An den Mond D193 (1815)

Nachtstück D672 (1819)

Die Mutter Erde D788 (1823)                                     

Among the many Schubert Lieder addressed to or in some way inspired by the moon, there are no fewer than four under the title An den Mond – two different settings of the same verse by Goethe and one setting of each of two poems by Ludwig Hölty. Only one of them, however, got into print in the composer’s lifetime. The present Hölty song was published (as Op.57 No.3) in 1826, which could explain how six years later, noting the similarity between the opening of the song and that of Beethoven’s Piano in C sharp minor, Ludwig Rellstab thought of the latter work in terms of “moonlight.” Certainly, since the Sonata had no “moonlight” associations until Rellstab invented them, it is scarcely likely that Schubert would have borrowed from Beethoven in this case. Even if he had done, the beauty of the song, with its minor-key first and last stanzas so effectively offset by the quicker middle section in the relative major, would have justified it. The scarcely less beautiful Nachtstück effects a gradual transformation from a gloomy beginning, where the moon struggles with the clouds, through a valedictory and appropriately arpeggiated middle section to a transfigured ending. The moon makes an appearance also in Die Mutter Erde but as only one indication that, in nature, death is no disaster.