Audio Poetry Listening Room

Music

Creative

AUDIO POETRY LISTENING ROOM

A DIVERSE COLLECTION OF AUDIO POEMS READ BY RICHARD HILL Set in original musical soundscapes composed by Richard and/or Paul Hill Recorded on Cakewalk Sonar X1 Producer Expanded and mixed by Richard Hill.

Welcome to the 'Audio Poetry Listening Room'. The unique space of the APL Room is conceived as a retreat from the tensions of our frantic, fast moving and demanding world. It offers a quiet sanctuary of peace and tranquillity, where you may enjoy and reflect on both the words, and their union with the musical soundscapes which frame the poetry of Richard Hill. Here are poems of great diversity, poems inspired by planet Earth, philosophical poems and poems of wit and humour, poetry of deep personal feeling, and poems exploring science and space technology. In a production partnership with son Paul, who also provides some of the soundscape material, these poetry recordings, all narrated by Richard Hill, are read over original musical tapestries specially created to enrich the appreciation of each poem for the listener. You may like to use headphones to better appreciate the stereo placement of sounds.

Background

As a composer, Richard Hill has been lucky enough to have enjoyed commissions involving the works of some of England's greatest poets. Having been introduced to Geoffrey Chaucer's pin-bright, sparkling medieval poem of an English spring pilgrimage 'The Canterbury Tales' whilst at school, he found himself some years later, working with Professor Nevill Coghill, Merton Professor of English Literature at Oxford University, on a populist stage musical dramatisation of C.T. Nevill Coghill was already famous for having produced the definitive translation of the poem from Middle English into Modern English, in verse, and retaining the lilting, rhyming couplet structure of Chaucer's original. This stage version, created along with collaborators John Hawkins and Martin Starkie, ran for five and a half years in London's West End. After a Broadway season it went on two tours of the USA, was in production all over the world for decades, and it is still performed today.

Such a magical 'close encounter' with Chaucer further inspired Hill's love of poetry. It has been followed throughout his career by similar connections, with John Mortimer's 'Will Shakespeare' for ATV television, and with his musical settings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and 'Kubla Khan'. From Chaucer to Coleridge, from Shakespeare to T S Eliot, Hill has brought his own personal interpretations of poems by framing them in music - and has earned some wonderful reviews for his settings, both in the UK and the USA. It is hardly surprising therefore, that he would eventually come to explore his own creativity in the genre and would start to create his own poetry.
All poems are the copyright of Richard Hill. All soundscapes are the copyright of Richard and/or Paul Hill. All works are registered with the Performing Right Society. We are happy to allow downloads of the text and audio files, for personal use only.
Poems with a Planetary Theme

Primal Gods [2:27] - soundscape composed by Richard Hill

Solstice [5:30] - soundscape composed by Paul Hill

If I Could Live on Old, Grey Moon [3:05] - soundscape composed by Richard Hill

The Earth, the Earth, the Poor Old Earth [1:55] - soundscape composed by Richard Hill

Open Letter from an Alien [2:05] - soundscape composed by Richard and Paul Hill

Farewell, Voyager [with NASA multinational children's voice greetings to aliens] [3:37] - soundscape composed by Richard and Paul Hill

Earthbound Poems

I Know No Other Universe [3:21] - soundscape composed by Richard Hill

A Winter Dream [2:11] - soundscape composed by Richard Hill

On Offa's Dyke [1:38] - soundscape composed by Paul Hill

Time's a Funny Thing [2:27] - soundscape composed by Paul Hill

The Box Houses [3:00] - soundscape composed by Richard Hill

The Fisherman [2:59] - soundscape composed by Richard Hill

On Discovering an Ammonite [2:26] - soundscape composed by Richard and Paul Hill

D. N. A. [2:19] - soundscape composed by Paul Hill

Do I Like Quantum Physics! [2:26] - soundscape composed by Richard Hill

So Long! [3:06] - soundscape composed by Richard Hill

Worlds Within Worlds [3:07] - soundscape composed by Richard Hill

Home | Help | Contact Us | Useful Links | Terms of Use | MP3 Archive