VALLEY COLLEGE : Video Features Dickinson Poems

Three Valley College professors have resurrected selected poems of Emily Dickinson by setting them to music as part of an elaborate video project that had its West Coast debut this month at Valley College.

Margaret Freeman, professor of English, conceived of the project, “Emily Dickinson and Immortality, The Creation of A Song Cycle.” Freeman is a Dickinson scholar and the first, and current, president of the Emily Dickinson International Society.

On the video, Freeman says she knew some of Dickinson’s poems had been previously set to music, but never for the male voice.

She solicited help from William Wallis, an English instructor, who suggested that Valley College music instructor Robert Chauls compose the music. The video, commissioned by the society, was born.

Chauls selected the 11 poems and the theme “Songs of Great Men and Death.” Wallis said Dickinson’s presentation of death as a male suitor in her poems made them a natural for the male voice.

Wallis, a former opera singer, is the singer for the project. He also narrates the video.

Wallis said the video was intended from the beginning to be an educational tool. He said he hopes, after securing all the rights and permissions, to distribute the video and to see it shown nationally on public television.

Valley College President Mary Lee and the college Patrons’ Assn. backed the project from the beginning, Wallis said, but that financial help, “hopefully in the form of a corporate sponsor,” is needed.

The song cycle will be in Washington D.C. later this month.