If Schubert did conceive of five of his six settings of poems by Johann Jacobi from August 1816 as part of a cycle describing a woman's courtship, marriage, disappointment, and wisdom, "Die Perle" (The Pearl) (D. 466) is that pearl of bitter wisdom. But where in the previous song, "Trauer der Liebe" (The Sorrow of Love), the woman had sought comfort in domestic wisdom, "Die Perle" describes the same situation from the boy's point of view: "What I lack, what I lost...is love from a faithful heart." Given that the woman had described herself as faithful in "Trauer der Liebe," one wonders in "Die Perle" if this had truly been the case. The male narrator of "Die Perle" seems to think not, and Schubert's setting of the poem seems to agree.

"Die Perle" stands apart from the rest of the cycle musically as well as poetically. The other four songs had been set as a harmonically cohesive unit around the key of A flat major but "Die Perle" is in D minor. The other four songs were gentle tuned strophic songs with undulating accompaniments but "Die Perle," while still strophic, is march-like in both its strident minor-key melody and its staccato accompaniment. Apparently, Schubert's sympathy for the wife of the first four songs does not exclude sympathy for the husband in the last song.

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