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Abstract
Before achieving critical acclaim as an expatriate novelist, Paul Bowles worked in New York City as a composer for the American Federal Theatre. During that time, Bowles met and developed a working relationship with American playwright Tennessee Williams. While working together, Williams gave Bowles a group of poems to potentially set as art songs. From that poetry, Bowles wrote eleven art songs, nine of which were incorporated into his song cycles Blue Mountain Ballads and Gothic Suite. This performance and pedagogical guide includes biographical information on Paul Bowles, a stylistic overview of his compositions, literary commentary on the Williams poems Bowles used as songs, musical analysis of those songs, and pedagogical strategies for musical preparation.