Hidden Music
‘We included everything we wanted to say without saying it.’
— Duke Ellington
Hidden Music is a collection of poems that listens and responds to Ralph Dartford’s lifetime obsession with song, which subsequently allows his singular poetic vision to take flight. From Nick Cave to Lee Morgan, and Ella Fitzgerald to Radiohead, these poems search and reveal the untold stories within a dyslexic and melodious imagination, and like the most intoxicating music, gifts ownership to both the listener and the reader.
‘We included everything we wanted to say without saying it.’
— Duke Ellington
Hidden Music is a collection of poems that listens and responds to Ralph Dartford’s lifetime obsession with song, which subsequently allows his singular poetic vision to take flight. From Nick Cave to Lee Morgan, and Ella Fitzgerald to Radiohead, these poems search and reveal the untold stories within a dyslexic and melodious imagination, and like the most intoxicating music, gifts ownership to both the listener and the reader.
‘We included everything we wanted to say without saying it.’
— Duke Ellington
Hidden Music is a collection of poems that listens and responds to Ralph Dartford’s lifetime obsession with song, which subsequently allows his singular poetic vision to take flight. From Nick Cave to Lee Morgan, and Ella Fitzgerald to Radiohead, these poems search and reveal the untold stories within a dyslexic and melodious imagination, and like the most intoxicating music, gifts ownership to both the listener and the reader.
Praise for Hidden Music
‘Dartford's latest collection is an unashamedly emotional homage to love, loss and Cubist fry-ups in south Yorkshire. A tender lament to the hidden music of heartbreak and the bittersweet transience of happiness, shot through with nostalgia, wry humour and a warm intelligence.’
— Anthony Clavane
‘Hidden Music is a fabulous “album” of poems, each unique but all musically intertwined. The effect is that of a late-night radio show, a slow drive along unlit roads, the poems feeding into the ear, softly, like the tracks they are linked to, pulling the reader through memory and imagination on a journey of poetic expression. This collection is a sublime experience; a refreshing, boundary-testing setlist that hits every note. I can't wait to listen to the playlist now.’
— Wendy Pratt
‘With Debussy, Coltrane and Joni Mitchell by his side, Dartford escorts us through a sublime jukebox of memories, dreams and drunken vignettes in which flawed people try to love each other and get on with the business of being human. A vivid poet who has drawn from the wishing well of song-lyricism, Dartford captures the melodic pulse of love lost and hunted for in the streets of Soho to the housing estates of Basildon. We are with him in the carnage and the glory, waltzing to Dylan while scoffing a family bucket of KFC or boarding “the silent train to Lewes.” A great, genre-defying piece of work from a poet at the height of his powers.’
— Sarah Gillespie
About the Author
Ralph Dartford hails from Basildon in Essex, and now lives in West Yorkshire, having got there via Australia, Barcelona, and Los Angeles. He was a founding member of influential spoken word collective ‘A Firm of Poets’, and his first pamphlet of poetry, Cigarettes, Beer and Love, was published by Ossett Observer Presents in 2013. His first collection, Recovery Songs, was published by Valley Press in 2019, and Hidden Music followed in 2021. The trilogy was completed by House Anthems in late 2024.
Ralph is the poetry editor at Northern Gravy and is studying for a Creative Writing PhD at the University of Huddersfield, where his practice and research is concentrated on the working-class poetry of the twenty-first century. For gainful employment, Ralph works as a project manager and educator for the National Literacy Trust within the Criminal Justice team.
Vital Statistics
Imprint: Valley Press
Edition: First (October 2021)
Paperback ISBN: 9781912436682
Catalogue number: VP0189
Page count: 66
Trim size: 198x129mm
