In 2010 I lived as a scholarship holder of the Villa Massimo in Rome. During my time there, I came across some of Michelangelo's poems, which touched me a lot, and soon had the plan to set some of them to music. But I wanted to combine it with something contemporary - just as in Rome the old and the new always come together. The lyric poet Marcel Beyer, whom I met in Rome, wrote for me the poem cycle Die Grillmeisterin, which picks up on many motifs from the Michelangelo texts (fire, tears, being burned, loneliness, etc.). I then alternated this poetry cycle with the Michelangelo poems.

The Italian songs have a sometimes melancholy, sometimes dramatic character, while the Germans are rather bizarre, sometimes even humorous. Despite these contrasts in character, there are also many musical links between German and Italian songs. Individual motives and chord progressions sometimes come in completely different contexts, and between the first and last song, there is even a direct reference by the same vocal line is underlaid with a completely different text. This creates a musical framework that holds together the very heterogeneous selection of texts. Anno Schreier

Publisher

Schott Music

Composer

Anno Schreier

Binding

Softcover

Pages

48

ISBN

9790001208529

Stock code

ED23190

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