Der Hirt auf dem Felsen

When one thinks of Franz Schubert’s final months—slipping toward an early grave, brought down by syphilis—one doesn’t imagine him composing virtuoso showpieces full of frills and bravura. And yet one of his most ostentatious pieces, this delightful song for voice, clarinet and piano about Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (“The Shepherd on the Rock”) was the penultimate song he ever composed. Written in early autumn 1828, Der Hirt betrays nothing of Schubert’s miserable state of health; he would live just six weeks more. He rose above the situation to create a musical work brimming with joy and exhilaration.
Der Hirt is structured like a vocal concerto: three sections in fast-slow-fast arrangement, the outer ones in B-flat major and the middle section in the relative minor key (G minor). The virtuosic manner of the outer sections stands in stark contrast to the intimacy and syllabic nature of Schubert’s mature vocal style; think of Winterreise as a case in point. Part of the explanation for the virtuosity of Der Hirt comes from its having been written specifically for a well-known soprano, Anna Milder-Hauptmann, with whom Schubert had corresponded in 1825. She had been moved by some of Schubert’s more introspective songs, but regretted that “all this endless beauty” would be unappreciated by her audiences. They preferred, as Milder-Hauptmann put it, “somewhat brilliant music for the voice” with frequent changes of mood. Schubert’s attempts to please her and succeed through her high-profile recitals help explain the cheerful brilliance of much of Der Hirt.
The piece opens with a piano prologue, tinged with drama and suggesting a minor key. Schubert seems to be quoting (consciously or not) his own earlier song, “Auf dem Flusse” from Winterreise (1827), which begins with nearly the same progression and stark tone. That mood is soon cast aside as the clarinet leads off the first main theme. At times Schubert uses wide melodic skips to highlight crucial words in the poem. For instance, the musical mention of singe (sing) gets an upward leap of a ninth, and an even larger downward leap paints the word Klüfte (chasm).
As one might expect, the character of section B differs quite dramatically from the optimism of section A. Where the text speaks of the distant beloved and how happiness resides only where she is, Schubert darkens the musical setting. The texture becomes spare, mirroring the protagonist’s feelings of isolation. Clear quotations from Schubert’s own famous ballad “Ständchen” from Schwanengesang (1828), may be heard in the rocking broken-chord accompaniment and G-minor tonality. A simple shift to the major mode helps alleviate the expressive darkness at exactly the moment the poem turns to invocations of Heaven. The “movement” closes with a mini cadenza for solo voice, thus strengthening the entire piece’s connection with the classical concerto form.
The joyous spirit of the opening section now returns for the “finale”. This cyclic return of a brighter mood corresponds to the poem’s renewed hope; with spring comes rebirth. Schubert invests in a coloratura vocal style the way a typical Mozartian aria might. There is also a hint of popular folk song. Rising figures predominate, and the overriding impression—one of sheer vocal agility and jubilation—becomes only more pronounced in the coda, where Schubert accelerates the tempo. No evidence survives to show whether it was performed by Milder-Hauptmann or how it was received. Today its lyricism and distinctive scoring for clarinet, soprano, and piano make it a recital favorite.

(c) Jason Stell