The Spanish Song Companion

This book, the first of its kind to be published in English, introduces the reader to the rich heritage of Spanish song. Here in one volume are the texts of over 300 songs with parallel translations in accurate and readable English. The majority are love poems, which form a fascinating anthology of Spanish poetry from the thirteenth to the twentieth century. The introduction by Graham Johnson, who in recent years has done more than anyone to kindle interest in the international song repertoire, traces the history of Spanish song from its beginnings, via the period of the Catholic kings in the fifteenth century, the Golden Age of the sixteenth, through to the remarkable rebirth in the twentieth century. All the songs and cycles frequently heard in recital are gathered here: Albeniz, Falla, Granados, Rodrigo and Obradors are generously represented, as well as Catalan composers such as Montsalvatge and Mompou. The volume is arranged chronologically by composer, and includes notes on all the major poets and composers, a discography, and names and addresses of the music publishers. The Spanish Song Companion is a much-needed volume and will be welcomed by singers, students of Spanish literature, concert-goers and record-collectors throughout the English-speaking world.

The Spanish Song Companion is an introduction to the rich heritage of Spanish song, providing the texts of over 300 songs with parallel translations in accurate and readable English.

A French Song Companion is an indispensable guide to the modern repertoire and the most comprehensive book of French melodie in any language. Noted accompanist Graham Johnson provides repertoire guides to the work of over 150 composers--the majority of them from France but including British, American, German, Spanish, and Italian musicians who have written French vocal music. The book contains major articles on Faure, Duparc, Debussy, Ravel, and Poulenc, as well as essays on Bizet, Chabrier, Gounod, Chausson, Hahn, and Satie, and important reassessments of such composers as Massenet, Koechlin, and Leguerney. The book combines these articles with the complete texts in English of over 700 songs, all translated by Richard Stokes, making it also a treasury of French poetry from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries. The translations alone will prove invaluable to music lovers and performers; combined with the biographical articles, they become the ideal map for exploring this exciting and diverse repertoire.

W HAT I H A V E attempted in this book is a survey of song; the kind of song which one finds variously described as 'concert', 'art', or sometimes even 'classical song'. 'Concert song' seems the most useful, certainly the least inexact or misleading, of some descriptions, especially since 'art song' sounds primly off putting, and 'classical song' really ought to be used only to refer to songs written during the classical period, i. e. the 18th century. Concert song clearly means the kind of songs one hears sung at concerts or recitals. Addressing myself to the general music-lover who, though he possesses no special knowledge of the song literature, is never theless interested enough in songs and their singers to attend recitals of Lieder or of songs in various languages, I have naturally confined myself to that period of time in which the vast majority of these songs was composed, though not necessarily only to those composers whose songs have survived to be remembered in recital programmes today. I suppose this to be roughly the three centuries covered by the years 1650-1950, though most of the songs we, as audiences, know and love were composed in the middle of this period, in other words in the 19th century.

Carol Kimball's comprehensive survey of art song literature has been the principal one-volume American source on the topic. Now back in print after an absence of several years this newly revised edition includes biographies and discussions of the work of

Lorca, icon and polymath in all his manifestations.

The Companion to Music in the Age of the Catholic Monarchs, edited by Tess Knighton, offers a major new study that deepens and enriches our understanding of the forms and functions of music that flourished in late medieval Spanish society.

In Uniting Music and Poetry in Twentieth-Century Spain, Nelson R. Orringer uses both literary and musical analysis to study sung poems in twentieth-century Spain. In nine chapters, each focusing on an individual sung poem, song cycle, or various poems set by the same composer, Orringer enriches and deepens interpretations of the art-songs by comparing the poet's vision to the composer's. In examining composers such as Falla, Turina, Mompou, Toldrà, Rodrigo, Montsalvatge, and Rodolfo Halffter, Orringer shows that Spanish art-song is an exceptional product of Spain’s Silver Age and reveals a new way to understand and appreciate poems set to music in twentieth-century Spain.