By Christopher Marcisz Image credit: Roman Iwasiwka

During a master class with acclaimed composer John Harbison in April, three seniors had the chance to share portions of compositions they were working on for their theses. the group delved into harmonic movements and pitch progressions. Then the conversation took a literary turn.

Composer John Harbison & Sato Matsui '14
Sato Matsui ’14 (right) shares her thesis composition with visiting artist John Harbison.

Describing the experience of listening to a difficult piece of music, the composer told the students that “the listener is a combination of a party guest and victim.” Harbison’s observation launched an in-depth discussion about The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem about terror and madness in the South Seas.

Harbison, a Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Foundation “genius” award winner, was one of several visiting artists to participate in a weeklong collaboration examining the ties between music and poetry, and between composers and poets. Joining him were two more Pulitzer winners—Louise Glück, former Williams senior lecturer in English and U.S. poet laureate, and Lloyd Schwartz, music critic and poet—as well as mezzo-soprano Lynn Torgove of the Boston Conservatory.

In addition to offering lectures and master classes with students and professors in the English and music departments, the artists discussed the value of studying the relationship between words and music—”languages that speak to one another,” Glück called it—during a panel moderated by W. Anthony Sheppard, professor of music and department chairman.

As part of the master class with Harbison, music major Sato Matsui ’14 presented two pieces she composed: a movement of a string quartet and a piece for soprano, alto flute and piano set to a poem by Yone Noguchi. Matsui says her art history, religion and history studies at Williams all influenced her musical work. “I didn’t want to go to a conservatory.” Matsui says. “I wanted the liberal arts experience.”

The week culminated with a performance of Harbison’s work, including The Seven Ages, a setting for six poems from Glück’s book of the same name, and The Right to Pleasure, set to four poems by Williams assistant professor of English Jessica Fisher. Both pieces featured vocal accompaniment by Torgove.

The collaborations showed students that “there is another level of work to accomplish,” Sheppard says. Musicians need to consider more than just their instruments. And vocalists must “think beyond technique and focus also on how to convey the meaning of the poems,” he says.

All of which shines a light on the exchange of ideas that happens when students are free to study a wide range of material—one academic discovery often informs another, which leads to collaboration. Says Sheppard: “A lot of interdisciplinary thinking happens as students walk from one class to another.”