It caught my eye that the date of this post would coincide with the anniversary of the birth of Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of England’s finest Romantic poets. Born on 4 August 1792, he didn’t live to see his 30th birthday. He was a radical, and not only in his poetry. His stance on religious and societal affairs added to the drag on achieving fame during his lifetime. Sadly, his renown and influence grew only after his death; more happily, however, that influence touched numerous composers searching for a muse. This blog presents a selection of those works for which Shelley is due a share of the credit. Let’s start, however, with Shelley au naturel, in a recitation of his short poem Music, When Soft Voices Die. Continue reading and listening at blog.naxos.com