Resounding Verse

About Resounding Verse

Join music theorist Stephen Rodgers as he explores how composers transform words into songs. Each episode discusses one poem and one musical setting of it. The music is diverse—covering a variety of styles and time periods, and focusing on composers from underrepresented groups—and the tone is accessible and personal. If you love poetry and song, no matter your background and expertise, this show is for you. Episodes are 20-40 minutes long and air every couple of months.

Publisher

Stephen Rodgers

Category

arts · arts · music

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

15 May 2021

Latest episode

13 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

3 of 28 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   13 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Meine Ruh' ist hin (My Peace is Gone): Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Marie Franz

   Soprano Rebecca Nelsen and pianist Chanda VanderHart explore Marie Franz's setting of Goethe's "Meine Ruh' ist hin" in this interview.

2. 

   23 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Die gute Nacht, die ich dir sage (The Good Night That I Bid You): Friedrich Rückert and Clara Schumann

   Host [Host Name] explores Clara Schumann's musical interpretation of Friedrich Rückert's poem, revealing how her composition captures themes of distance and suspended time in this interview.

3. 

   9 Sept 2026

   Evensong: Constance Morgan and Liza Lehmann

   Constance Morgan’s “Evensong” is a quiet nighttime poem in which a speaker asks the angels to fold their wings around her and “hush me to sleep.” But sleep in the poem carries a darker meaning. In this episode, I explore Liza Lehmann’s 1916 setting of the poem and the ways her music deepens that ambiguity. The episode features mezzo-soprano Catherine Wyn-Rogers and pianist Steuart Bedford, Lehmann’s grandson, from an album of Lehmann songs released by Naxos Records. For more information about...

Inside a recent episode

Meine Ruh' ist hin (My Peace is Gone): Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Marie Franz

Published 13 Oct 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] Now, any discussion of this poem, Meine Ru is Tin, this incredibly famous poem, will naturally bring to mind Schubert's iconic setting of it called Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel. Here is the beginning of Schubert's song. Schubert's piano part is one of the most famous examples of musical text painting in all of German song. The continuous sixteenth notes in the right hand evoke the spinning of Gretchen's wheel and also the churning of her emotions. Marie Franz, however, takes a slightly different approach. If Schubert uses the piano to create a sense of underlying anxiety, Franz uses it to create an even greater sense of outward turmoil. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

25 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

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