LedZepNews has found more information about the four poems John Paul Jones selected to write a new song cycle around, revealing new details about his long-planned opera project that will premiere in London on January 8. Opera singer Dame Sarah Connolly will premiere the 20-minute song cycle, revealing Jones’ new music to the world.
In September, we revealed the names of each song in the cycle which seemed to be based on four poems, all with feminist themes.
Now, Jones’ music publisher Wise Classical has revealed the authors of the poems, allowing us to confirm whether we analysed the song names correctly. It turns out we got two out of the four poems right. Here’s how we did:
‘Her Kind’ by Anne Sexton
The lead poem in the song cycle is one we guessed correctly: “Her Kind” is a 1960 poem published by US poet Anne Sexton. The poem addresses the theme of motherhood as well as witchcraft. “I have gone out, a possessed witch, haunting the black air, braver at night; dreaming evil,” the poem begins.
Sexton is listed as a text writer on the Wise Classical website, confirming this is the right poem.
‘I Say’
There is a 1978 poem by Maya Angelou titled “Phenomenal Woman” which features the phrase “I say” as a recurring motif that appears four times. It seems our guess was correct: The Wise Classical website lists Angelou as a text writer, virtually confirming “Phenomenal Woman” as one of the poems Jones chose.
‘Morning Glory’
This one stumped us! We guessed this was a 1989 poem by the US poet Carolyn Marie Rodgers. However, her name doesn’t appear on the Wise Classical website. However, one writer is “A Carter”, a possible reference to writer and poet Angela Carter. In her 1974 short story “A Souvenir of Japan”, she uses the phrase “Morning Glories” three times. Could this be a fit with the song name?
‘Pygmalion’s Bride’
We got this one wrong. In September, we assumed this was a 1999 poem written by Scottish poet and playwright Carol Ann Duffy. However, she wasn’t listed as a text writer. Sylvia Plath, however, is listed. She doesn’t have a poem with that title, but her 1962 poem “The Applicant” is known for containing similar themes to Pygmalion’s bride. Could this be the same song?
Paris plans?
In last week’s email, LedZepNews also revealed that the song cycle was co-commissioned by the Philharmonie de Paris.
On January 29, Jones met in Paris with Edouard Fouré Caul-Futy, the director of artistic programming at the Philharmonie de Paris, which could signal that the song cycle will be staged in France in the future.
The Philharmonie de Paris did not respond to a request for comment asking if it had any plans to stage Jones’ new song cycle.
The history of John Paul Jones’ new opera project
The first public mention of a collaboration between Jones and Dame Sarah came in 2018 when The Telegraph reported that the pair were working together on new songs as well as Jones’ Ghost Sonata musical.
“You might be surprised to know that I’ve been a Led Zeppelin fan since my youth,” Dame Sarah said in the interview. “They’ve written some really fantastic music, so inventive and passionate. John Paul is a really gifted composer, and I can’t wait to hear what he has come up with.”
The next sign that the pair were working together came when the Twitter account @JohnPaulJones, which seems to be the man himself, followed Dame Sarah’s Twitter account.
And when Jones was announced in 2023 as a performer at the 2024 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, his biography on the festival website included the following section: “John is currently composing a song cycle for Dame Sarah Connolly which has been commissioned by a number of the finest, as yet unannounced, contemporary classical music venues and ensembles in the world.”
In an interview with Steinway published in July 2024, Jones revealed that the song cycle was based on poems he had selected.
“I’ve got four poems from some Americans poets and some British poets,” Jones said in the podcast episode. “You’ve searched for these poems, that’s the hardest part, finding the poem that fits. They have to be related to each other slightly, these poems. And they are, there is a common theme which again I won’t reveal just yet.”
It’s a song cycle for Dame Sarah Connolly, who is one of the finest mezzo-sopranos in the world,” Jones said. “It’s for a Pierrot ensemble. It’s the Pierrot ensemble, which is Pierrot lunaire orchestration which is piano, flute, clarinet, violin and cello. So it’s classical Pierrot ensemble.”
“The people who commissioned it said ‘You can add instruments’. I thought maybe I could add another violin which would give me a string trio. Then that makes it a bit too easy,” Jones explained.
“The clarinet can double bass clarinet, which is what I’ve got them doing, and the flute can double piccolo. And so you’ve really got quite a good range there,” he added.
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