Four Preludes is a musical setting of Carl Sandburg's poem, "Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind." The music consists of four movements scored for chorus, soprano solo, baritone solo, and full orchestra. The movements are connected by orchestral interludes between each of the four verses. The total performance time is approximately twelve minutes.

<p>Uppsatsen ingår i Skapande svenska C, 30 hp inom ämnet Litteraturvetenskap vid Umeå universitet</p>

The connection of music and verse evident in the work of American poet, Carl Sandburg, is a topic that has received inadequate attention. Much preexisting research has focused on Sandburg's work with The American Songbag anthology; however little has been written about music composers' settings of his verse. The relevance of Sandburg's work as a poet has faded in today's society; the rural prairie subject matter and his poetic style are deemed archaic in an ever-evolving mechanistic society. Philip Wharton, a native of Sandburg's Midwest prairie, composes to create an evocative and image-laden world for the hearers of his music. This is what creates a semblance between both artists' works. This paper makes a connection between the work of the 20th century prairie poet and a current, 21st century American composer's musical setting of Sandburg's verse. Both artists are connected not only geographically, but also in their approach to an accessible art form for their audience. Negating current compositional trends and using text from Sandburg's poetry collections, Chicago Poems and Cornhuskers, Wharton melds the text into his evocative, imagistic musical language in his song cycle, The Prairie Sings. Using examples from the five movements of the cycle, I show the dependent relationship of verse and music. An in-depth analysis of the connection of poetry and music in each of the five movements of the cycle is contained in the paper. An additional connection in the dynamic interplay of the vocal line and piano accompaniment, the two "narrators" of the cycle, is also discussed. The resulting research points to an aspect of a creation of a regional American "sound, " reminiscent of trends of nationalism in the 19th and 20th century in art, literature and music.

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The thesis focuses on texts written and translated by members of Group 42, Jiřina Hauková and Jiří Kolář, specifically. It begins with a description of 1940s' literary context, incorporating poetical principles stated by Jindřich Chalupecký, the leading theorist of the Group 42. The research section of the thesis begins with an analysis of Jiřina Hauková's Přísluní and Cizí pokoj and Jiřího Kolář's Křestný list, Ódy a variace and Limb a jiné básně, poetry collections directly influenced and heading towards the poetic principles of the Group 42. This is followed by an analysis of the translations of poems by Dylan Thomas, Carl Sandburg and T. S. Eliot, the key being a comparison of various published versions. In case of Thomas and Sandburg, these are versions by the same translator published in different selections; in case of Eliot, these are versions by different translators. The thesis is concluded by the answer to the question whether and to what extent Jiřina Hauková and Jiří Kolář fulfil the poetic requirements of the Group 42 and to what extent their own poetics are present in the translations.

Chicago occupies a place in the American imagination as a city of industry and opportunity for those who are willing to hustle. Writers have in no small part contributed to the creation of this mythology; this canon includes Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, Carl Sandburg, and Richard Wright. What is it about these authors that make them the classics of Chicago literature? The “essential” books of Chicago enshrine a period during which the city still held a prominent position in the national economy and culture, and embodied for Americans something of their own identity—the value of individualism, and the Protestant work ethic. Notably absent are the narratives from immigrants, particularly those of color: for a city that was a primary destination for the Great Migration of African Americans from the South and the concurrent immigration of Mexicans in the early part of the 20th century, it is remarkable that these stories have not gained significant attention, with the exception of Richard Wright’s. This dissertation interrogates the discourse of ambition and labor in the Chicago literary tradition from the perspective of three Mexican American authors from Chicago—Carlos Cortez, Ana Castillo, and Sandra Cisneros. These authors, faced with late 20th century deindustrialization and the enduring legacy of segregation, engage with the canonical narratives of Chicago by addressing the intersections of race and citizenship as they affect urban space and labor opportunities. Rather than simply offering a critique, however, the Mexican American authors engage in a re-visioning of the city that incorporates the complexities of a fluid, transnational experience, and in doing so suggest the future of urban life in a post-industrial America. / text