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 "Nacht und Träume" (Night and Dreams D.827 Op. 43
No. 2) is likely a conflation of two of Matthäus von
Collin's poems and was likely meant as a memorial and
tribute to the poet, a greatly admired friend of
Schubert's, who had died the year before in 1824. The
vocal line stretches into the void and lures moonlight,
memories and spirits to visit our dreams. In the piano,
slow unruffled semiquavers breathe steadily, and the
one significant modulation into G major from the home
key of B major, makes the dreamer fall into an even
deeper sleep, nestling with the purest delight in the
arms of Morpheus. There is however a touch of lonely,
resounding desolation on the diminished chord of
'Rufen, wenn der Tag erwacht': we plead for night's
return in order to live again in a better world, to
recapture the joys that we once possessed. This is a
theme of a number of Schubert's greatest songs. Many
years before Freud, the poet knew that sleep—the
other side of the coin of death—is the key to our
past joys and troubles. The song is notoriously
difficult; all singers and pianists feel that the ideal
performance of this music of the spheres exists only in
the imagination and in the happiest of dreams.
Matthäus von Collin was a cousin of the same Josef von
Spaun who seems to have been ubiquitous in all the
fortunate aspects of Schubert's life. Collin was a poet
and dramatist, a good eighteen years older than the
composer, but a kindly and cultured host of
considerable means (he was tutor to Napoleon's son, the
Duke of Reichstadt). He was something of an
intellectual heavyweight, having held the professorship
of philosophy at the University of Cracow, and the
professorship of history of philosophy in Vienna.
Admired for his taste, kindness and ability as a critic
rather more than for his writing, Collin's conversation
must have bewitched Schubert on his visits (sometimes
with Vogl) to his household. He was a disciple of the
Schlegel brothers, and those poets' considerable
influence on Schubert in the early 1820s, probably went
back to conversations with Collin. His early death in
his middle forties was a shock to the Schubert circle.
There are five Schubert Collin settings.
Source:
Wikipedia(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacht_und_Tr%C3
%A4ume)
Although originally composed for Solo Piano, I created
this Interpretation of the "Nacht und Träume" (Night
and Dreams D.827 Op. 43 No. 2) for Flute & Strings (2
Violins, Viola & Cello).