Home > MMP > Iss. 7 (2025)
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Abstract
Musical settings of Walt Whitman’s poems have proliferated ever since the turn of the twentieth century. Many of these settings were by British composers reacting to the effects of World War I in Europe: the two settings of Whitman’s short poem “Reconciliation” (1865–66) discussed here are those by the Scottish-American composer and concert pianist Helen Hopekirk (1856–1945) and the English composer and poet Ivor Gurney (1890–1937). Both settings reflect the immediate emotions aroused by the poem in the different situations in which the two composers found themselves: the immigrant Hopekirk teaching at the New England Conservatory but concerned about enlisted relatives in Europe, Gurney attempting to re-enter civilian life after horrendous experiences as a soldier in the trenches of Flanders. The settings also show an attempt to explore unusual tonal horizons: Hopekirk influenced by exposure to Debussy’s piano works and the traditional melody of the Scottish Highlands, Gurney reaching back to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and English forerunners such as Campion or Dowland. Both settings are valuable for their immediacy of response to the war, and for their emotional authenticity.
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