Am Fenster

“Am Fenster” (At the Window) begins like a hymn with chordal texture and mid-phrase fermatas. This affect, combined with the clear major mode, suggest complete simplicity and bliss; the window is an altar. But this text is long, and the opening musical setting purposely leaves us unprepared for what is to come. This piece has more than average number of key changes as it develops the personification of the window and walls. It is not strophic though it is rounded—which means that Schubert employs the same music for both the first and last stanzas. The second and fifth stanzas speak of “sadness and gloom, and they are set in minor keys. The “new dawn” discussed in the middle of the poem earns from Schubert a striking tonal journey from D-flat to A-flat to A major!

(c) Jason Stell