For Winter’s Rains and Ruins Are Over

Music in celebration of springtime

Alexander Pope tells us that hope springs eternal in the human breast, and if he isn’t referring to the eternal hope for spring, he really missed out on something. It’s just the thing after a long winter to find that spring has sprung, the grass has ’riz, and to wonder where the birdies is — as the anonymous bard so eloquently put it in “Spring In The Bronx.” Beethoven felt the same way.

So did Schumann, Mendelssohn, Stravinsky and just about every other composer who ever wielded his or her seasoned pen. They all wrote about spring in some way or other — famously or forgottenly, parenthetically or prominently. From Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck’s 1595 two-voice chanson Voicy du gay printemps l’heureux advenement to Benoit Mernier’s 2008 opera on Frank Wedekind’s play Fruhlings Erwachen, the theme of spring has served as inspiration, picturesque expression and thematic link for composers...

Full article in the current issue of LISTEN Magazine & on their website at: http://www.listenmusicmag.com/feature/for-winters-rains-and-ruins-are-over.php