Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-235) and index
Introduction -- poetry and music in conflict and convergence -- Play death sweeter -- Fire in the harp, in her hair -- Rises and plays -- Into you, into you I sing -- We resound -- Shattered the songs
"Paul Celan, who has long been recognized as the most important poet of the German language after World War II, repeatedly referred to music and song in his poetic oeuvre, and few writers of the post-war era have inspired as large a body of musical settings by contemporary composers. Englund addresses music both as a thematic and structural presence in the poems themselves and as their sounding interlocutor in musical works by Harrison Birtwistle, György Kurtág, Wolfgang Rihm, Peter Ruzicka, and many others"--
