Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Schubert's song cycles

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Schubert's song cycles

Franz Schubert's best known song cycles, like Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise are based on separate poems with a common theme and narrative. Other song cycles are based on consecutive excerpts of the same literary work: Schubert's "Ave Maria" is part of such a song cycle based on excerpts of the same poem, in this case by Walter Scott.

Contents

When the poems of a group of songs have a common link, and are for this reason grouped under a single Deutsch number, but there is no common narrative, the collection is rather qualified as a song set than a song cycle. Some of Schubert's song cycles contain both Lieder for solo voice as part songs. There is, however, always a piano accompaniment.

Don Gayseros

D 93, Song cycle Don Gayseros for voice and piano (1815?):

Gesänge des Harfners aus "Wilhelm Meister"

Gesänge des Harfners aus "Wilhelm Meister" (Harpist's songs from Wilhelm Meister), D 478 is a song cycle for voice and piano, first published in 1822 as Op. 12. The texts of the cycle derived from Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.

  1. "Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergibt" ("Harfenspieler I" 2nd setting; 2nd version – 1822?)
  2. "Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß", formerly D 480 ("Harfenspieler III" 3rd setting – 1822)
  3. "An die Türen will ich schleichen", formerly D 479 ("Harfenspieler II" 2nd version – 1822?)

Alternative settings and versions of the "Harfenspieler" texts:

  • "Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergibt":
  • D 325 "Harfenspieler" (1815, first setting)
  • D 478 "Harfenspieler I" (1816, 1st version of 2nd setting; modified 2nd version)
  • "An die Türen will ich schleichen":
  • D 478 (formerly D 479) "Harfenspieler II" (1816, 1st version; modified 2nd version)
  • "Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß":
  • D 478 (formerly D 480) "Harfenspieler III" (1816, 1st and 2nd settings; modified version of the 3rd setting)
  • Vier Canzonen

    D 688, Song cycle Vier Canzonen for voice and piano (1820):

    Die schöne Müllerin

    Op. 25D 795, Song cycle Die schöne Müllerin for voice and piano (1823):

    D 795, alternative versions:

    Seven songs from Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake

    Op. 52, Sieben Gesänge aus Walter Scotts "Fräulein am See" (Seven songs from Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake):

    Two scenes from the play "Lacrimas"

    Op. posth. 124D 857, Two songs Zwei Szenen aus dem Schauspiel "Lacrimas" for voice and piano (1825):

    Vier Refrainlieder

    Op. 95D 866, Song cycle Vier Refrainlieder for voice and piano (1828?):

    Songs from Wilhelm Meister

    Op. 62D 877, Song cycle Gesänge aus "Wilhelm Meister" (1826):

    D 877, alternative versions:

    Three songs

    Op. 83D 902, "Drei Gesänge" for bass and piano (1827):

    Winterreise

    Op. 89D 911, Song cycle Winterreise for voice and piano (1827):

    D 911, alternative versions:

    Schwanengesang

    D 957, Not a song cycle, but a collection compiled by the publisher. 13 Lieder nach Gedichten von Rellstab und Heine for voice and piano (1828, published as Schwanengesang, with "Die Taubenpost" as 14th song added to the cycle). The first seven songs of the cycle are on poems by Ludwig Rellstab, the next six on poems by Heinrich Heine. D 965a "Die Taubenpost" on a poem by Johann Gabriel Seidl, presumably the last song Schubert composed, was added to the cycle by the publisher.

    Auf den wilden Wegen

    Auf den wilden Wegen: songs from the Poetisches Tagebuch of Ernst Schulze is musician Graham Johnson's proposal to group Schubert's ten settings of poems from Ernst Schulze's Poetisches Tagebuch in a single song cycle:

    1. D 853 – "Auf der Bruck" ("Auf der Brücke")
    2. D 862 – "Um Mitternacht"
    3. D 874 – "O Quell, was strömst du rasch und wild" (completed by Reinhard van Hoorickx)
    4. D 861 – "Der liebliche Stern"
    5. D 876 – "Im Jänner 1817 (Tiefes Leid)"
    6. D 834 – "Im Walde"
    7. D 882 – "Im Frühling"
    8. D 883 – "Lebensmut"
    9. D 884 – "Über Wildemann"
    10. D 860 – "An mein Herz"

    References

    Schubert's song cycles Wikipedia