This month arouses passions among composers and poets dedicated to writing songs. By far, April (and you should also give credit to September) is the month that has the advantage in the prominence of the poems set to music.
To start, we should think about why, what are the reasons why this month is so present in a long list of topics; and maybe this has to do with what the weather of the month means, after the harsh cold of winter (not so hard here in Puerto Vallarta). The lyrics dedicated to the month of April speak in general of the hope that warm days, the blue sky and the radiant sun bring.
We can start with the song that first comes to mind when talking about this month: ¿Quién me ha robado el mes de Abril?, fantastic composition by Joaquín Sabina where, in three stories, he shows us the loss of hope of characters from the ordinary world of life.
“Far beyond my window, cottons played to be a garden, waiting for April” says Silvio Rodríguez in one of those images that earn credit by dint of pure poetry. In his song “Como esperando abril”, from the album “Días y Flores” (his first official album, from 1975) he reminds us of the girl in Dalí’s window, but, if this were the case, observing a sea of cotton.
Joan Manuel Serrat could not be absent in such a celebration and with his song “Penélope” he says present. Not only does he name the month of April, “… a leaden April afternoon…”, but also to the station, with that walker who “… he stopped his clock one spring afternoon…”
And what about songs written in English? From the outset “April in Paris” seems like one of the spoiled and could be, without a doubt, one of the most representative. Written by “The Wizard of Oz” lyricist Yip Harburg and composer Vernon Duke, it starred in the golden age of American popular song and today, it remains a respected jazz standard.
“Till April in Paris, chestnuts in blossom…”. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s version is simply and simply a must.
Simon and Garfunkel are the members of one of the most famous rock duets in the decades of the 60s and 70s, and they also sang to him in the fourth month of the year. “April come she will” is the shortest song from the album “The sounds of silence”, a beautiful work that was internationalized with the film “The Graduate”, starring Dustin Hoffman.
To finish this tour we turn to Prince, the genius of Minneapolis and his song “Sometimes it snows in April”. The composer shows us the pain of an unexpected farewell, a friend killed in the war, the loss of the author’s best friend. The song makes us reflect on the pain and cries for the farewell, the absence, sudden, as sometimes are the unexpected snowfalls that can fall in the month of April.
We have at hand a very good justification to enjoy part of this excellent musical proposal.
