Classical Scholarship, Greek Literatur, Greek Lyric Poetry

With two acts of the second opera Cavalcanti completed in early August 1932 and forwarded for comment to Agnes Bedford, Pound reminded her of “the Latin song 25 minutes long, which you once considered pleasantly impractical. Got that to write now” (Letter. August 3, 1932. Quoted in EPRO 276 n54). The “25 minutes” probably refers to a musical setting of the entire Catullus 61 that begins Collis O Heliconii and not to the length of an opera. Pound set 14 of the 47 strophes of poem 61 to music. He also set the first five strophes and part of the sixth of Sappho’s Poem 1, which begins with “Poikilothron’ Athanat’ Aphrodite,” to be sung in classical Greek in an original non-Western musical idiom.1 The composer’s music scores for each aria end abruptly. No sketches for the remaining strophes have been found. This article discusses Pound’s treatment of the Sappho aria.