Although it is tempting to believe that Schubert all at once as if by magic became a great composer on October 19, 1814, when he wrote his setting of Goethe's "Gretchen am Spinnrade" from Faust. But in fact he had composed great songs—albeit not quite so great as Gretchen—prior to October 19 and he would go on to compose songs as great and some even greater after October 19.

Indeed, On November 30, 1815, his next works he composed were three great settings of Goethe's poems: "Nachtgesang," "Trost in Tränen," and "Schafers Klagelied." Of these the finest might be Nachtgesang (Night Song) (D. 119). It is also the shortest: a mere 14-bar song setting Goethe's five-verse poem. Yet in those 14 bars, Schubert created one of his most luminous nocturnes. Set in slow duple time and marked pianissimo, the song's quietly ecstatic melody seems to effortlessly float above the simple piano accompaniment. Yet the high tessitura and the long lines of the song demand of the singer both sustained power and tremendous breath control. For those who can accomplish this, Nachtgesang is one of the great Schubert Goethe settings: a brief moment of bliss high above the toil and trouble of the daylight world.

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