Before I started writing this post, I thought back over the lullabies we’ve already heard; I remember those of Brahms, Strauss, Schubert, Barber, Britten and Duparc. The first ones are as expected, a mother (a father in Schubert's song) rocks her child to sleep; Britten and Duparc's songs are adult songs, where a man watches over a sleeping woman; the cradle song we're listening today is also an adult one, Ruhe, Süßliebchen (Rest, my loved), the 9th song from Brahm's cycle Die schöne Magelone.

 

One day, during an interval, a friend mentioned that she didn't like some funny songs we had just listened, arguing that sense of humor doesn't suit Art Song. Before I was able to answer, another friend said: "Of course it does! Art Song speaks of life and cries but also laughs, as life does!" I would have answered something similar: Art Song, or Poetry, where Art Song stars, reflects life. If you're not all sure about that, let me tell you a story before I talk about this week’s song.

 

After our last post, where we talked about the fair saint, we meet Wilhelm again, who arrives at Lothario's castle to hand out the letter that Aurelie wrote for him in her deathbed. We're starting the seventh book and will advance towards the second chapter of the eighth book to find the next song, So laßt mich scheinen, bis ich werde. There are eleven chapters and so many things happen that it's impossible to explain you all of them, even as superficially as I usually do, so I'm choosing just the most essential points relevant to the main plot.

 

My dearest, happy 2016! This is my first post this year and the third during Christmas Time, advanced to Tuesday because tomorrow is Three Kings' Day. Today, it is a good day to reread (relisten, in our case) Shakespeare's Twelfth Night or What You Will, a play which, if I'm not wrong, was written in 1600 to be represented precisely on that night when the Twelve Days of Christmas are over. Twelfth Night is a charming comedy with the usual love affairs and their happy end. Among so many gentlemen and ladies in love, there is a character that keeps out it and watches; it's a Clown, who during the play sings five pieces that eventually, became songs thanks to composers like Korngold, Quilter, Vaughan Williams and Sibelius. In fact, we could spend a few years listening to one of those songs every Twelfth Night. Three years ago, we listened to Come [...]

 

Last week, we talked about one of the most common images in Christmas music, a child cradled in his mother’s arms; Today, we're talking about another essential idea in Christmas: light, since the winter solstice, which coincides with Christmas time (well, to be precise, it's the other way around) marks the return of light after winter’s long nights. Christian tradition puts together both images, the birth of a child is also the birth of light and hope, and so, we celebrate Saint Lucy's Day, decorate our homes with candles and after Tree Kings' Day, we realize with joy that, suddenly, days get longer. Northern lands suffer the lack of light more than we, Mediterranean people do, of course; They have extremely long nights and the sun shines so weakly that you hardly feel it on your face. In this context, the song I'm sharing today, Det mörknar ute (Outside it is  [...]