Rimas de Bécquer

ByWillem van Merwijk

Happy to tell you that I sent out my ‘Rimas de Bécquer’, (five rhymes by the romantic Andalusian poet Gustavo Bécquer (1836-1870)) to Fokko Oldenhuis, conductor of the Utrechtse Studenten Cantorij. Five songs for choir (SATB + soloists SATBar) and soprano saxophone, in all some 16 minutes of music. Thus fulfilling one of the promises I made to my friend Ties Mellema when I heard he was ill (he is now recovering and gave his comeback concert a few days ago) and I am quite pleased with the outcome. Premiere concerts will be on Thursday 31st of March and Saturday 2nd of April in Utrecht and Friday 1st of April in Leiden (all in the Netherlands).
The five poems I chose are Rimas LIII (Volverán), Rima IX (El sauce), Rima LXXXVI (La Pureza), Rima XCVI (El Candil) and Rima XCIII (A Elisa). I am not the first to use Bécquer’s work as inspiration: Turina wrote songs on his poetry and so did Mompou. What a fantastic poet…
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