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.
"Die junge Nonne" (The young Nun D.828 Op. 43 No. 1)
tells a powerful story from the first ominous notes of
a muffled storm. In a number of details (particularly
in the rumble of the tremolando of the accompaniment
and supporting octave triplets) the music is curiously
reminiscent of Kolmas Klage from a decade earlier.
Perhaps this is logical enough when we realise that
that too was storm music written for a heroine whose
soul was beset by storm-like grief. The key of F minor
is established with the broadest of brushes. Howling
wind and ringing bell are both introduced by a motif
that is heard again and again in various guises
(including the vocal line, itself a variant of this
theme). The left hand beneath the rustlings of the
right does its storm work, and then crosses over (a
most eloquent gesture in this context) to sound the
angelus. It is as if we are seeing, and hearing, the
diabolical and the divine in the human condition in a
Jekyll and Hyde juxtaposition of roles. The tension
rises and the screw is mercilessly turned by a semitone
rise to the key of F sharp minor. It is here, as Capell
so aptly puts it, that 'every listener is aware that
some powerful spirit is at work.' G sharp in the bass
(under the first 'und finster der Nacht') pushes pitch
and excitement higher (a D in the vocal line) but the
voice now descends by semitones (D flat and then C,
where the hollow incantation of 'wie das Grab' makes
its eerie effect) on its return to F minor. At the
third verse the music goes into F major, and the change
of key is as if a cloud has cleared in the nun's
understanding rather than in nature, for the storm
continues raging outside. A miracle has taken place,
however, and her prayer has been answered. She now has
'a recognition of the essential benignancy of the
forces of the wild night' (Capell again, who is
splendid on this song) and she carries us with her in
the sweep of her conviction and new-found insight. Her
fear of the storm, both nature's and life's, has been
banished; instead we hear a type of visionary ecstasy
that in lesser musical hands would have been maudlin.
But aided by Schubert we are transfixed by the
transformation; the hypnotic rhythm of the music, both
repetitive and ever changing, would make us follow her
anywhere. The effect of the final bell music is of the
greatest imaginable romantic grandeur, at the same time
as being gently moving and touching. The storm motif
continues but it has forever lost its power to
intimidate. What has started out as a force of
potential danger and evil is now seen to be yet another
facet of the workings of God.
In a few minutes, and not even helped by a poem of the
first rank, Schubert has achieved a scene of
Shakespearean dimensions in which confrontation and
struggle finally resolve into acceptance and
reconciliation. The young nun, now steadfast at last,
has voyaged uneasily through spiritual tempests of
doubt and temptation, and turned to heaven as her
haven. The song's span and structure suggest the
experiences of a lifetime rather than a single night,
so powerfully does the music sonorously recreate the
poetic symbolism of past passions in terms of the
thunderstorm and final peace of mind as the ringing of
the morning angelus. Thus a poem of neo-gothic
extravagance has been transformed into a song about a
real woman. No composer ever surpasses Schubert's
ability to bring warmth and life to what could remain,
in other hands, a cardboard cut-out of Sturm und
Drang.
Source: Hyperion
(https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W2153_GBA
JY9201517)
Although originally composed for Voice & Piano, I
created this Interpretation of the "Die junge Nonne"
(The young Nun D.828 Op. 43 No. 1) for Flute & Strings
(2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
