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.
"Fischerweise" (The wise fisherman D.881B Op. 96 No. 4)
is universally popular although it celebrates a man's
world in which women are allowed to play little part.
Everything about this music suggests fraternal male
banter. The bouncing counterpoint between the solo line
and the accompaniment gives a strong impression of
comradely collusion. Just as in a shanty, a soloist has
been elected (in this case a baritone) to lead the
proceedings, but the left hand of the piano part is a
veritable chorus of assorted and assenting men's
voices.
Schubert's mastery of the male partsong is here given
pianistic expression; the gruff basses at the beginning
are echoed by tenors a twelfth higher and at the end of
the first two verses there is something liked a
whistled obbligato as the left hand crosses to the
treble. This is the only moment when the accompaniment
dares to enter the dangerous domain of the soprano
register. The advantage of having the percussive and
wordless piano stand in for this chorus is that the
left hand tunes, when combined with the energetic motor
rhythms of the right, create an irresistible illusion
of splashing waves and glinting sunlight. In lesser
hands than Schubert's this song (to a rather mediocre
text by his friend Baron Schlechta) would have had a
coarse ring to it—the splashing of water can as
easily follow a game of rugby as describe a day of
fishing. Despite the energy and heartiness of the music
Schubert never descends to the vulgar or brutal: the
reference to the 'schlaue Wicht' is rendered charming
by a clever displacement of the rhythm which suggests
insouciance rather than chauvinism or misogyny. Apart
from this adjustment in the last verse the song is
strophic. Schubert has no compunction in leaving out
one of Schlechta's seven stanzas to make a neat
structure of two verses of poetry for each one of
music.
Source: Hyperion
(https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W2385_GBA
JY8413201)
Although originally composed for Voice & Piano, I
created this Interpretation of the "Fischerweise" (The
wise fisherman D.881B Op. 96 No. 4) for Flute & Strings
(2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
