Im Freien, D880

Song was Schubert’s faithful companion, receiving all the feelings and experiences of his brief lifetime: from student essays in the genre, marked with a precocious command of poetry and an inspiring sense of his own talent (e.g., the famed “Erlkönig” of 1815), all the way through the innovative cycles, Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, to the final song he ever wrote: “Die Taubenpost,” which we hear tonight. To know even a small portion of Schubert’s 600+ lieder is to count one’s self fortunate, to have a clear glimpse into the essence of his art, to begin taking the measure of the man.
Johann Seidl provides the texts for the four songs on this program. The first two come from a set that Schubert published as opus 80 in 1827. “Im Freien” (literally “in the open air”) resounds with the voice of embodied nature. In the incessant, buoyant sixteenth-note motion we hear the world calling to the youth with “the sounds of true love.” Schubert’s only adjustment, subtle though it may be, is to fix the recurrent octaves in the treble and move the melodic motion to the bass for the moment when the beloved is depicted, gently sleeping. “Das Zügenglöcklein” refers to the bell used to summon parishioners to prayer when one of the brethren is dying. That Schubert could react to such poetry with utmost serenity, given his health, says a great deal about the limitations of connecting biography to composition. His harmonic setting is rich with suspensions and delicate turn figures, which offset the ever-present bell tones.

(c) Jason Stell