Wendy showed me this neat site (MusicFont) that turns words into manuscript music, and then generates a MIDI file of the music (then, you probably need to convert the MIDI track into MP3). I could not resist taking a poem I wrote for Terry the other day, transforming the poem into sheet music, and then generating an audio file. The result is rather fascinating, as you can “hear” a musical interpretation of the words of the poem.
This is the poem:
I love how technology has the potential to transform our writing into something slightly askew, allowing us to experience composition from its many angles. Here, you may only hear the music (and it a bit odd, sort of new age classical, as if the rules if composing were being a bit bent) and think, what’s so special about that?
Me?
I read the musical notes on the manuscript page, and think about the correlation to the poem, and then hear the music as a sensory companion to the words that I wrote, the rain coming, which were words first inspired by a poem that my friend Terry Elliott wrote.
That’s a pretty cool journey for a poem ….
Peace (in the sound of words),
Kevin