Whitman's poetry has been set by a variety of composers in Europe and the United States although critics have ranged from calling his writings "unmusical" to noting that his expansive, lyrical style and repetition mimics "the process of musical composition". Jack Sullivan writes that Whitman "had an early, intuitive appreciation of vocal music, one that, as he himself acknowledged, helped shape "Leaves of Grass"" Sullivan claims that one of the first compositions setting Whitman's poem, Charles Villiers Stanfords "Elegaic Ode", Op. 21 (1884), a four-movement work scored for baritone and soprano soloists, chorus and orchestra, likely had reached a wider audience during Whitman's lifetime than his poems.