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.
"Meeres Stille" (Calm Seas), D.216, is a marvel of
impressionistic calm. The sea is motionless but we are
also aware of the sinister implications of a becalmed
voyage before the era of steam power. A tensely wrought
melodic line is underpinned by breathless modulations -
the arpeggii in the piano part convey stillness and
fear at the same time. The song is only one page long
but it somehow suspends time and place: the horizons
are endless, the ship is cradled in dark waters, the
piano part seems to measure the sea's depth, its chords
vibrating like a sounding with line and lead. Above the
vocal line there is no trace of wind in the sails.
Fischer-Dieskau has written that 'the score of the song
looks like a drawing' and indeed here is a map of
motionless semibreves and the undulating lines denoting
arpeggii seem nautically illustrative. The only
undercurrent is one of human apprehension at the void
created by Nature who has withdrawn her
cooperation.
Goethe's poem dates from 1787 when, during his Italian
journey, he voyaged from Naples to Sicily, and
encountered all weathers. Schubert never even saw the
sea - Austrian lakes were as near as he got. Beethoven
also set the poem (chorally with orchestra} at more or
less the same time, linking it with a happy ending - a
setting of the pendant poem, Glückliche Fahrt
(Prosperous Voyage). Schubert preferred to leave the
ship at sea, captured for ever and set under glass on
the waters' depths.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meeres_Stille)
Although originally composed for Voice and Piano, I
created this Interpretation of the "Meeres Stille"
(Calm Seas D.216) for Oboe & Concert (Pedal) Harp.
SHEET MUSIC