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"The Shepherd on the Rock" (German: Der Hirt auf dem Felsen), D. 965, is a Lied for soprano, clarinet, and piano by Franz Schubert. It was composed in 1828 during the final months of his life.
_Facsimile_W._Dahms,_1913.jpg)
Of the seven verses, the first four and the last came from the poetry of Wilhelm Müller, while verses five and six were attributed to Helmina von Chézy[1] but were written by Karl August Varnhagen von Ense.[2][3]
The Lied, Schubert's penultimate composition, was written as a belated response to a request from the operatic soprano Anna Milder-Hauptmann, a friend of Schubert. She had requested a show-piece that would allow her to express a wide range of feelings, and he wrote it as thanks for her attempts to stage one of his operas in Berlin.[1] She received a copy of the score from Schubert's brother Ferdinand in September 1829,[4] and the work was published a year and a half after Schubert's death. Milder sang it for the first time at the House of the Blackheads in Riga on 10 February 1830.[5]
The Lied has three sections, with clarinet and voice equally challenged. The first, in B-flat major, is warm, as the lonely shepherd on the mountaintop listens to echoes rising from below. The second section grows dark as he expresses grief and loneliness; it starts in G minor, then modulates through A-flat major and A minor to G major. The short last section, returning to B-flat major, anticipates the coming of spring and, with it, rebirth.
| Wilhelm Müller – "Der Berghirt" (The Mountain Shepherd) | |
|---|---|
Wenn auf dem höchsten Fels ich steh', |
When, from the highest rock up here, |
| Varnhagen – "Nächtlicher Schall" (Nightly Sound) | |
In tiefem Gram verzehr ich mich, |
I am consumed in misery, |
| Wilhelm Müller – "Liebesgedanken" (Love Thoughts) | |
Der Frühling will kommen, |
The Springtime will come, |
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