Schubert, Franz Peter - "Die Sterne" for Flute & Strings D.939 Op. 96 No. 1 Flute and String Quartet |
Composer : | Schubert, Franz Peter (1797 - 1828) | ||
Instrumentation : | Flute and String Quartet | ||
Style : | Classical | ||
Arranger : Publisher : | MAGATAGAN, MICHAEL (1960 - ) | ||
Copyright : | Public Domain | ||
Added by magataganm, 27 Oct 2023 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. Dactylic rhythm was always a favourite with Schubert, and this predilection probably goes back to his love of the slow movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. There are energetic works by Schubert which use the rhythm (the fifth of the Moments Musicaux, Op 94) but, like the Beethoven movement, the energy of Die Sterne is not about bluster and Sturm und Drang; it is the sublime, hidden motor of the universe, ticking away in 'heilsame Pflicht', a steady musical hum, like the big Top, linking the centuries together, hums ancient and modern, as it were. The song is pure delight; we hear the delight of the stargazer of course, but also the delight of the stars whose simple undending task it is to send out pulses of dancing light—'divine choreography' Capell calls it. The key changes suggest the stars in a moving axis, a cycle of thirds from the home key of E flat to C, then C flat to G, and then back to the starting point; all this seems a pre-ordained journey, as surprising in its variety and unexpected beauty as a voyage into space might be, but in the safe hands of a guiding force. The controlled rhythm (a little rubato is allowed here and there at the turning of astral corners, like an extra turn of the globe at leap-year) suggests divine order, and the happiness and goodness of that ordering. It is a song that manages to be touching in a personal way (for it is after all a prospective lover who sings it) but its greatness is in the link it suggests between heaven and earth, not a conventionally religious one, but one which the composer knew to be true. In this bright little song we catch a glimpse of the wisdom (innate as well as hard won) which was the sustaining force of Schubert's last years. Source: Hyperion (https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W1730_GBA JY9000613) Although originally composed for Voice & Piano, I created this Interpretation of the "Die Sterne" (The Stars D.939 Op. 96 No. 1) for Flute & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello). |
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