Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

';
element which it contains, the Junge Nonne. ' '
their most individual form, with the soul loving
or longing, in contact with another soul, or
with its Maker ; and the greatest of Schubert's
songs will lie amongst those which are occupied
with those topics, such as Gretohen am Spinnrade,'
'
the 'Mignon '
songs, the 'Wanderer,' the
'
'Miillerlieder,' and ' Winterreise,' and perhaps
highest of all, owing to the strong religious
In that wonderful song, which fortunately is so
well known that no attempt at describing it
is necessary, the personal feelings and the
surroundings are so blended— the fear, the
faith, the rapture, the storm, the swaying of
the house, are so given, that for the time the
hearer becomes the Young Nun herself. Even
the convent bell, which in other hands might
be a burlesque, is an instrument of the greatest
beauty.
We have spoken of the mental atmosphere
which Schubert throws round his poems ; but
he does not neglect the representation of
physical objects. He seems to confine himself
to the imitation of natural noises, and not to
attempt things which have no sound. The
triplets in the Lindenbaum may be intended to
convey the fluttering leaves of the lime-tree,
and the accompaniment-figure in Die ' Forelle
may represent the leaps of the trout ; but there
are other objects about which no mistake can be
made. One imitation of the bell we have just
referred to. Another is in the ' Abendbilder,'
where an Fj sounds through sixteen bars to
represent the ' evening bell ; '
in the ' Ziigenglocklein'the
upperE is heard through the whole
piece ; and the bell of St. Mark's is a wellknown
feature in the part-song of the Gondelfahrer.
'
' The post-horn forms a natural feature
'
in Die ' Post,' and the hurdy-gurdy in Der
'
Leiennann. ' Of birds he gives several instances
'
the Nightingale in Ganymed ' and Die
'
gefangene Sanger' ; the Kaven in 'Abendbilder,'
and perhaps in ' Friihlingstraum ; '
the Cuckoo
in ' Einsamkeit,' the Quail in Der ' Waohtelsohlag
; '
and the Cook in Friihlingstraum.'
'
That hesitation between major and minor
which is so marked in Beethoven is characteristic
also of Schubert, and may be found in
nearly every piece of his. A beautiful instance
may be mentioned en passant in the trio of the
G major Fantasia Sonata (op. 78), where the
two bars in E minor which precede the E major
have a peculiarly charming effect. Another is
supplied by the four bars in A minor, for the
question which begins and ends the beautiful
fragment from Schiller's 'Gods of ancient
Greece.' He also has an especially happy way
—surely peculiarly his own— of bringing a
minor piece to a conclusion in the major. Two
instances of it, which all will remember, are in
the Romance from Bosamunde ' ' ;
—
' The pooiQS of Cralgher, PoetitaHe Betrachtwngen in freyen
Stimden, von Nicolaus, mit ainer Vorrede . . . von Pried/rich von
SclUeffet, were printed by Oerold of Vienna in 1828.
SCHUBERT 331
DuaUBBea Hen, esiat so Bchiin.wenn treu die Treu-e kUaat.
and in the Moment ' musical,' No. 3, in F
minor. This and the ritomels already spoken
of strike one like personal features or traits of
the composer. But apart from these idiosyncrasies,
the changes from minor to major in the
songs are often superb. That in the Schwager
'
Kronos ' (astonishing ^ production for a lad under
twenty), where the key changes into D major,
and farther on into F major, to welcome the
girl on the threshold, with the sudden return
to D minor for the onward journey, and the
sinking sun—Can be forgotten by no one who
hears it, nor can that almost more beautiful
change to D major in the ' Gute Nacht ' on the
mention of the dream. This latter, and the
noble transition to F major in the 'Junge Nonne'
are too familiar to need more than a passing
reference, or that to G major in the ' Riickblick,'
for the lark and nightingale and the girl's eyes,
or to D major in the Serenade.
' Irdisohes
Gliiok ' is in alternate stanzas of major and
minor. In Schiller's Rose ' ' (op. 73) every
shade in the fate of the flower is thus indicated
and this is no solitary instance, but in almost
every song some example of such faithful painting
may be found. A word will often do it.
With Schubert the minor mode seems to be
synonymous with trouble, and the major with
relief ; and the mere mention of the sun, or a
smile, or any other emblem of gladness, is sure
to make him modulate. Some such image was
floating before his mind when he made the
beautiful change to A major near the beginning
of the A minor Quartet (bar 23).
The foregoing remarks, which only attempt to
deal with a few of the external characteristics of
these astonishing songs, will be of use if they
only encouragethe knowledge and study of them.
The chronological list of Schubert's productions
[which appeared in the first edition of the Dictionary,
and has now been superseded by the
list in the complete edition ofBreitkopf &Hartel]
will throw much- light on the progress of his
genius, by facilitating the search where alone
it can be made with profit, namely in the works
themselves. All are worth knowing, though
all are by no means of equal excellence.
—;
I end my imperfect sketch of the life and
works of this wonderful musician, by recalling
the fact that Schubert's songs, regarded as a
department of music, are absolutely and entirely
his own. Songs there were before him, those of
Schulz for instance, and of Zumsteeg, which he
so greatly admired, and of Haydn and Mozart
touching, beautiful expressions of simple thought
and feeling. But the Song, as we know it in his
hands ; full of dramatic fire, poetry, and pathos
2 Why ia this wonderful aong never anng in pubUc in England!