Many composers have also been excellent writers: Charles Ives, Erik Satie, Virgil Thomson, and George Antheil, for example. And some writers have pursued ambitious careers in music that rivaled their literary careers: Paul Bowles, Anthony Burgess, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for example. And for centuries, songwriters have written both music and lyrics. Under this rubric, however, I’ll post another category: music by writers who only composed sporadically, often with surprising results.

The first one is Edward Lear. Lear wrote music for two of his verses, “The Pelican Chorus” and “The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò,” both with the help of a certain Signor Pomé. Here’s the latter, from August 1, 1876.

Lear also composed settings for twelve poems by Tennyson, with the assistance of Edward Francis Rimbault. Here’s the beginning of one of them, “Edward Gray,” from 1871. Lear sang them for Tennyson, to the latter’s approval.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)