Poetry recital tempo ?

Hi I am about to attempt to compose to a poem. I am concerned about Tempo and Timbre. My plan so far is to get some of the reciters recorded material to get an idea of his natural rhythm and tone, offer up a sketch, ask him to recite to that and then get into it.

 

I would love to hear any ideas or thoughts. This is not a professional endeavour, just a creative collaboration, never-the-less I would like to do as good a job as possible.

Your process is not quite clear from to me from your description, but I would suggest that the rhythm is implied through the structure of the poem, and so would personally leave those reciting it to interpret that in the way they feel most comfortable. Otherwise they may end up eschewing feeling and performance for adherence to their instructions.

How might I determine the the tempo of a recital ? also he say he prefers to recite to music.

Is it your poem?

 

Are you going to write music to accompany it?

Not my poem, and yes I am going to put some music behind it

Ah, ok.

 

Well, when I've done this, I found the natural rhythm of speech (prosody) tends to stick to a steady tempo by itself. I would suggest first getting a reading recorded without music, then beatmap the recording to see how steady the tempo is, and work from there.