Work

Schubert set two poems by Ludwig Hölty on May 29, 1815, Der Liebende (The Lover, D. 207) and Die Nonne (The Nun, D. 208). The latter is a ballad of gruesome pseudo-Gothic horror. The former is a lighthearted and gay four-verse strophic setting of a poem in which the lover of the title has more bravado than bravery. Schubert catches the nervousness of the would-be lover with music that starts optimistically in the major, only to turn to the minor by the second line, which surges forward in the third line only to fall back in the fourth line, which rushes ahead in the fifth line only to pull back on the sixth line.

Der Liebende is ideal late-adolescent music written by an 18-year-old composer.

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