In the early nineteenth century, as now, when a group of young men would gather for an evening of hearty conviviality, alcohol was the social lubricant of choice. And, then as now, when the young men had become sufficiently lubricated, singing and dancing was all inevitable. Rarely, however, have young men been lucky enough to have Franz Schubert as their house composer. Schubert turned out dance music by the yard and drinking songs by the lot. In his setting of Friedrich von Schiller's Punschlied (Im Norden zu Singen) (On Drinking Punch [To be Sung in the North], D. 253) from August 1815, Schubert wrote a duet for two tenors and piano set to a polonaise rhythm in the piano. Although not a subtly artful song, this Punschlied has the two qualities which a drinking song needs to succeed: it is easy to sing and easy to remember. After all, then as now, sufficiently lubricated young men are not at their musically most acute.

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