Song of the weeek: Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergibt (H. Wolf) - T. Allen, G. Parsons
This is the 5th post of the series about the songs composed from Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship. If you missed the previous posts, here they are.A l'entrada anterior de la sèrie érem al capítol 13 del llibre segon, quan Wilhelm és al replà de la cambra de l'arpista i el sent cantar Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß; hi entra i li demana al vell que continuï cantant. El narrador ens explica com s'estableix un curiós diàleg en el qual Wilhelm pregunta i l'arpista respon amb cançons.
The world of the opera has been discussing music and libretto's importance for centuries: whether what singers say is significant and must be understood, if the story is worthy of attention, etc. The debate has produced even two operas: Prima la musica, poi le parole, written by Antonio Salieri in the late XVIIIth century, and Capriccio. composed by Richard Strauss in 1940.
You might know that, from time to time, I like straying slightly off my blog’s main subject, Art Song, and travel briefly to previous ages or different genres. Today we’re making one of these short trips: we’re having a piece of work composed upon poems, we’re having an accompanist instrument, but we won't have a song cycle, instead, a choral one. Because it's Christmas and Christmas it's time for children, and also because Benjamin Britten wrote a lovely Christmas piece for children to sing.
