“It Should Live in the Tongue”: An Analysis of the Music in Archicembalo ANDREW GARCIA
an elusive song to master.
The use of consonance and its repetition
Nevertheless, poetry cherishes and welcomes
of vocal sounds creates a sort of poetic melody
sound and voice, along with those who play with
in the opening poem, titled “Who Is Josquin
them. G.C. Waldrep, who formerly trained as
Des Prez.” This poem demonstrates one of the
a singer, believes that poetry should have an
ways in which Waldrep achieves a sense of music
emphasis on vocal performance: “It should live
throughout his poetry: the relationship between
in the tongue,” he says, in an interview, and that
punctuation and time. The prose poem starts
in his book, Archicembalo, “that’s all there was:
off as such: “A little winter, a drop at winter, a
sound quality” (“An Interview with GC Waldrep”).
descent and then a steeper dwindling in the
The idea that poetry should emphasize verbal
depths of winter, a snowdrop. A small sketch.
expression informs the poems in Archicembalo
A snowdrop signals the end of one thing and
and how they should be read—with an ear for
the beginning of another, a wider imprecation.
sound. Waldrep’s poetic craft and skill reveals
How do you do. How does one do. A snowdrop
itself in the musicality of his poems: Waldrep
reminds” (Waldrep 1). The passage involves
uses a deliberate arrangement of punctuation,
the repetition of consonant sounds that recur
repetition, and suggestive imagery that all work
throughout the greater poem. The words “little,”
to blend musical sound with the visual aspect of
“winter,” “dwindling,” “descent,” “snowdrop”
P OETRY
IS
poetry, thus creating musical poems.
reveal the consonants that repeat: “W,” “T,”
A N D R E W G A R C I A (‘22) originally wrote this essay for Genres: Poetry with Professor Sarah Maclay. Archicembalo, the subject of the essay, was a difficult text that changed the way he reads and listens to the sounds of poetry.
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