Hugo Wolf began working on the Spanisches Liederbuch on October 28, 1889, with his setting of the anonymous poem, "Wer sein holdes Lieb verloren." Wolf's completion of Gil Vincente's "Wehe der, die mich verstrickte," on April 27, 1890, brought his work on the Spanisches Liederbuch to a close. The entire set was composed in Perchtoldsdorf and published in Mainz in 1891.

The Spanisches Liederbuch is drawn from a collection of Spanish poems of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, translated into German by Emanuel Geibel and Paul Heyse. Only seventeen of the poems have known authors; these include Lope de Vega, Luis de Camões (Portuguese), Miguel de Cervantes, Juan Ruiz, Nicolas Nuñez, Lopez de Ubeda, Don Manuel del Rio, José de Valdivivielso, Alvaro Fernandez de Almeida, Rodrigo de Cota, Cristobal de Castellejo, Gil Vincente, Don Luis el Chico, and Maria Doceo. The collection contains ten religious and 34 secular songs.

Wolf had reached a level of compositional maturity that enabled him to work from the underlying ideas in the poems instead of responding to details in them. Thus, we find a greater use of recurrent rhythmic motives and accompaniment figures than in earlier works, and a more vivid use of harmony to convey the overall sense of a poem.

Of the 13 "geistliche," or religious, poems translated by Geibel and Heyse, Wolf chose ten and placed them first in his Spanisches Liederbuch. Wolf opens the Spanisches Liederbuch with the oldest poem of the collection, "Nun bin ich dein," by Ruiz. An unusual meter of 4/2 and the plodding rhythm of the piece convey the anguish of the sinner who asks forgiveness. "Ach, wie lang die Seele schlummert" has a similar theme and setting, but is more an inward, personal meditation in which bold modulations nearly obliterate the tonality. The slow tempo and trudging repeated notes of "Mühvoll komm' ich und beladen" (I come troubled and heavily laden) communicate the weight of guilt.

The rest of the Spanisches Liederbuch consists of "weltliche" (worldly, or secular) songs, most of which have an erotic theme. A prime example of these is "In dem Schatten meiner Locken" (In the shade of my tresses), one of Wolf's finest songs that has been a standard part of the lied repertoire almost since its publication. The poem tells of a woman and her lover, who sleeps in the shade cast by her hair. The woman laments that her efforts at brushing her hair are in vain, for it always becomes disheveled. She wonders if she should wake her lover, but decides not to. Shifts in metric feel between 3/4 and 6/8 create a sense of indecision. Set in B flat major, the song traces the woman's thoughts through changes in harmony. Wolf moves quickly to D major before the woman asks, "Weck' ich ihn nun auf?" (Do I wake him?), giving the impression that the thought just occurred to her. She hesitates, then answers, "Ach nein!" (Ah, no!) on a G flat major chord, suggesting the affection the woman has for her lover.

"Klinge, klinge, mein Pandero" (Ring ring my tambourine)—another notable favorite from the songbook—is filled with dance rhythms and trills imitating the jingling of a tambourine. Wolf's setting of "Auf dem grünen Balkon" (On the green balcony) combines a Spanish-inflected, guitar-like accompaniment with a flexible voice part. A woman beckons her suitor to her balcony only to reject him with a wave of her finger. The vocal line rises in intensity until the woman says, "No," where the dynamic immediately drops to pianissimo and the harmony moves to the dominant.

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Weltliche Lieder (Secular Songs) - 5.Auf dem grünen Balkon

This song from the Spanish Songbook is evocative of romantic images of a lover and his entrancing beloved at her balcony, calling to mind Goya's lighter paintings or tapestry designs, with a bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked, tender and yet coy girl looking at the boy who is courting her. The piano suggests the strumming of a guitar, and its persistent repetition gives the impression that this song is a serenade sung to soften the girl's heart rather than a serious lament. The mood darkens temporarily as the vocal line sweeps downward in the beginning of the verses, but returns to the insinuating melodies of the introduction by the conclusion of each verse. The song ends with a brief, quiet postlude from the piano, repeating the opening theme, and if the singer and pianist have communicated well, the audience should be picturing whether the beloved has relented, or if she continues to gesture "No," all the while gazing kindly at him.

© Anne Feeney, All Music Guide

Weltliche Lieder (Secular Songs) - 16.Bitt' ihn, o Mutter

The poem for this song uses a conceit that was so old-fashioned and associated with Baroque and even Renaissance music that it very likely had the certain distancing effect for Wolf's audience as it does for a contemporary audience, his music is nonetheless vivid, even touching. It opens with a rushing, agitated theme from the piano, which sets the mood that the vocal lines elaborate upon, whether plaintive, foreboding (the discords in the fourth verse do not seem particularly daring to contemporary listeners but would have been somewhat jarring to the original audiences), or, at the line "Wunder des Himmels, unheil der Erde" rising to a tentative climax suggesting that this sensation of love is not so unwelcome after all. This impression is confirmed by the final piano lines which resolve into a sunny major chord, as though the girl is smiling through her agitated tears.

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Weltliche Lieder (Secular Songs) - 20.Ach, im Maien Wars

Most of Wolf's songs feature a tight connection between text and music, from the overall meaning and mood of the poem to the role of each word. This song, from the Spanish Songbook, is a fascinating discrepancy. The deeply sad and dramatic text is set to a sweetly flowing melody that is closer to a light-hearted love song than one of misery and anger. Even the rage against the hunter who shot the bird is expressed with little more than one heavy chord, and the song returns to its gentle melodiousness. The song is largely strophic, as well, which is unusual for Wolf when the text varies so in the emotions of each verse. Whatever interpretation one may put on it, it remains a mystery.

© Anne Feeney, All Music Guide