Is Schubert's setting of Friedrich von Matthisson's Julius an Theone (Julius to Theone) (D. 419) from 1816 an art song or an aria? Aside from being unattached to an opera, the song gives all the signs of being an aria. The character of Julius changes over the course of the three-verse poem and Schubert's through-composed music changes along with it. Starting with a diminished seventh chord and a brief piano introduction that sounds like a piano transcription of an orchestral original, Julius an Theone begins in media res with a tormented tenor tearing through a high-lying vocal line. Midway through the second verse, the music changes from minor to major, from anguished aria to gentler arioso, then from gentle arioso to melodic recitative. The third verse begins as a wholly new anguished aria, but slips into arioso, then into recitative, then drops in exhausted despair into the depths of a piano postlude that again sounds more like a piano transcription of an orchestral original. Had it been part of an opera, Julius an Theone would have been the best aria Schubert had so far composed.

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