At the beginning of the 20th century, a boy invites a girl to play children's games, games that make skirts flutter or bodies touch by chance, and allow for brief encounters in secret places. This is what Joan Salvat Papasseit explains in his poem Platxèria [Amusement]. Through his verses, we imagine the scene of a film, just as we imagine the boys' smile and his delicacy. It's a scene full of joy at living that makes us smile as well.

Alfred Edward Housman is one of the most widely read English poets, at least during the first half of the 20th century. He is also one of the most musicalized poets, hundreds of songs have been composed upon virtually all of the poems in his collection A Shropshire Lad. This collection, published by Housman in 1896, became known shortly after, during the Second Boer War [...]

Some time ago, we listened to a Lied that Franz Schubert composed upon a poem by Friedrich von Hardenberg, Novalis, a poem that starts with the verse "Ich sehe dich in tausend Bildern".Back then, I told you that it was not easy to establish if the Lied, known as Geistliches Lied or Maria, was a sacred or a secular song.

This week's poem begins with the verse “Aus der Heimat hinten den Blitzen rot” [From the direction of home, behind the red flashes of lightning], by Joseph von Eichendorff. We're familiar with it thanks to a Lied by Robert Schumann, In der Fremde, which opens his Liederkreis, Op. 39. It is a purely romantic poem, like the whole cycle: the feeling of belonging nowhere [...]

We're already in the middle of summer, which means it's time to take a break or, at the very least, slow down. Regular readers know that Liederabend doesn't make holidays, but I try to make lighter posts during the summer months. As usual, August will be devoted to the Schubert, and I have been considering what I could do in July.