Four beggar songs (Quatre chansons des mendiants)
- Die Leierfrau (the ‘gurdy women’)
- Der Blinde (the blind)
- Der Gelähmte (the crippled)
- Der Aussätzige (the leper)
There is a version for voice and orchestra as well (with text in German and French)
His hometown Lemberg, in the Ukraine known as Lviv, and in Poland as Lwów, has a history of occupation by shifting powers. This is why the Germans had trouble figuring out Ignace Lilien's real identity; he survived the war with forged documents. He worked as a chemical engineer, but that didn’t stop him from composing a large oeuvre. His life was as varied as his music, with influences ranging from Polish modernism to South American rhythms and timbres.
by Frans van Ruth
Forbidden Music in World War II