The relationship of word and music -- poetry in particular -- has fascinated not only poets, musicians, and theorists, but audiences as well. In ancient Greece there may only have been the slightest difference between poetry and music. In fact, the Greeks referred to both with one word (mousike). The power of mousike to mislead through false or seductive ideas (as Plato feared) or through emotional and irrational rhythms (Bacchus and Orpheus) tantalized early listeners.

While much of the history of poetry and music after the Greeks is played out along fault lines of separation, the French symbolists (Mallarmé, Verlaine, and Rimbaud) reinvented poetic language in part through a growing reliance on the importance of music to their endeavors. Verlaine said "de la musique avant toute chose" ("music before everything elseâ").

Pamela Howland and Dick Schneider realized the compatibility of their separate crafts of piano and translation during many discussions several years ago. Ms. Howland, an accomplished interpreter of many composers, and Mr. Schneider have created this program which highlights the complex and fruitful relationships between poetry and music. This program alternates poetry and piano and does not involve either background music or background poetry. Each is given its full due but each sheds astonishing light on the other. The listener will hear both the music and the poetry in new ways when listening to this CD.

In French Impressions Ms. Howland plays several pieces by the French composer Claude Debussy (1862-1917) who is considered by many to be the prototypical "impressionist" in music. Many of the pieces she plays are well known ("The Girl with Flaxen Hair" and "Clair de Lune") and some are less familiar ("Voiles" and "Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum"). Mr. Schneider presents a little known poetic oeuvre: the recent works of the Belgian poet François Jacqmin (1929-1992). Jacqmin wrote highly impressionistic poetry that beautifully shadows and sometimes leads the music of Debussy. Mr. Schneider has prepared the translations of Jacqmin who has never been translated into English. In this program, Schneider reads first in French and then in English.

Pamela Howland concertizes throughout the United States and is on the adjunct music faculty at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Dick Schneider is a poet and Professor of Law at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.