Sung by George Parker (Baritone)
Der Flug der Zeit (The Flight of Time)
Selige Welt (Blissful World)
Gosang des Harfners III (Harper's Song)
Dor Jiingling und der Tod (The Youth and Death)
Dor Schilfor und der Reiter (The Shepherd and the Horseman)
Dor Tod und das Madchen (Death and the Maiden)
In something of the same spirit as the last song in yesterday evening's group, Der Flug der Zeit, to a poem by Count Szechenyi, is in a more lighthearted vein, less mysterious, but no less expressive of the swift, never halting, passage of Time on his hurrying wings.
Selige Welt - in this happy little song, the poet, Senn, sings of life as a voyage in which he sits peacefully in his boat leaving the winds and tides of fate to guide him where they will.
The pianoforte part has a suggestion of calm waters, rising to a sturdy climax at the end.
Schubert set three of Goethe's Harper's Songs from the romance of Wilhelm Meister; the other two have already been sung in the course of the Foundations of Music series this week.
This song is no less sad than the others.
The Harper tells of his wandering from door to door, begging his bread, and of the tears of sympathy which fall from the eyes of those who see him.
'Der Jungling und der Tod' is in some sort a companion to the much better-known song, 'Death and the Maiden.' As in it, there are two voices here, the Youth beginning by bidding Death welcome, not dreading his approach as the Maiden does. At the end Death himself speaks and promises the Youth release from his grief.
There are two sharply contrasted moods in 'The Shepherd and the Horseman' song-first, a merry little tune running throughout the accompaniment, such as the shepherd might play on his pipe, tells of his sitting happily in the meadows with his sweetheart. With a sudden change to galloping rhythm, the song shows us the horseman rushing past them. The first mood returns while the shepherd tells him to rest at peace among the flowers, and again we have the galloping rhythm while the horseman relates his unhappy fate, how lie is condemned to ride for ever until he dies.
At the beginning of the last song, the maiden, shuddering at the wild appearance of Death, begs him to leave her. Then Death himself sings, calmly and quietly, of his friendliness and of how she will sleep softly in his arms.
This is one of the songs which Schubert uses elsewhere ; it forms the theme for variations in a movement of one of his string quartets.