Recital “Then Spoke The Waste Land: Songs and Fragments” (Congreso “Wastelands” 2022, UNED, Madrid)

Abstract

“Then Spoke the Waste Land; Songs and Fragments” is a recital performed by the UNED English Faculty Group; it premiered in Madrid, April 6, 2022, at the 34th European Association for American Studies Conference (EAAS). The recital is a combination of music and verse. Passages from The Waste Land are read, interspersed with comments from Eliot’s friends, such as Ezra Pound and Virgina Woolf, or his wife, Vivien Haigh-Wood. These voices emerge from different texts, letters, novels, even autobiographies, and all reflect on the poem. We can even hear William Carlos Williams’s reaction to the poem when it was published, as he annotated it in his Autobiography. They perform against a musical backdrop which ranges from Wagner to popular song. The poem is recited thematically, rather than in an orderly fashion from beginning to end. Passages are grouped around seven main motifs. Beginning with a Prologue / Overture, it continues with: “Spring and Love,” “The City,” “Here is Belladonna,” “Dry Desolation,” “Death By Water,” “Distant Spirituality.” The recital is available at: https://canal.uned.es/video/624ea08db6092302 c6288f02. What follows are brief introductions of each section, as well as the fragments and music included in each of them.