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.
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).
PARTITION