We begin with two sun-drenched songs of Xavier Montsalvatge, the most significant Catalan musician of the 20th Century. Montsalvatge drew on the Caribbean style called antillanismo, fusing Cuban dance rhythms with Spanish vocal styles and Afro-Cuban forms. For him, Hispanic culture(though it had itself annihilated the indigenous population) was now being erased by American influence. ‘Cuba dentro de un piano’ and ‘Punto
de habanera’ both come from the 5 canciones negras, a 1945 commission from the Catalan soprano Mercedes Plantada. The former is a habanera-style recollection of a lost Cuba. The latter describes a Creole beauty in a crisp, white crinoline, her gait heard in the rhythm of the guajiras, a type of flamenco.

Theodoro Valcárcel’s ‘Tungu Tungu’ dips south to Peru. It is taken from an important 1936 collection of 31 songs in the indigenous languages of Quechua and Aymara from the Peruvian Andes. Though Valcárcel was educated in Europe (specifically Milan and Barcelona), he sought to integrate his mestizo (mixed) background with this training, thus songs like his exquisite ‘Tungu Tungu’ utilise recognisable Western harmonies.

The use of Andean language–such as the shared use of ‘tungu tungu’, me aning ‘dove’ or ‘beloved’–links Valcárcel to Olivier Messiaen in his 1945 song cycle Harawi. Subtitled ‘A Song of Love and Death’, Messiaen melded the Cornish myth of Tristan and Iseult with Quechuan languages and Andean folksongs (a ‘harawi’ is a Peruvi an narrative genre). ‘Doundou Tchil’ describes a male dancer performing a courtship dance; the song title onomatopoeically depicts the jingle of the crotal bells at his ankles.

Back to Cuba with the prodigious 20th-century Latin-American Ernesto Lecuona. This ‘Cuban Schubert’ wrote at least 600 songs; the hit ‘Siempre en mi corazón’ was nominated for an Oscar in 1942, but lost to ‘White Christmas’. The lullaby ‘La señora luna’, in the form of a Cuban bolero, comes from his 1937 cycle 5 canciones conversos de Juana de Ibarbourou. The Uruguayan poet Ibarbourou may have written the poem for her son. To this day, Lecuona’s original publication cannot be accessed in communist Cuba.

The perspective shifts to European Jewish voices with Gustav Mahler’s ‘Von der Schönheit’, from Das Lied von der Erde (1908-9). Hans Bethge, freely translating poetry by Li Bai, depicts an idyllic scene of girls picking lotus blossom on the shore with boys riding past, but one girl watches in secret grief. The song’s expansive form reveals Mahler’s fascination with song on a symphonic scale.

Arnold Schoenberg’s ‘Tot’ was written in Berlin, 1933. Following Schoenberg’s exile in the USA, it was forgotten until 1948. The poem is a study in indifference, reflected in the pitiless angularity of Schoenberg’s music; only at the end do we realise this protagonist is steeped in grief.

While Schoenberg and Weill escaped Nazi Germany, Ilse Weber was murdered in Auschwitz aged 41. In Theresienstadt, Weber worked as a nurse in the children's infirmary and wrote around 60 poems, many of
which she accompanied as songs on her guitar. The folk-like ‘Ich wandre durch Theresienstadt’ laments the loss of home; today, it is heard in the artists’ own arrangement.

Written in 1933, Kurt Weill’s sung ballet Die sieben Todsünden contemplates humanity’s evils. Though the work has two named characters, it is unclear whether they are sisters or aspects of one person. This unusual device was dictated by Weill’s wealthy patron Edward James, who demanded a role for his wife, the dancer Tilly Losch, opposite Weill's wife, the singer Lotte Lenya. ‘Neid’ depicts an often-overlooked form of imperialism, namely capitalism, which fosters envy in the characters walking through San Francisco. In ‘Epilogue’, they/she return(s) to Louisiana, seemingly content with a modest lot.

Our last stop is East Asia. Azezi and Frenkel's ‘Ananurhan’ is an arrangement of an Uyghur folksong which, like Weber’s song, speaks of leaving home. The tension between central Asian dance rhythms and the
mournful text characterises Uyghur folk music and reflects perseverance of spirit amidst continuing tragedy and persecution.

As Messiaen looked west, Maurice Ravel turned eastward for his song cycle Shéhérazade. He was fascinated with the storyteller who nightly saved herself by interrupting her tales on a cliff-hanger. Ravel set freely
translated poetry by Tristan Klingsor, a fellow-member in the artists’ group ‘Les Apaches’. In ‘La flûte enchantée’, a servant girl hears her lover playing the flute while her master slumbers. ‘L’indifférent’, a failed seduction, exemplifies the fetishisation of Eastern beauty.

The ‘Fishman's Sonnet’ was given to Fleur Barron by the composer Huang Ruo (b.1976). Ruo’s internationally renowned music blends Chinese ancient and folk music with Western classical and popular genres. This song draws on kunqu, one of the oldest forms of Chinese
opera.

‘Fengyang Flower Drum’ hails from Fengyang County in Anhui Province. It has a sobering history; the region experienced regular severe floods during the late Ming Dynasty, forcing its residents to sing for money. The song was famously used in The Good Earth, a 1937 film adaptation of a novel by Pearl S Buck. It starred the aforementioned Tilly Losch from Weill’s Die Sieben Todsünden.

We close with another lullaby, recalling both Weber’s and Lecuona’s songs. The ‘Northeastern Lullaby’, with its sinuous melody, originated in the Liaoning Province in Northeastern China. The lyrics of this traditional ballad were rewritten in 1960 and it has since become enormously popular.

© Natasha Loges 2023
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