After seeing how the woman he loves marries another, and having taken refuge in the forest to cry his grief, the poet of Dichterliebe is ready to tell us exactly what happened. Did she get married to the love of her life? I mean, given that circumstance, you could say: "Well, I'm deeply saddened, but she's so happy". However, it turns out that the love of her life has married another [...]

The last seconds of a condemned person's life. This is what the poem Eight O'Clock by A.E. Housman is about. Only two stanzas; eight verses to convey the harshness of the moment.

To compile the list of songs written upon the same poem that you can find on this page I turned to memory; since I began to systematize the series not long ago, I had no other way to do it. But memory is not as reliable as I would like it to be. When I arrived at the article about Gondelfahrer, I assumed that I had posted the two versions Schubert had written, and I found that [...]

The regular readers probably remember that every year on these dates, coinciding with the anniversary of Franz Schubert's death, I dedicate the article to the apple of my eye, usually explaining some aspect of his life. Eight years ago, I talked about his circle of friends and, although I dedicated two weeks to it, many names were left out. Among them, Baron von Schönstein.

When asked about the characteristics of a Lied, one of the first things I say, probably the first, is that for a Lied to exist it is necessary that previously a poem existed that moved the composer to write his song. A poem written two days, two years or two centuries before the composer read it. But previously written, this is the key word.