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.
"Frühlingsglaube" (Faith In Spring) D.686b Op. 20 No.
2 is regarded as one of Schubert’s truly great works.
This is Schubert’s only song to set to music the
poetry of Johann Ludwig Uhland. In this music we
experience optimism tempered by a sense of the reality
of impending tragedy. Schubert himself was already sick
by the time of this song’s composition in 1822. The
poetry tells us of the beauty of spring’s blooming,
but portends also of inevitable change whereby spring's
beauty and vibrance must yield to winter and death. The
tonality of the song wanders in and out of major and
minor, seeming to hint at the inner back and forth
emotions Schubert must have been feeling, and indeed
which all of us feel at different times in our lives.
There is danger in this bittersweet mixture of
emotions. Like all songs where we sense the narrator
has suffered a great deal, Frühlingsglaube teeters
precariously on the borders of sentimentality and, if
performers are determined to milk it for all its
possibilities of pathetic expression, it can easily
take on the characteristics of a lachrymose Victorian
ballad. The secret of a truly moving performance lies
in the tempo. Schubert’s marking ‘Ziemlich
langsam’ means ‘rather slow’, and it is the
interpretation of the ‘rather’ which is the nub.
The time signature is 2/4 and it is the crotchet, not
the quaver, which is the main beat. Performers who
favour four slow quavers in the bar rather than the two
crotchets may seem to gain something in terms of
emotional import, but the ‘linden Lüfte’ which
‘säuseln und weben’ lose their fragrant lightness,
and the song becomes leaden and sad rather than a
floating vision of hope eternal..
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Schubert)
Although originally composed for Voice and Piano, I
created this Interpretation of "Frühlingsglaube"
(Faith In Spring D.686b Op. 20 No. 2) for Flute &
Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
PARTITION