Ludwig Rellstab who wrote seven of the Schwanengesangesang cycle initially offered the poems to Beethoven who studied them and pencilled-in those he might consider setting to music stating exactly why he preferred them. Unfortunately his death intervened before he could undertake setting any of them but the annotated manuscript was presented to Schubert by Anton Schindler.Beethovens An die ferne Gelibte had made an immediate and lasting impression on the young composer and he was soon trying his own hand at the cycle form in emulation of his great hero. The seven Rellstab songs have the distant beloved as their central theme and though free standing it seems more than likely that Schubert was attempting to impose some order on the random selection by choosing poems that were united by this common theme.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 10:13:10 +0000
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