Of the hundred or so songs Nikolai Medtner composed, a little more than half are shared between his two favourite poets: Goethe and Pushkin, with around thirty poems each. As for Goethe, the composer set to music poems that are rarely heard in the repertoire, but fortunately he did not hesitate to return to poems [...]

On 30 September 1772, Matthias, the first child of Matthias Claudius and his wife Anna Rebecka, was born; the baby died the same day. On 1 September of the following year, a poem by Claudius titled Bei dem Grabe Anselmos [At Anselmo’s Grave] appeared in the weekly paper «Der Deutsche, sonst Wandsbecker Bote» [The German, also called The Wandsbeck Messenger]; with this name, Anselmo, the poet was referring to his little son.

We’re reaching the end of July and the end of this batch of songs of the Same poem, one more song series: another song with a poem that is the same, yes, but not quite. Let me explain. You may remember that at the beginning of the season I devoted three consecutive weeks to discussing Tragödie by Robert Schumann, with poems by Heinrich Heine. A work which, as I said back then, I’m still not sure whether to consider a three-part song (only one part is usually performed, oddly enough), a mini-cycle (with all [...]

If there is one good thing about the chapter titles in Die wundersame Liebesgeschichte der schönen Magelone und des Grafen Peter von Provence [The Wonderful Love Story of the Beautiful Magelone and Count Peter of Provence] by Ludwig Tieck, it is that they are explicit. Thus, chapter 9 is called “How Magelone Fled with Her Knight,” and it explains exactly that: how Magelone, daughter of the King of Naples, runs away from home [...]

The poem in last week’s post has inspired songs that are not very well known; not even Liszt’s settings are. In contrast, the poem I’m bringing you this week, also by Heine, is so closely associated with a lied by Robert Schumann that I’m sure that, when you read its first line, you’ll be able to hum it: Allnächtlich im Traume sehe ich dich.