Vocal Music for Class

                              List of 100 best art songs and song cycles ever


   Part Songs:  (list of Schubert's Part Songs)

            Part Songs have more than one singer.  It can be as little as two soloists, but can have many   

            soloists.  Or they can be one soloist (or more) with a mixed ensemble (a chorus).  

            Part Songs can be A capella (no instruments), or backed by a piano (or sometimes a guitar),  
            or an instrumental ensemble (either small or an orchestra).


    Lieder:  (list of Schubert's lieder)

                                                          Johann Michael Vogl & Franz Schubert   

      What are lieder? 


      "Gretchen am Spinnrade" ("Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel")  (1814) 
                                                (from  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust  (English Text)


      "Der Erlkönig; Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?"  D. 328 (1815, 4th version)

              ("The Elf King; Who rides so late through night and wind?"),  
                                set to a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  -   German and English Text


              (see "The Great Courses - How to Listen to and Understand Great Music - episode 34:  Formal changes and solution in Romantic era) 


       "Der Wanderer, Ich komme vom Gebirge her"  (I come from the mountains),  D. 489 No 1. (1816)
                      (English Text)  (Schubert used a part of this melody in 
                       Fantasy in C major for piano (Wanderer Fantasy)


       "Der Tod und das Mädchen"  ("Death and the Maiden")  (1817)  (text)
                    (This melody is used in String Quartet No. 14 ("Death and the Maiden"), 2nd Movement

                      The Maiden:

                      Pass me by! Oh, pass me by!
                      Go, fierce man of bones!
                      I am still young! Go, rather,
                      And do not touch me.
                      And do not touch me.


                      Death:

                      Give me your hand, you beautiful and tender form!
                       I am a friend, and come not to punish.
                       Be of good cheer! I am not fierce,
                       Softly shall you sleep in my arms!

        "Nacht und Träume" ("Night and Dreams"), D. 827 (1825)      (text by Matthäus von Collin) 
                                                                                                             German and English lyrics


       Song Cycles  (list of Schubert's liederkries)

              Die schöne Müllerin, (The Fair Maid of the Mill)  D. 795  (1823)  (Text by Wilhelm Müller)

                                                  Synopsis of Die schöne Müllerin  

                                     Complete German and English lyrics to Die schöne Müllerin

                           A wandering journeyman miller comes across a mill whose owner has a beautiful daughter.  

                           He fancies her, but a hunter dressed in green captures her heart.  The miller then has a death 

                           fantasy of flowers sprouting from his grave.  (20 songs)


              Winterreise (Winter Journey),  D. 911  (1828)   (Text by Wilhelm Müller)

                                                A very good article on Winterreise
 
                                   Complete German and English lyrics to Winterreise

                            The story of a lonely traveler who ventures out into the snow on a journey to rid himself of 

                            his lost love.  Along the way he experiences a turmoil of different emotions, mostly ranging 

                            from despair to greater despair.  (25 songs, 23 are in minor keys)


                                  No, 24. "Der Leiermann" ['Drüben hinterm Dorfe steht ein Leiermann']
                                                                            ['Over the village is a lyre man']  (English text)
         

       Masses  (list of Schubert's masses, requiems, and stabat mater)

                    What is a mass?

                    Deutsche Messe, D. 872  (1827)  (not a mass but a hymn-cycle in German)

                    Mass No. 6 in E♭ major, D. 950  (1828)


       Smaller Sacred Works  (list)  

                      Schubert wrote about three dozen smaller sacred works, mostly hymns and antiphons.


       Incidental (Stage) Music 

                       Rosamund, Fürstin von Zypern (Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus")  (1823)  


       Opera 

                          Schubert wrote 17 operas, mostly German singspiels.  Only three got staged in 
                  Schubert's life and all failed, perhaps the fault of bad librettos.  Today, Schubert's most 
                   highly regarded opera, Fierrabras, D. 796 (1823), occasionally gets mounted.  It was 
                   Schubert's attempt at a German grand romantic opera following Carl Maria von 
                   Weber's 1821 highly successful Der Freischütz.


                          Libretto for Fierrabras