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.
The tradition of setting this poem for voice and piano
spans a number of generations: a succession of modest
and simple songs by Zelter (1803), Reichardt (final
version published in 1809), Schubert (1814), and Brahms
(1858). The most ambitious setting falls outside the
scope of the Lied—a four part a cappella chorus, with
elaborate variations of mood and rhythm, by Peter
Cornelius (1872). Loewe also set the poem as a simple
three-part unaccompanied chorus. But the first four
composers named above who were proud to be part of a
continuing tradition, have an eerie unanimity in
tackling such a task. There is something ineffably
German about a folksong of this kind framed in question
and answer dialogue; simplicity and repetition are to
be relished rather than avoided, as if even one's most
musically limited brethren are to be included in the
sing-song. There is also something about the text which
reflects the German temperament: the tears are wept
into the beer for the sheer enjoyment of it all. It was
also Goethe who wrote another poem on similar lines,
Wonne der Wehmuth—'Delight in Melancholy' (set by
both Beethoven and Schubert). So little do we seem to
understand the Germanic love of melancholy for its own
sake that a young English singer once hopefully offered
me 'The Wonder of Weymouth' as a translation of that
song's title.
The Zelter setting of Trost in Tränen is in E minor
throughout, apart from a consoling G sharp in the final
cadence. This last minute lift to the major key was to
be adopted by Schubert, as well as Zelter's 6/8 rhythm.
Reichardt's song seems to have influenced Schubert even
more: he adopts Reichardt's key of F major (which also
falls into F minor for the woebegone replies) and the
shape of Schubert's melodic line also stems from this
setting. It all seems to be a type of homage to the
past: instead of being taken up by the next table at a
beer hall, the song is taken up and subtly modified by
succeeding generations. When he came to write his song,
Brahms had relatively recently been welcomed by
Schumann into the fold of sacred torch-bearers. He
elaborates the end of each verse, as earlier
generations had declined to do, with a touching piano
postlude, but there are a number of self-conscious bows
to the past. Brahms's setting is in 6/8 of course, in
the major key for the exhortations and in the minor for
the replies. When a wan smile shines through the tears,
the song melts back into the major, although not
surprisingly it is Schubert who achieves this effect
best of all. It was after all Schubert who was ideally
placed in history to write successful strophic songs.
Those by his antecedents can all too easily sound dull
and timid, those by his successors deliberately archaic
and hopelessly nostalgic for the simplicity of former
times. Schubert's own simplicity was a natural part of
his temperament, and this along with his patience (like
the young teacher he was, repeating the same thing a
number of times so that it may enter and stay in the
heads of his pupils) equipped him to make time stand
still in the writing of his best strophic songs.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Schubert)
Although originally composed for Voice and Piano, I
created this Interpretation of "Trost in Tränen"
(Comfort in Tears D.120) for Flute & Strings (2
Violins, Viola & Cello).
SHEET MUSIC