Classical Music | Baritone

Recorded on 01/25/2011, uploaded on 01/25/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Franz Schubert set to music both of Goethe's poems entitled Wanderers Nachtlied. Schubert's setting of Goethe's first poem, composed in 1815, was a work of youthfulness; that of Goethe's second poem, however, was forged out of tempered maturity. Goethe wrote his second Wanderers Nachtlied on the evening of September 6, 1780. An adaptation of a lyric by the ancient Greek poet Alcman, it describes the serenity of a glorious sunset—all is quiet and the surrounding rustic scene is beginning to rest. Poem and song alike exhibit a remarkable economy. Goethe captures the picturesque scene in only eight lines of text while Schubert gives it musical utterance in a scant fourteen measures. The solemnity and peacefulness of the scene is immediately captured in the opening measures of the song. The vocal melody unfolds effortlessly over the sustained accompaniment of the piano and builds towards the climax of the final two lines ("Just wait—you will know rest as well"). Uttered twice to the same music, the voice climbs to a high F and pauses on the word "balde," only to glide gracefully back down and cadence over the song's solemn two measure introduction.      Joseph DuBose