Ex. 8-5: Frühlingsglaube

Composed in 1820 to a poem by Ludwig Uhland (1787–1862) — Schubert's only setting of an Uhland poem. Schubert reworked it more than once: he first wrote it in B-flat major, then recast it in A-flat, and it was published in 1823 as Op. 20 No. 2.

Uhland's poem welcomes the spring: gentle breezes wake, the air turns fragrant, and a refrain repeats, "Now everything, everything must change." Uhland had written it in 1812 partly as a hope for political freedom, but in Schubert's hands it reads simply as the return of spring. The song stays mostly in the major, but a brief turn to the minor casts a small shadow.

Franz Liszt, who loved Schubert's songs, later arranged "Frühlingsglaube" for solo piano, as one of his twelve Schubert song transcriptions.

From the album Schubert's Four Seasons by Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton (2025)
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