Yesterday, I ran across Klappstühle a poem by Günther Grass. It reads,
While looking up the date of publication, I ran across a musical rendition by Ronald Perara who set Three Poems By Günther Grass to music in 1974. Klappstühle is the second on his Crossing the Meridian Album. You can hear it at Klappstühle and read about its setting with two other poems at Three Poems of Günther Grass
The music does not touch me deeply, certainly, not as deeply as the poem. Folding chairs as a metaphor of the emigrant experience works quite well. The musical piece is pre-Glass classical. I find I recoil from it now, although then we struggled to understand what the composer was adding to the piece. But Perara is not Britten setting Owens poems to music sensitively. Would it be too harsh to say the music would not be to different were it reporing the grocery list? Yes, it is, but so it strikes me now. Our wilingness – my willingness – to struggle while listening to music changed with Einstein At The Beach.
east of the fog 