Like his other Schiller setting form October 1817, Schubert's setting of "Der Alpenjäger" (The Alpine Huntsman) (D. 588) is a three-part song joined together only by the composer's skill. Schubert divides Schiller's six-verse poem into three parts: two verses for the first section, two verses and most of a third for the second section, and the final two lines of the fifth verse and the whole of the last verse for the third and final section. The two verses of the opening section are strophically set, but each verse is divided into two parts: an old-fashioned sounding admonition from the hunter's mother advising him to stay and tend the flocks and a blustery rejoinder from the hunter saying he must go off to the Alps. The central section is a form of hunting scherzo in which the vocal melody becomes more agitated and the piano accompaniment becomes more chromatic. The third section introduces the voice of the mountain spirit in slower and more solemn, hymn-like music.

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