the art song project

At UPPERCASE, we love ephemera. It is not often that we use found bits of paper beyond admiring their beauty and including them in collage. I'm sure many of us are guilty of cutting up old sheet music; I confess that I have taken scissors to some and repurposed them for notebook covers.

For Munich-based soprano Hélène Lindqvist and pianist Philipp Vogler, when they come across old sheet music, they bring the music to life and share it on their Art Song Project website. Illustrated with their own paintings, the couple records art songs and include the lyrics on the site so that visitors can stream the audio, learn and admire obscure—and beautiful—music performed by world-class musicians.

"We're Hélène and Philipp and we are professional classical musicians. We search for unknown art songs in libraries, garage sales and on the internet. Then we record them live and put them on our website for free listening.

We have songs by all kinds of unknowns, and many of them are female composers—writing great music but being "too blonde and beautiful to be taken seriously". We also especially love to feature songs by living composers, who send us their music (we have a few "blonde and beautiful" there as well ;).

Each song comes with a painting and a translation of the lyrics, so it's easy to sit down and listen."

Visit the site and keep it open throughout your day; it will certainly enhance to your mood—and level of sophistication!