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).
This poem was set by Goethe's mistress, the actress
Corona Schröter, and his close friend Carl Friedrich
Zelter. Challier's Lieder Catalogue of 1885 lists seven
others, apart from the American Edward MacDowell, all
utterly obscure; the book could not include the Richard
Strauss setting (by far the most famous) of 1897. The
fact is that nothing can approach the Schubert setting
for fragrance and shy delight; Strauss's effulgent song
is a vocal splendour perhaps, but in its desire to
charm in anachronistic manner, borders on the kitsch.
Schubert's arioso, seemingly poised between speech and
song, and certainly experimental in this respect, veers
in the direction of prophetic modernity: out of context
one might guess the composer of the chromatically
underpinned line 'mein Leben hing mit diesem Blick an
ihrem Leben' as Schumann rather than Schubert, and the
song shares with that composer a feeling of
improvisation on the spur of the moment, where the poem
rules all, rather than a preconceived melody. The
rapturous elongation of the final line of the second
and fourth verse calculatedly sacrifices prosody for
atmosphere, challenging the performers to achieve the
feeling of ebb and flow so essential in this style.
Although originally composed for Voice & Piano, I
created this Interpretation of "Das Rosenband" (The
Rose Ribbon D.280) for Flute & Strings (2 Violins,
Viola & Cello).