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Music, which underlay Hughes's poetry,
called forth other talents. A member of ASCAP, Hughes wrote more than 800 song lyrics, many of them published by W.C. Handy. He composed all the lyrics for Kurt Weill's "Street Scene" (1947), the Broadway musical hit based on Elmer Rice's play. He collaborated on songs with Duke Ellington and read "The Weary Blues" with a backup band featuring Charles Mingus. Both Nina Simone and Sammy Heyward set his poems to music. His "Tambourines to Glory" (1959) with Louis Gossett pioneered the Gospel musical form.
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Gospel has become a favorite musical form
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Permission to excerpt
has been granted by The Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
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You can read the entire article, "My Soul Has Grown Deep Like the Rivers" by Curator Patricia C. Willis
Yale University's Langston Hughes exhibit
How can you tell a poem from a song?
One of my favorite singers is the late Etta James whose rhythm and timing in blues, R&B, soul, and jazz makes her songs sound like poems to me. What do you think?
Click here to learn more about Etta James
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One of my favorite images
Can you see rhythm? This is a rhythm with colored lights that are accessible from ordinary keychains. What rhythms can you see every day? |
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