Johann Mayrhofer's Lied eines Schiffers an die Dioskuren (Song of a Boatman to the Dioscuri) is based on the Greek myth of the Dioscuri, the twin brothers Castor and Polydeuces—twin stars of the constellation Gemini who were said to be heavenly guardians of sailors. His three-verse poem of four lines each is a prayer to the Dioscuri to keep the narrator safe until he returns to land. Schubert's setting of Mayrhofer's poem (D. 360) from 1822 turns his prayer into a modified strophic hymn. The song starts with a spacious set of rolled chords deep in the piano, setting the music in motion. The voice enters with a melody for the first verse which is both intimate and immense, the very image of a man alone on the vastness of the sea. The second verse is more massive and monumental with a vocal melody which begins bravely but shrinks at the immensity of the water. In the third and final verse the piano accompaniment billows and surges beneath a melody very much like the melody from the opening verse.

A song which joins Schubert's water music with his pantheism, the Lied eines Schiffers an die Dioskuren is as sublime a hymn as Schubert ever wrote.

© All Music Guide