While interpreting the poem “Kubla Khan, or, A Vision in a Dream,” by Samueal Taylor Coleridge, I was reminded of the “Violin Concertino. Op. 81” by Leopold Joseph Beer, which I learned last year with my teacher. Beer was not contemporary with the Romanticism movement, but he was affected by it. What I appreciate about this song is the movement between temps and tunes. It goes from dramatic and intense to sweet and gentle very quickly. This connected me to the poem by Coleridge because it relates to the drastic change from a gentle scene to a complete natural disaster. The poem starts as follows:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
This landscape is a peaceful environment, which I connect to the sweet and loving parts of the piece by Beer. I went back to relearn the song again for this project. [Note, this video is not a recording of Katharine's performance. She sent her performance to me, and I found a different recording for our class website -- Dr. Dawkins]
In addition, the extravagant and loud aspects of the song reminded me of the dramatic parts of Coleridge’s poem:
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail.
This landscape felt so similar to the forte and strong moments of the song that it was hard not to connect the two. For me, this song feels like an argument between a couple. I explained to my teacher that I saw it as if it represented a couple fighting over something small and juvenile, just to come back and say sweet things to each other, right before the yelling started again.
My thinking about the song has colored how I see the poem. In the poem, the narrator is connecting and interacting with this environment that is very much alive. The scene goes from sweet and calm to scary and loud in seconds. This perspective made me think of the poem as a fight between mother nature and the world. I saw the drastic change of the garden as though nature was fighting back and speaking its mind, and I saw the peaceful view as nature feeling content and happy. Before I had seen this poem as a demonstration of the Khan’s power and the riches he bestowed; however, now I see it not as a demonstration, but as exasperation that comes from exhaustion. At some point, that power has to be released. Coleridge (as well as Beer) helped me see that it can be released through anger and rage.