Leave Your Sleep: Victorian Poetry Meets Modern Music

Musty libraries, otherworldly storytelling, and how dead poets wrote 2010’s most moving album.

One of our biggest passion points here at Brain Pickings is the cross-pollination of disciplines. Combine that with our passion for mus, and you’ve got a winner. Case in point: Natalie Merchant’s ambitious new album, Leave Your Sleep — a brilliant and beautiful musical adaptation of near-forgotten 19th- and 20th-century British and American children’s poetry, out today to nearly a decade worth of anticipation.

The album, her first studio recording in seven years and co-produced with Venezuelan musician-composer Andres Levin, a frequent collaborator of David Byrne and creator of the eclectic Red Hot charity series, samples from the entire spectrum of literary fame and obscurity, including poets like Rachel Field, Robert Graves, Christina Rossetti and — our favorite — e e cummings, as well as little-known geniuses like Brooklyn poet Natalia Crane, who published her first book in 1927 at the age of ten.

What I really enjoyed about this project was reviving these people’s words, taking them off the dead flat pages, bringing them to life. Bringing them to light.

What makes the album all the more special is that in the six years Merchant spent researching the poets, sifting through newspaper microfilm from the 1800’s and spending countless hours in musty Victorian libraries, she grew increasingly curious about and inspired by their lives and decided to write a book about them. Poetry inspiring music inspiring prose, a beautiful metaphor for the cross-pollination of the arts. Coupled with Merchant’s unforgettable powerhouse of a voice, the album is one of the most inspired projects to come out this year.

We were fortunate enough to experience Merchant’s absolutely breathtaking live performance at TED earlier this year, which, though not doing justice to her live stage charisma, you can sample below. The rich emotion oozing from Merchant’s voice as her melodic storytelling unfolds is just otherworldly.

Sophisticated, playful, bittersweet and utterly haunting, Leave Your Sleep spans as rich an emotional spectrum as it does a musical range, leaving us dangerously close to infatuation in a way that no single recording has managed to in longer than we can remember.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 at 5:30 am in culture, music and was tagged cool, culture, literature, music, TED.

Natalie Merchant’s superb new album adapts near-forgotten 19th-century children’s poetry to original music http://is.gd/bquYY

This comment was originally posted on Twitter

brainpicker on April 13th, 2010 at 8:56 am

RT @brainpicker Natalie Merchant’s superb new album adapts near-forgotten 19th-century kid’s poetry to original music http://is.gd/bquYY

mattofact on April 13th, 2010 at 8:57 am

@claretini RT @brainpicker “Natalie Merchant adapts near-forgotten 19th-century children’s poetry to original music http://is.gd/bquYY”;

warmstrings on April 13th, 2010 at 1:57 am

RT @brainpicker: Natalie Merchant’s superb new album adapts near-forgotten 19th-century children’s poetry to original music http://is.gd …

LordDaleus on April 13th, 2010 at 9:24 am

Natalie Merchant’s new album adapts near-forgotten 19th-century children’s poetry to original music http://is.gd/bquYY (via @brainpicker)

futurescape on April 13th, 2010 at 2:30 am

???????? ???????????. ??????? RT @brainpicker Natalie Merchant’s superb new album adapts 19th-century children’s poetry http://is.gd/bquYY

Anastasialadiab on April 13th, 2010 at 2:42 am

cicoree on April 13th, 2010 at 10:04 am

Natalie Merchant’s new album adapts near-forgotten 19th-century children’s poetry http://is.gd/bquYY (via @brainpicker @futurescape)

SemiraSK on April 13th, 2010 at 3:10 am

@victorginori Kijk eens hier! http://bit.ly/9JoSzB Het mini-concertje is prachtig! #nataliemerchant #leaveyoursleep

prydrm on April 13th, 2010 at 5:43 am

Kijk eens hier! http://bit.ly/9JoSzB Het mini-concertje is prachtig! #nataliemerchant #leaveyoursleep (via @prydrm) #culturejunkie

victorginori on April 13th, 2010 at 6:03 am

If you missed it ? Natalie Merchant’s superb new album adapts near-forgotten 19th-century children’s poetry http://is.gd/bquYY #music #TED

brainpicker on April 13th, 2010 at 1:56 pm

Heard on NPR! RT@brainpicker Natalie Merchant’s superb new album adapts near-forgotten 19th-century children’s poetry http://is.gd/bquYY

KipLyn on April 13th, 2010 at 6:58 am

Lovely. Natalie Merchant’s new album adapts near-forgotten 19th century children’s poetry http://bit.ly/bd9wBx

KSiddall on April 13th, 2010 at 7:25 am

So buying this! RT @KSiddall: Lovely. Natalie Merchant’s new album adapts near-forgotten 19th century children’s poetry http://bit.ly/bd9wBx

Richmondmom on April 13th, 2010 at 2:33 pm

RT @brainpicker Natalie Merchant’s superb new album adapts near-forgotten 19th-century children’s poetry http://is.gd/bquYY #music #TED

YasminMarisa on April 13th, 2010 at 7:34 am

Leave Your Sleep: musical adaptation of near-forgotten 19th- and 20th-century British and American children’s poetry http://bit.ly/b8cX7v

Mean_land on April 13th, 2010 at 8:32 am

Leave Your Sleep: Victorian Poetry Meets Modern Music http://shar.es/mtdX5 Natalie Merchant!!!!

sparkyourart on April 15th, 2010 at 5:47 am

Hey my artsy fartsy friends(a good thing btw)-Victorian Poetry to music…truly awe inspiring. Watch the video http://ping.fm/x62Cq

WriteOnCreative on April 18th, 2010 at 1:06 am

Perfect for a Sunday evening – Leave Your Sleep: Victorian Poetry Meets Modern Music http://shar.es/mvgss

ideadetective on April 18th, 2010 at 2:15 am

Leave Your Sleep: Victorian Poetry Meets Modern Music http://ow.ly/1AmfP #NatalieMerchant #music #poetry

JonRolandFoster on April 19th, 2010 at 4:17 am

RT @Caroline_Hagood: How dead poets wrote 2010’s most moving album: http://bit.ly/9JoSzB

paulpoetry on April 19th, 2010 at 3:25 pm

RT @Caroline_Hagood: @paulpoetry How dead poets wrote 2010’s most moving album: http://bit.ly/9JoSzB

paulpoetry on April 23rd, 2010 at 9:29 am

So glad to see Natalie Merchant featured on @TheDailyBeast today http://is.gd/bFfPk Our review: http://is.gd/bFg8I

brainpicker on April 23rd, 2010 at 5:23 am

She is a great singer, I love her.

ms pacman on May 24th, 2010 at 12:02 pm

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