Franz Peter Schubert (1797 – 1828) was an Austrian
composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras.
Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a vast
oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works
(mainly lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred
music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of
piano and chamber music. His major works include the
art song "Erlkönig" , the Piano Trout Quintet in A
major, the unfinished Symphony No. 8 in B minor, the
"Great" Symphony No. 9 in...(+)
Franz Peter Schubert (1797 – 1828) was an Austrian
composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras.
Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a vast
oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works
(mainly lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred
music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of
piano and chamber music. His major works include the
art song "Erlkönig" , the Piano Trout Quintet in A
major, the unfinished Symphony No. 8 in B minor, the
"Great" Symphony No. 9 in C major, a String Quintet,
the three last piano sonatas, the opera Fierrabras, the
incidental music to the play Rosamunde, and the song
cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise. He was
remarkably prolific, writing over 1,500 works in his
short career. His compositional style progressed
rapidly throughout his short life. The largest number
of his compositions are songs for solo voice and piano
(roughly 630). Schubert also composed a considerable
number of secular works for two or more voices, namely
part songs, choruses and cantatas. He completed eight
orchestral overtures and seven complete symphonies, in
addition to fragments of six others. While he composed
no concertos, he did write three concertante works for
violin and orchestra. Schubert wrote a large body of
music for solo piano, including eleven incontrovertibly
completed sonatas and at least eleven more in varying
states of completion, numerous miscellaneous works and
many short dances, in addition to producing a large set
of works for piano four hands. He also wrote over fifty
chamber works, including some fragmentary works.
Schubert's sacred output includes seven masses, one
oratorio and one requiem, among other mass movements
and numerous smaller compositions. He completed only
eleven of his twenty stage works.
Theodor Körner has often been called the Rupert Brooke
of his generation. He was only six years older than
Schubert; young enough still to appear something of a
contemporary, precocious and daredevil enough to
inspire the teenage composer to a type of hero worship.
Körner came from a literary family in Dresden; his
father was an intimate friend of Schiller, no less. The
young hothead was sent down from Leipzig University in
1811 for fighting in a duel. He moved to Vienna where
one of his tragedies was put on at the Theater an der
Wien and he became at nineteen the house dramatist of
the Burgtheater. At this time, Josef von Spaun took
Schubert (very much his protégé in those early years)
to the opera to see Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride: "As
we left the theatre we met the poet Körner with whom I
was on very friendly terms. I presented the little
composer to him, of whom he had already heard a certain
amount from me. He was glad to make his acquaintance
and encouraged Schubert to live for art, which would
make him happy."
Later that evening in a restaurant Körner and Schubert
almost got involved in a brawl in defence of the
singers Milder and Vogl who were being insultingly
discussed at the next table. Like the young Schumann's
one encounter with Heine, this evening together was
sufficient to make the composer fall under the spell of
the poet. On that night in Spaun's and Körner's
company, Schubert must have felt very much an artist,
part of a community with shared ideals. His
determination to resist parental pressure to stay in
schoolteaching was strengthened by the youg poet's
advice. Körner was killed in action at Gadebusch, a
skirmish in the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon, in
August 1813. He left five tragedies, five comedies,
short stories and much poetry including the patriotic
poems Leyer und Schwert, the impact and popularity of
which were much enhanced by the manner of his
death.
"Sängers Morgenlied" (Singer's Morning Song) D.163 &
D.165 sets a poem taken from Körner's Knospen
(Buds)—a title appropriate for a collection of
freshly youthful, if not fully mature or original,
poetry. Sängers Morgenlied is the first of Schubert's
fourteen Körner settings and it deserves to be better
known. There is a touch of Weber in the piano
introduction and in the vocal melismas. This is music
of high spirits which takes its cue from the
exclamation mark after the first two words; it sparkles
like bright light breaking through darkness. The poem
has six verses of which we perform the first four.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Schubert)
Although originally composed for Voice and Piano, I
created this Interpretation of "Sängers Morgenlied"
(Singer's Morning Song D.163 & D.165) for Flute &
Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
