3 Lieder

Auf dem Wasser zu singen D774 (1823)

Nacht und Träume D827 (1822-3)

Nachtstück D672 (1819)

The Schubert group begins, in a sense, at the end. The first three songs are all inspired by night, Nachtstück making explicit the association between the end of life and the end of the day implied in Auf dem Wasser zu singen. The most prominent feature of the strophic treatment of Stolberg’s Auf dem Wasser zu singen, the rippling figuration running through the piano part and occasionally entering the vocal line, is a shimmering reflection of the watery setting of the poem rather than a commentary on the sentiments behind it. The thinking is in the minor harmonies which, while they are not immediately relevant to the serenity of the first two stanzas, anticipate and then coincide with the change of mood in the third. Corresponding with the closing sense of release from everyday pressure, the major harmonies that momentarily occur in the last line of each stanza are now retained to the end.

There are no intimations of mortality in Nacht und Träume. On the contrary, the poet welcomes night, or the dreams that come with it, as an enhancement of life. Schubert’s setting is a miracle of tranquillity, which is achieved not so much by stillness - although the song is to be performed “very slowly,” the undulating motion in the piano part never fails - as by harmonic economy. When the modulation does come, without preparation and to a remote key area, the effect is nothing other than dreamlike. The composer’s use of harmony in the extraordinary opening bars of Nachtstück, where the tonality is obscured by chromatic aberrations in much the same way as the moon is veiled by wandering mists and clouds, is very different. Tonality is clarified for the old man’s parting song in the minor, with its harp-like arpeggio accompaniment, and as he achieves peace it moves towards a major-key ending and a sense of release not unlike that of Auf dem Wasser zu singen.