Franz Schubert - "The Shepherd on the Rock" (1828)

Carley Jo Goggans, soprano
Julia Mrazek, clarinet
Thomas Edgar, piano

The Versa'tile Faculty-Student Chamber Ensemble
Benefit Concert for the Boys & Girls Club of Southern Illinois
SIUC Old Baptist Foundation Recital Hall - August 20, 2024
Check out more of my work on my website! https://jkmraz123.wixsite.com/clarinet

Franz Schubert composed over 600 lieder during the course of his brief life (1797-1828). Lieder are songs in which poetry is a source of inspiration for music that in turn describes and enhances the emotions embedded in the words. The piano plays a major role in this interaction between words and music. The Shepherd on the Rock is one of the last two lieder Schubert composed; this work was in October of 1828, a month before his death. It was a belated fulfillment of a four-year old request he received from soprano Anna Milder-Hauptman. She asked Schubert to compose for her a dramatic, almost operatic vocal work that she could perform in recitals. Schubert's approach was to set poetry from Wilhelm Müller, a poet much in evidence in Schubert's earlier works. The result was a tripartite work replete with pastoral lyricism as well as pathos. The text and translation are below.
--Program notes by William Cernota

Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D 965
(text after Wilhelm Müller's poem "The Mountain Shepherd")
Wenn auf dem höchsten Fels ich steh,
ins tiefe Thal herneider seh,
und singe, und singe,
fern aus dem tiefen, dunkeln Thal
schwingt sich empor der Wiederhall,
der Wiederhall der Kluefte.

Je weiter meine Stimme dringt,
Je heller sie mir wiederklingt,
von unten, von unten.
Mein Liebchen wohnt so weit von mir,
drum sehn ich mich so heiß nach ihr
hinüber, hinüber.

In tiefem Gram verzehr' ich mich,
mir ist die Freude hin,
auf Erden mir die Hoffnung wich,
ich hier so einsam bin,
ich hier so einsam bin.

So sehnend klang im Wald das Lied,
so sehnend klang es durch die Nacht,
die Herzen es zum Himmel zieht
mit wunderbarer Macht.

Der Frühling will kommen,
der Frühling meine Freud,
nun mach ich mich fertig zum Wandern
bereit.
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English Translation by Lionel Salter
When on the highest cliff I stand,
gaze down into the deep vallet
and sing,
the echo from the ravines
floats upwards from the dark valley
far away.

The further my voice travels,
the clearer it returns to me
from below.
So far from me does my love dwell
that I yearn for her more ardently
over there.

With deep grief I am consumed,
my joy is at an end;
all hope on earth has left me;
I am so lonely here,
I am so lonely here.

So longingly sounded the song in the wood,
so longingly it sounded through the night,
drawing hearts heavenwards
with wondrous power.

Spring is coming,
Spring, my joy;
now I will make ready to go journeying.