Franz Schubert’s “Ständchen” (Serenade), dates from Schubert’s last months. The song, based on a poem by Rellstab, was collected by Schubert’s publisher in the posthumous cycle called “Schwanengesang”.
The text describes a lover’s declarations to the beloved – a poem of yearning – and the melody is one of Schubert’s most famous creations.
It is a bitter and resigned song about rejected love – “Surging river, roaring forest, immovable rock, my resting place.” Das Wandern (Wandering) and Wohin? (Where to?) originate in the song cycle Die schöne Müllerin from texts by Wilhelm Müller.
The wandering referred to evokes the running of a stream as a metaphor for physical and spiritual excursions. The water music is heard again in Wohin? as the narrator contemplates a stream and reveals an innocent readiness for discovery – “Is this then, my path? O brook, say where it leads.”
Here is Peter Schreier to sing this famous song for you:
