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.
"Der Tod und das Mädchen" ("Death and the Maiden"), D
531 Op. 7 No. 3, is a lied (song) composed by Franz
Schubert in February 1817. It was published by Cappi
und Diabelli in Vienna in November 1821. The text is
derived from a poem written by German poet Matthias
Claudius. The song is set for voice and piano. The
piece begins with an introduction in D minor; the first
eight bars in the time signature 2/2. Both hands play
chords. The section is quiet (pianissimo) and slow
(mäßig), and presents the musical theme of Death.
The Maiden enters in the ninth bar on an anacrusis.
This section is more agitated than the first; it is
marked piano and "somewhat faster" (etwas geschwinder).
The melody gradually increases in pitch, chromatically
at points. The piano accompaniment is syncopated,
playing chords of quavers alternating in the left and
right hand. A diminished chord in the first bar of the
third line (ich bin noch jung) creates an eerie mood.
In the eighth bar of the maiden's song, on the word
rühre ("touch"), the quavers stop and the rhythm of
the opening section returns. Then an imperfect cadence
leads to a rest with fermata. This brings the second
section to a total of 13 bars in length.
The third and final section is Death's song. The music
returns to the tempo and dynamics of the introduction.
Death's melody has a narrow pitch range (save for the
last note where the singer has the option of dropping
to D below the melody line). The key modulates to F
major, the relative major of D minor. With the last
syllable of Death's song, the key changes into D major.
The coda is almost a repeat of the introduction, except
it is shortened by one bar and is now in the major
key.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Tod_und_das_M%C3%A4d
chen)
Although originally composed for Voice and Piano, I
created this Interpretation of "Der Tod und das
Mädchen" (Death and the Maiden D.531 Op. 7 No. 3) for
Flute & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
PARTITION