At first glance the three poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe I chose to set to music have little to do with one another. But a penetrating look at what lies within them reveals much deeper connections. ‘Selige Sehnsucht’, the first of the set, speaks of a new kind of love, one that can lead to a rebirth through death, a new life in the spirit, away from the “shadowing darkness” of the existence we now know. And this promise of a new life gives us hope, which is precisely the main subject of ‘Meine Göttin’. The last song of the set, ‘Gegenwart’, takes the metaphor of the sun as a sign of hope, but also as the nickname of the beloved, without whom the light of life is lost, without whom the promise delivered in the first song and sustained through hope in the second, would be more than impossible. As you may imagine, I was—and remain—profoundly touched by each of these texts, and I can only hope the music I have written have captured their spirit and will bring listeners and performers much to enjoy. By Rodrigo Ruiz.