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 Wanderer" (D.493 Op. 4 No. 1) is a song composed
by Franz Schubert near the end of May 1821 as a
revision to an earlier work composed in October 1816
for voice and piano. The words are taken from a German
poem by Georg Philipp Schmidt (von Lübeck) . The song
is set in the key of C-sharp minor with the tempo
marking very slow and the time signature alla breve .
The piece has a total of 72 measures. Schubert wrote
another song entitled "Der Wanderer;" it is numbered
D.649. The song begins with a recitative, describing
the setting: mountains, a steaming valley, the roaring
sea. The wanderer is strolling quietly, unhappily, and
asks, sighing, the question: "where?"
The next section, consisting of 8 bars of a slow melody
sung in pianissimo, describes the feelings of the
wanderer: the sun seems cold, the blossom withered,
life old. The wanderer expresses the conviction of
being a stranger everywhere. This 8-bar section was
later used by Schubert as theme on which his Wanderer
Fantasy is based.
Next the music shifts to the key of E major, the tempo
increases and the time signature changes to 6/8 . The
wanderer asks: "where are you my beloved land?" This
place the wanderer longs for is described as green with
hope, "the land where my roses bloom, my friends
stroll, my dead rise" and, finally, "the land which
speaks my language, Oh land, where are you?" Towards
the end of this section, the music gets quite animated
and forms the climax of the song.
Finally, the music returns to the original minor key
and slow tempo. After quoting the question "where?"
from the opening, the song closes with a "ghostly
breath" finally answering the question: "There where
you are not, there is happiness." The song closes in
the key of E major.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Wanderer)
Although originally composed for Voice and Piano, I
created this Interpretation of "Der Wanderer" (D.493
Op. 4 No. 1) for Flute & Strings (2 Violins, Viola &
Cello).