In 1986 my Italian folk singer songwriter hero, Angelo Branduardi, recorded an album with 10 poems of Yeats translated into Italian which he set to music. These included: The Swans At Coole, Innisfree, An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, To A Child Dancing in the Wind, The Fiddler of Dooney, Down By The Salley Gardens etc. The album title was appropriately "Branduardi Canta Yeats".

The tunes, being Branduardi's own, make for an interesting reflection on the inspiration afforded by lyrics/poems when taken out of their original language. Here, it is the ideas that generate the inspiration, not the musicality of the original verse. Though I had to smile at Branduardi's interpretation of the Fiddle Of Dooney, he clearly tried to inject some Irishness into it - I am not sure if he managed it.

A number of the tracks are shown on youTube in live performance from a 1986 concert at the Grand Echiquier in France. Feast your ears...

An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
Down By The Salley Gardens
The Swans At Coole
The Fiddler of Dooney