The question which inevitably arises upon hearing Schubert's setting of Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's poem "Der Schäfer und der Reiter" (The Shepherd and the Horseman, D. 517) of 1817 is this: to what degree is the song supposed to be ironic? Being ironic was not something that the sincere Schubert did often and, when he did, he was often heavy-handed about it. And so it is with "Der Schäfer und der Reiter": the music for the shepherd is so classically pastoral with its dainty trills and delicate embellishments in its E major charm, and the music for the horseman is so sternly rhythmic and grimly forceful in its E minor bleakness that one inevitably wonders whether Schubert was being ironic.

Surely, Schubert was self-conscious enough as an artist to know that his depiction of the shepherd was too delectable to be believable and his depiction of the horseman was too implacable to be creditable. But are the singer and pianist who perform "Der Schäfer und der Reiter" too self-aware as artists to put tongue in cheek when performing the song?

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