Music that Moves: Bob Dylan’s ‘The Philosophy of Modern Song’
In 1846, still basking in the success of “The Raven,” Edgar Allan Poe published an essay titled “The Philosophy of Composition,” in which he claimed to give readers a behind-the-scenes look at how it’s done, specifically how “The Raven” was done. He describes a painstaking, almost mathematical process; declares the death of a beautiful woman as “the most poetical topic in the world”; reveals that the sonorous refrain of “Nevermore” was chosen purely for its sonic properties; determines that 100 lines is long enough for a poem to engross the reader while short enough to be read in a single sitting; and so on. Writing a great poem is a series of calculated decisions, Poe tells us.
When titles his new book , you have to wonder if it’s another nod to Poe, whom he references in Chapter 24 (as ’s counterpart), as well as in his 2004 memoir, , and his recent song “I Contain Multitudes” (“I got a tell-tale heart, like Mr. Poe”). Yet Dylan’s is nothing like Poe’s. He doesn’t describe his own process. He doesn’t write about the, , , .
