Kristen Lawrence’s ‘The Raven’ Resonates with Macabre Beauty

Kristen Lawrence – Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” (self-release, 2012)

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven is an exquisite recording by highly talented American singer, composer and keyboardist Kristen Lawrence. In terms of music, Lawrence combines classical music influences with a certain symphonic rock vibe. Indeed, she delivers a captivating mix of Gothic organ, majestic orchestral keyboards and, to top it off, her exquisite, beautiful and gifted vocals.

As the title of the album indicates, this album is inspired by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Kristen Lawrence wonders what would have happened if Edgar Allan Poe had ventured into the realm of music. She envisioned “The Raven” resonating with haunting melodies and gothic ambiance. This renowned poem, celebrated for its lingering cadences, melodious rhymes, and macabre undertones, finds a perfect musical interpreter in Kristen Lawrence, a classically trained organist and the composer behind Halloween Carols.

In her rendition of all 18 verses, Kristen intricately weaves the narrator’s descent into despair over his lost love, Lenore. Each verse serves as a musical vignette, skillfully portraying the protagonist’s spiraling madness in the presence of the ominous raven. Kristen’s crystalline soprano voice narrates the story, as though channeled by the spectral essence of Lenore herself.

As Edgar Allan Poe himself mused in his essay, “The Poetic Principle,” music possesses the unique power to evoke a sublime beauty that approaches the realm of the angels. In the fusion of poetry and music, we discover a vast canvas for poetic expression, a space where the convergence of verse and melody grants the soul the opportunity to achieve its highest creative aspirations.

Kristen Lawrence explained her creative process to develop the music for the Raven: “Setting Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” to music was a tantalizing undertaking, a project that I approached at times methodically, at times emotionally.

“On All Souls’ Day, November 2, 2010, I sat in my room working on arranging more of my Halloween Carols for my next CD. A creative slump had plopped itself on top of my ideas, so I decided to clean up and organize the mess around my piano to freshen my brain. I looked inside a folder and found a few copies of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” that I had highlighted for a reading at my Halloween party a couple of years prior. I had completely forgotten about them.

“At that moment, it felt like something in the air changed. I stared at the words of the poem and sat back down on my piano bench in a trance. My hands went straight to an E minor chord, then a B minor chord, then again to an E minor and so on as I sang and played the first line. The music came out so smoothly, I would have been surprised, but it all felt too natural to be surprised. The music continued to come. Not 40 minutes passed, and I had the complete melody and chords for the verse (the same melody to be used for each verse). It felt like I had been “haunted” or “visited.” And I was in love with my new little melody. It seemed like a gift presented to me from not-my-head and not-my-room.”

“This melody continued to haunt me over the next days and weeks as I pondered over what to do with it, exactly. Poe’s poem is 18 verses long. And each verse is moderately sizable. I was looking at a 20-minute song. That’s not normal in the popular music world. But it’s plenty normal in the classical music world.”

Kristen Lawrence recorded two versions, one with vocals and an instrumental version. The album also features three different versions of the song “Ghost of John.”

Buy Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven.