Ständchen, D 889 (Schubert)

"Ständchen" (known in English by its first line "Hark, hark, the lark"), D 889, is a lied for solo voice and piano by Franz Schubert, composed in July 1826 in the then village of Währing. It is a setting of the "Song" in act 2, scene 3 of Shakespeare's Cymbeline. The song was first published by Anton Diabelli in 1830, two years after the composer's death. The song in its original form is relatively short, and two further verses by Friedrich Reil were added to Diabelli's second edition of 1832.

For other Schubert songs with a similar title, see Ständchen (Schubert).
Schubert by Josef Kriehuber (1846 lithograph)

Although the German translation which Schubert used has been attributed to August Wilhelm Schlegel (apparently on the basis of various editions of Cymbeline bearing his name published in Vienna in 1825 and 1826), the text is not exactly the same as the one which Schubert set: and this particular adaptation of Shakespeare had already been published as early as 1810 as the work of Abraham Voß, and again – under the joint names of A. W. Schlegel and Johann Joachim Eschenburg – in a collective Shakespeare edition of 1811.

Song title

In German translations of Cymbeline, the short lyric which Schubert set to music is simply titled Lied (Song). Schubert's title, "Ständchen", is usually translated into English as Serenade. The words of the poem, and its context within the play, indicate that is unquestionably to be sung in the morning: if there were any doubt, the lines which immediately precede the text of the 'Song' include this snippet of dialogue:

Cloten: It's almost morning, is't not?
First Lord: Day, my lord.

The German word Ständchen is unspecific about the time of the homage. As others have pointed out,[1] and as Furness in his 'Variorum Edition' of Cymbeline makes abundantly clear, "This present song is the supreme crown of all aubades..."[2] The Schirmer edition of Liszt's transcription for solo piano clarifies the context with the title of Morgenständchen (morning serenade),[3] and the German title of Schubert's song would be more accurately rendered in English as Aubade.

History

The text of the 'Lied' from Shakespeare's Cymbeline which Schubert set differs only very slightly in its orthography ('Ätherblau' etc.) from that of Abraham Voß ('Aetherblau', etc.), which dates from at least 1810. This 'Ätherblau' version was published in 1812 under the names of A. W. Schlegel and J. J. Eschenburg, and then in at least four slightly differing printings of the 'Vienna Shakespeare Editions' in 1825 and 1826, with and without Schlegel's name on the title-page.[4]

A story about the song's creation was recounted by a boyhood friend of Schubert to the composer's biographer, Heinrich Kreissle von Hellborn[5] in his Life of Franz Schubert.[6] Sir George Grove relates Kreissle's anecdote verbatim,[7] although it has been called "pretty, but untrue",[8] "apocryphal",[9] and "legend".[10][11]

Herr Franz Doppler (of the musical firm of Spina) told me the following story in connection with the "Ständchen": "One Sunday, during the summer of 1826, Schubert, with several friends (Doppler amongst the number), was returning from Pötzleinsdorf to the city, and, on strolling along through Währing, he saw his friend Tieze[12] sitting at a table in the garden of the "Zum Biersack".[13] The whole party determined on a halt in their journey. Tieze had a book lying open before him, and Schubert soon began to turn over the leaves. Suddenly he stopped, and pointing to a poem, exclaimed, "Such a delicious melody has just come into my head, if I but had a sheet of music-paper with me."[14] Herr Doppler drew a few music lines on the back of a bill-of-fare, and in the midst of a genuine Sunday hubbub, with fiddlers, skittle players, and waiters running about in different directions with orders, Schubert wrote that lovely song.[6]

Maurice J. E. Brown, in his critical biography of Schubert, partially debunks the story, showing that the garden of the "Zum Biersack" in Währing was next door to that of the poet Franz von Schober, and that Schubert spent some time there in the summer of 1826 with the painter Moritz von Schwind, although not necessarily staying overnight more than once or twice.[15] Brown thinks that Doppler may have been confused about the place where the incident took place. Brown in his book only mentions Titze twice in passing, however, and not in connection with the story of the menu.

The earliest surviving Schubert autograph manuscript (MS)[16][n 1] is in the Wienbibliothek im Rathaus. It consists of four Lieder (of which the "Ständchen" is the second) in a pocket-sized MS book with staves hand-ruled by Schubert.[1] At of the top of the first page, in Schubert's hand, is written: Währing, July 1826, followed by his signature.

  1. "Trinklied", D888 – (Antony & Cleopatra, act 2, scene 7 – trans. Eduard Bauernfeld & Ferdinand Mayrhofer von Grünbühel)
  2. "Ständchen", D889 ("Hark, hark, the lark") – (Cymbeline, act 2, scene 3 – possibly not trans. by Schlegel)
  3. "Hippolits Lied", D890 – by Friedriech von Gerstenberg
  4. Gesang, D891 ("Was ist Sylvia?") – (Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 4, scene 2 – trans. Bauernfeld alone)

Lied

Schubert set the lied in the key of C major.

Text

1. Modern English version

Hark, hark, the lark at heaven's gate sings ,       
  and Phoebus 'gins arise ,
His steeds to water at those springs
  on chalic'd flowers that lies :
And winking Mary-buds begin
  to ope their golden eyes
With every thing that pretty is,
  my Lady sweet arise :
  Arise , arise.

2. Schubert MS, 1826; 1st edition, 1828

Horch, horch, die Lerch' im Ätherblau,            
  und Phöbus, neu erweckt,
  tränkt seine Rosse mit dem Tau,
  der Blumenkelche deckt.
Der Ringelblume Knospe schleusst
  die goldnen Äuglein auf;
  mit allem, was da reitzend ist;
  du, süsse Maid, steh auf!
  Steh auf, steh auf.[16]

3. Fairly literal translation

Hark, hark, the lark in the aether blue,
and Phoebus, fresh awake
Waters his steeds with the dew
which covers the flowers' chalice.
The marigold's bud ope[n]s
its little golden eye;
with everything that is adorable;
Thou, sweet maid, arise!
arise, arise.

The German translation that Schubert set has the same metre/rhythm as Shakespeare's lyric, which allows the music to be sung to the original English words.

Music

Reception

Schubert's biographer John Reed (1909–1999)[17] says that the song "celebrates the universality of two of the world's greatest song-writers."[18] Richard Capell in his survey of Schubert's songs, called the Ständchen "very pretty" but "a trifle overrated [...] the song is hardly one to be very fond of. Not a lifetime of familiarity with it can bridge the gap that yawns between the Elizabethan's verse and the Austrian's tune."[19] On the other hand, while discussing the variorum readings of Shakespeare's play, Howard Furness refers to "the version which Schubert sets to peerless music",[20] and Sir George Grove describes how "that beautiful song, so perfectly fitting the words, and so skilful and happy in its accompaniment, came into perfect existence."[7]

Publication

Schubert's song was published posthumously as "Ständchen von Shakespeare" in part seven of Diabelli's first edition of Schubert's songs (Schubert 1830, p. 3). See § Ex. 2 above. The text of Schubert's autograph is exactly reproduced in the first published edition of the song (Schubert 1830, pp. 14–15 [16–17]), except for some very minor punctuation.[n 2] Fair autograph copies of two of the four songs in the Vienna Library MS ("Trinklied" and "Was ist Silvia?") are held in the Hungarian National Library (National Széchényi Library).[21]

Two further verses were added to the song by Friedrich Reil (1773–1843) for the second edition (Schubert 1832); the Peters edition in the original key retains the attribution to 'Shakespeare'.[22] Both the Breitkopf & Härtel edition of 1894–95, and in the Peters edition for low voice credit A. W. Schlegel with the words.[22] Otto Deutsch in his 1951 Schubert Thematic Catalogue entry for D889 also gives "deutsch von August Wilhelm Schlegel", with no further details.[23]

Arrangements

"Ständchen" has been arranged for various instrumental combinations, including Franz Liszt's transcription for solo piano, published by Diabelli in 1838 as no. 9, "Ständchen von Shakespeare", of his 12 Lieder von Franz Schubert, S.558.[24]

Notes
  1. Catalogue number LQH0248377 (previously MH 116/c [PhA 1176]) (Deutsch 1978, p. 560).
  2. Namely, the comma after du in the last line, which the 1832 edition (Schubert 1832) correctly omits, although it also removes the comma after "Phöbus". In the manuscript, Schubert appears to use a sort of rounded u sign (or more like a long horizontal bar rounded at the end), in order to distinguish clearly all instances of the letter u without umlaut (diaresis) from a ü. In "Was ist Sylvia?" he uses a vertical sign looking like a walking-stick to highlight the inserted bars of the piano accompaniment.

References
  1. Johnson 1996a.
  2. Furness 1913, p. 127.
  3. "9. Morgenständchen". 12 Lieder von Franz Schubert, S.558. G. Schirmer. n.d. plate 2556. Retrieved 14 March 2016 – via IMSLP.
  4. e.g. Reed 1997, p. 394
  5. Kreissle von Hellborn, Heinrich. Grove, on Wikisource.
  6. von Hellborn 1865, Vol. 2, pp. 75–76n [90–91].
  7. Grove 1951, p. 141.
  8. Dahms 1918, p. 227 [239].
  9. Johnson 1996b.
  10. Capell 1929, p. 224.
  11. Brown 1958, pp. 241–2 [258–9].
  12. Brown 1958, p. 282.
  13. Zum Biersack, Vienna, now at Gentzgasse 31
  14. "Mir fällt da eine schöne Melodie ein, hätte ich nur Notenpapier bei mir!"
  15. Brown 1958, pp. 241–242 [258–259].
  16. Schubert 1826, pp. 4–7.
  17. Reid, Paul (17 January 2000). "John Reed". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  18. Reed 1997, p. 394.
  19. Capell 1929, pp. 224–5.
  20. Furness 1913, pp. 126–129.
  21. Search page of Hungarian National Library: search for Ms. Mus. 4945
  22. Ständchen, D.889: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  23. Deutsch 1978, p. 560 [584].
  24. 12 Lieder von Franz Schubert, S.558: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

Sources
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