Hila Plitmann

Andrew Martin knows everything. He really does. You can ask him about the color of Swedish bridal cloth in 16th century Stockholm, or about the natural properties of gluons and he can embark on an entire essay-like lecture about the subject, and possibly even connect the two. I am grateful to say he is also one of my dearest friends, an incredibly expressive pianist, has a marvelous bass voice and is exceptionally good looking. Heh.

About a year ago he also began sharing some compositions with his friends, and they are nothing short of magnificent. His choice of poetry is always extremely personal, which, combined with his super-strong musical chops makes for seriously moving and compositions (And I personally find this to be true with most composers – the more the poetry is personally connected to their psyche, regardless of whether or not it’s ‘good’, the better the work…).

Recently I had the privilege of recording one song of his with his partner Damon Kirche, who is possibly the best actor I know, has the voice of a GOD and is the spitting image of Clark Kent when he finally takes off his glasses (dammit girls, we can’t have em’ all…).

The phenomenal Tali Tadmor is at the piano, and here below is the full, brilliant set of Andrew’s 3 Walt Whitman songs:

Three Whitman Songs

Music by Andrew Martin, Poems by Walt Whitman

I. I Knew a Man (from “I Sing the Body Electric”)

(ded. to Frederick Kirschenmann)

I knew a man, a common farmer, the father of five sons,
And in them the fathers of sons, and in them the fathers of sons.
This man was of wonderful vigor, calmness, beauty of person,
The shape of his head, the pale yellow and white of his hair and beard, the immeasurable meaning of his black eyes, the richness and breadth of his manners,
These I used to go and visit him to see, he was wise also,
He was six feet tall, he was over eighty years old, his sons were massive, clean, bearded, tan-faced, handsome.
They and his daughters loved him, all who say him loved him,
They did not love him by allowance, they loved him with personal love.
He drank water only.
When he went with his five sons and many grandsons to hunt or fish, you would pick him out as the most beautiful and vigorous of the gang,
You would wish long and long to be with him, you would wish to sit by him in the boat that you and he might touch each other

II. I Think I Could Turn (from “Song of Myself”)

(ded. to Annie, Carolyn and Janet)

I think I could turn and live with animals, they’re so placid and self contain’d,
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the earth.

III. We Two, How Long Were We Fool’d

(for Dan and Aria)

We two, how long we were fool’d,
Now transmuted, we swiftly escape as Nature escapes,
We are Nature, long have we been absent, but now we return,
We become plants, trunks, foliage, roots, bark,
We are bedded in the ground, we are rocks,
We are oaks, we grow in the openings side by side,
We are what locust blossoms are, we drop scent around lanes mornings and evenings,
We are also the coarse smut of beasts,
We browse,
We are two among the wild herds spontaneous as any,
We prowl fang’d and four-footed in the woods, we spring on prey,
We are two fishes swimming in the sea together,
We are two predatory hawks, we soar above and look down,
We are what the atmosphere is, transparent, receptive, pervious, impervious,
We are two resplendent suns, we it is who balance ourselves orbic and stellar,
We are seas mingling,
We are snow, rain, cold, darkness, we are each product and influence of the globe,
We have circled and circled till we have arrived home again, we two,
We have voided all but freedom and all but our own joy.