In the soul of the poet sings a wonderfull song; and it is his art,
to translate this song of the soul into words. Into rhythms and sounds.
Composers with a poet’s soul catch this song, and keep it in their mind and hart
during months and years, and it changes into pulsing tones, into higher music,
with the smell of nature, with the breath of the poetic soul.
Poet and composer understood each other.
They breathed together; they became one, and the song in words
became a song in tones, which came forth out of their souls into the listening air.
That is what I thought and felt, listening to the "Gezelle-lieder" by Mortelmans.
That’s how I enjoyed this music.
May you too enjoy the publication of Mortelmans lieder,
Let me wish this for you.
Hugo Verriest