Classical Dylan?

This morning I was poking around to see who won Grammy awards last night. (I always watch the Oscars, but never the Grammys.) I didn't really care about much of what I saw until I ran across the Grammy for Classical Contemporary Composition: Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan, - John Corigliano

What? You gotta be kidding me. Hadn't heard about this.

The album also won a Grammy for Classical Vocal Performance: Hila Plitmann, soprano.

Here's the story from composer John Corigliano:

A colleague suggested that I look into the poetry of the songs of Bob Dylan. Having not yet listened to the songs, I decided to send away for the texts only … and found many of them to be every bit as beautiful and as immediate as I had heard – and surprisingly well-suited to my own musical language … these would be in no way arrangements, or variations, or in any way derivations of the music of the original songs, which I decided to not hear before the cycle was complete … I intended to treat the Dylan lyrics as the poems I found them to be. Nor would their settings make any attempt at pop or rock writing. I wanted to take poetry I knew to be strongly associated with popular art and readdress it in terms of concert art – crossover in the opposite direction, one might say. Dylan granted his permission, and I set to work.

I'm listening to it now for the first time. (The album is on the Naxos label, which is great since our library allows us streaming music access to almost all of the Naxos titles for free. Maybe your library does also. Check and see.) It's just my first listen, but it's pretty amazing how Corigliano has tapped into the intensity and power of Dylan's lyrics without ever having heard the music. If you're not a classical/art music fan, this may not be your thing. Then again, it could introduce you into a whole new universe of music.