsegmentswith manymodifications ,the group can issueorformallyperform the piece in public under the group's collective name-for example, Fires of Hell, Grave Digger, Iron Maiden, Lunatic Invasion, Taters and Pie, Tourniquet, and Wreckage. Many, of course, expressthe modem senseof youthfulalienationand distress that they find resonating in Poe, viewed as a fellow "sufferer"and an assumed "addict." In this descriptive bibliography, any significant change or addition to an earlier decadal entry , as specified,is labeled "Add." for addendum or addition, a notation included right after "composer ."As noted, there is no sectionalcategorization of the entries, such as Filmographyor Discography , as in 1993 and earlier. A broader basis forcallinga piece"Poemusic"mustbe used, ranging from mere sonicor atmosphericbackground for a recitation or reading, or for a filmed or dramatic or danced scene for a Poe writing, to a "libretto " or textual songacompaniment or a tuneful memorial to his life.Commercializedor sponsored performancesfor profit on film or CDs are included to show the great sway of Poe virtually over the wholeworld. I have sought instancesbeyond the United States, of course, but national bibliographies of music are not easily available, and they are rife with pitfalls of language and unusual methods of manipulating data. Abroad, the British and German systemsseemed the most accessible,and a personal visit to the Madrid National Library enabled a thorough search there, but other probable storesof Poe entries must be assumed to exist,worldwide.(Seesamplesbelow.) Of course, the countlessweb pages facilitatedby Coogle,OCLC,and RLIN, and by Great Britain's convenient entrke through "Gabriel" to various national bibliographies,have helped to accumulate over 380 entries in this, my largest listing.To crowd so much materialinto a givenspacein this journal,sograciouslyofferedby the coeditors,has required me to "cutcomers": for example,by using abbreviations, keyed at the end of this intre duction; frequently employing short versions of Poe titles;disregardingsetrulesabout uniformity of style;and using a singlesetof quotation marks 78 Poe Studies/Dark Romanticism after a number to signal the duration in minutes of a composition. The values that inhere in this type of survey have been discussed in my previous introductions, and need not now be detailed, though I will call the reader’s attention to the category of “juvenile productions,” such as “Halloween music,” and especially “popular music,” or the many rockmusic discs now prominent in CD offerings. To demonstrate the geographic scope of Poe’s influence , I list below examples of countries outside the USA represented in this list. After the country come the composers, separated only by slashes. Argentina: Lambertini; Australia: Bolton/Ford/ Miller/Rockey; Austria: Kont; Belgium: Gohy; Canada: Forrest-Lindquist/Leloup/Sleeman; Czechoslovakia:Fiser/Smetana; DenmarkOlsen/ Ruders; England:Ascham/Baines/Russell/Stranglers /Toye; Estonia: Laur; Finland: Klami/ Rautavaara; France: Akim/Boutonnat/Cande/ Dhumont/Giraud/Pilinski/Reibel/Sciortino/ Wakhevitch; Germany: Goebbels/Romeo/Skoidats /Staud/Wallmann/ [and dozens of rock groups]; Greece: Bikos/Sgouros/Theodorakis; Israel: Schidlowsky/Sternberg; Italy: Einaudi/ Rossi/Tomassi; Japan: Momo; Mexico: Lavista; Netherlands:Focke...