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By MEREDITH GOAD, Staff Writer Sunday, February 18, 2007

For three years, and through at least 300 tours through the Longfellow House on Congress Street, Charles Kaufmann got into the habit of reciting Longfellow's poetry, including "The Rainy Day," a somber piece that was written in the house in 1841.

One day, a retired music teacher from Massachusetts and expert on Victorian parlor songs heard Kaufmann and asked him if he knew about a musical version of the poem composed by Amy Marcy Cheney Beach. The teacher later sent him a copy.

"Chip" Kaufmann, a composer himself and musical director at First Parish Church in Portland, felt a bit as if Longfellow were whispering in his ear. He decided to organize a choral concert based on the poet's works for Longfellow's 200th birthday.

It was a touch of the inspiration that other musicians, from Franz Liszt to Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, have drawn over the past two centuries from the poet and his work, inspiration that motivated them to do some of their best work.

At Bowdoin College, Kaufmann discovered an enormous volume of "Longfellow music" -- hundreds of songs and choral pieces from the Victorian period and early 20th century. Kaufmann also found a treasure-trove of music at the Longfellow house in Cambridge, Mass.

Poking around in these archives, Kaufmann discovered a letter dated 1864 from 12-year-old Frederic Cowen, who would grow up to be one of the top British musicians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the letter, Cowen said he was "only a little boy who believes in your love of children, and that you would not willingly refuse a request made by one. I ask you to kindly favor me by writing some words for me to set to music."

Longfellow politely declined, but told Cowen to feel free to use one of his published works.

"He didn't compose poems by request," Kaufmann said. "But he has this way of saying 'no' and having it sound like 'yes.' It was still encouraging."

In the archives, Kaufmann discovered musical manuscripts that had been sent to Longfellow for his perusal. In the library at Harvard, meanwhile, he found letters that accompanied some of these gifts, along with other examples of Longfellow music.

All of Kaufmann's discoveries will come together Feb. 25 at the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 200th Birthday Choral Concert at First Parish Church. The concert will begin at 3 p.m. with a piece titled "Afternoon in February." About 80 singers from as far away as Bar Harbor and Plymouth, N.H., will be performing many small selections of Longfellow music, a sample of which can be heard on Kaufmann's Web site for the concert: http://users.rcn.com/ clk328/Longfellow.html

Kaufmann said he has come to identify with all of those young composers who believed that Longfellow's poetry inspired them to do their best work.

"I'm able to pull together various elements of my own life -- musical composition, interest in history, my church work as an organist," he said. "Thanks to Longfellow, I feel like I'm one of that long string of people who have been inspired to do things better than you can."

Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at: