An die Apfelbaume Wo Ich Julien Erblickte (To the Apple Tree Where I Caught Sight of Julia) (D. 197) was one of Schubert's ten settings of the poetry of Ludwig Hölty from the spring of 1815. As with all Schubert's other Hölty settings, it is a poem of ardent young love which, while it may seem mawkishly sentimental to adults, has those seemingly eternal verities which later fade so quickly: pledges of constancy and faithfulness.

Like so many of Schubert songs of 1815, An die Apfelbaume is a thorough-composed, and not a strophic song which uses a variety of musical means to illuminate the four-verse poem. Unlike many of them, however, An die Apfelbaume is a wholly unified song. Over rolling arpeggios in the piano accompaniment, Schubert sets the first two verses to a ravishingly beautiful legato vocal melody which seems never to take a breath. The third verse switches to the tonic minor for a delicately arching vocal melody over a spare piano accompaniment. The fourth and final verse brings back the melody and harmonies of the opening verses, but the piano accompaniment changes from rolling arpeggios to triplet chords, thereby giving the song the feeling of recapitulation and an ineffable sense of transcendence.

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