Die Männer sind méchant D866 No.3

Die Gebüsche D646

Du bist die Ruh D776

Der Schmetterling D633

Johann Gabriel Seidl was not the most sophisticated of Schubert’s poets. He was, on the other hand, one of his favourites - Schubert set eleven of his texts between 1826 and 1828, including Die Taubenpost - and the composer clearly enjoyed his folky style. The coy little Die Männer sind méchant is a characteristic Seidl example. Set to a cheerful country-dance rhythm throughout, the song was published in 1828 as the third of four “Refrain-Lieder,” all to words by the same poet. Friedrich von Schlegel was intellectually more ambitious. His Abendröte volume of poems was a constant source of fascination to Schubert between 1819 and 1820, when he set no fewer than ten of them, and he returned to the collection for one more setting in 1823. Die Gebüsche is the earliest of the Abendröte songs and perhaps the most inspired as, supported by a smoothly flowing arpeggio accompaniment, the vocal line so freely traces the harmonic implications of the various sounds of nature.

Friedrich Rückert was surely the greatest poet of the three. Although Schubert chose only six of his poems, his Rückert settings are among the best of his songs. Du bist die Ruh, which was written in 1823, is remarkable above all for the quietly sustained economy of the vocal line which so effectively offsets the rapturous expression of the final stanza. After that, the flighty Schmetterling, another Abendröte setting, seems even more capricious than ever.