By the 1920s, Joaquin Turina was quite well thought-of in his homeland of Spain (and he was beginning to make a real name for himself around the globe, though his nationalist Spanish style kept him from ever really breaking into the top rank of international composers—musicians in Germany and England and the United States have always tended to consider nationalist music, be it Spanish, Russian, or whatever, to be the sickly cousin of weighty, "serious" concert music), and the pieces he composed during that decade and on either immediate side of it have generally remained his most popular.

As far as songs go, there are several groups from this period; but the Poema en forma de canciones (Poem in the Form of Songs) for voice and piano, Op. 19, are probably the best known. There are five musical numbers in the Poema en forma de canciones. No. 1 "Dedicatoria," is a spirited introductory piece for piano alone that establishes the folksy Spanish tone of the cycle. Then there are four songs to texts by R. de Campoamor: No. 2 "Nunca olvida..."; No. 3 "Cantares," which, as its title indicates, is all about singing and gives the singer a chance to run circles around the piano (rather than the other way around, which is generally more common in art songs!); No. 4 "Los dos miedos," during which the pianist retaliates for the singer's insolence during the last song by rushing up and down the keyboard in a very becoming manner; and No. 5 "Las locos por amor," with its happy, A major, offbeat-driven accompaniment.

© Blair Johnston, Rovi