Benjamin Britten and Paul Simon

When I was younger, my favorite Simon and Garfunkel song was April Come She Will, which seems to be inspired by Benjamin Britten's Songs From Friday Afternoons, Op. 7: "Cuckoo!"  April Come She Will almost purports to be a mature rendering of Britten's children's choir, concerned with the love and longing of young adults as their relationships change and grow with the seasons.  But for all Simon's blossoming ache and surrender, Britten expresses a tangible and innocent awe of change in which the inevitable is not something outside ourselves.  Britten's is deeply and lastingly beautiful.  I'm sure I could not have foreseen preferring it, but sometimes you have to get older to remember what you knew as a child.