Budding Rose and Romancing Miss Brontë

Two ongoing Brontë musical and literary works:

1. Budding Rose is the name of a Norwegian musical duo who are working on a very interesting musical project around Emily Brontë's poetry. In the words of one of their components, Line Horntveth:

A new duoproject, "Budding Rose", is in the making with long-time friend and composer/musician Terje Johannesen. The lyrics are written by the ever so mysterious Emily Brontë, and the music is by Johannesen. Line is singing and playing and comes with all sorts of good or bad suggestions concerning the music.

Some songs can be played on Line Horntveth's (aka Sepultuba) MySpace webpage: True to Myself (from All Day I've Toiled Up with Pain, undated), Fall Leaves (from Fall Leaves, 1837?) and The Inspiring Music (from The Inspiring Music's Thrilling Sound, 1836?)

Regrettably the poem that lends its name to the project, Budding Rose (best known by its first line, On its bending stalk a bonny flower) is not by Emily but by Charlotte Brontë. It was wrongly attributed to Emily in several compilations before Hatfield's 1923 edition of the Complete Poems of Emily Brontë. Today it is still listed as Emily's in many sources (notably in the NYPL's Berg Collection). Check Neufeldt's 1985 Poems of Charlotte Brontë for more information and presumed dates of composition (between 1839 and February 1842).

The origins of this project can be traced to the 2004 performances of Roe Head, a theatre play by Hans Petter Blad based on the lives of the Brontë sisters with music by Terje Johannesen.

The duo will be performing these songs today April 19 at the Cafe Mono in Oslo (20:00 h).

Tønsbergs Blad carries an article about Budding Rose on a previous show:

Duoen, som kaller seg Budding Rose, har laget musikk til tekster av søstrene Emily, Charlotte og Anne Brontë, som levde i England på 1800-tallet. I kveld er det klart for urpremiere på Maskinistenes hus i Tønsberg.

"Fra de helt vare sangene til det mer utagerende og nesten desperate blir Brontës over 150 år gamle tekster vekket til live som en rosenknopp", beskrives musikkprosjektet i en pressemelding.

– En slags art-country, sier Johannesen, som har skrevet musikken.

– Veldig stemningsfullt. Fin musikk, rett og slett, sier Horntveth, som i denne sammenhengen har rollen som vokalist.

På konserten i kveld har duoen med seg Olaf "Knerten" Kamfjord, Martin Horntveth, Lars Horntveth, Erik Johannessen, Kaja Bugge og Kaja Fjellberg Pettersen på scenen. Arrangør er Urijazz. (Øyvind Skavhelle) (Google translation)

2. Alert reader Stephanie Cowell has informed us of yet another fictionalised novel about Charlotte Brontë that will be published next year. As seen on Publishers Market:

Juliet Gael's ROMANCING MISS BRONTE, bringing to vivid life both the dizzying triumphs and terrible sorrows of the literary Brontes, and how love unexpectedly and dramatically found Charlotte, to Linda Marrow at Ballantine, by Loretta Barrett, at Barrett Books (NA).

On Loretta Barrett Books Inc we found some additional information:

ROMANCING MISS BRONTE (Ballantine Books h.c., Summer 2010)
Ballantine Rights—1st Serial
LBB Rights—UK, Translation, Audio, Film

Categories: Books, Emily Brontë, Fiction, Music, Poetry