Did Schubert enjoy his childhood so much that he could write such happily nostalgic songs about it as Die Knabenzeit (Boyhood) (D. 400)? The evidence of Schubert's life does not support such a theory, but the evidence of this song suggests otherwise. A perky strophic song in four fast verses taking little more than two minutes to perform, Schubert's A major setting of Hölty is as bright as a spring day and as carefree as a five-year-old. Although some contemporary critics might carp that the emotions of the song could hardly be authentic, they forget that one is never so happily nostalgic as when imagining a past that never was. And with its delicately delightful vocal melody and rushing piano accompaniment, Die Knabenzeit is emphatically happy.

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