Customer Reviews

Goethe and Schubert: The Unseen Bond

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is considered by many German speakers as the greatest of all writers in their language, the equal of Shakespeare in English, Dante in Italian, Cervantes in Spanish, Tolstoy in Russian, and so forth. It is ironical that for many English speakers, the only Goethe poems they know are those set to music by Franz Schubert, none of which would exist if Goethe's permission had been necessary (as it would be under today's copyright laws). For at the time, Goethe was the most famous German writer while Schubert was an impecunious Austrian teenager who taught (badly, by all accounts) in his father's primary school. When Schubert sent Goethe the ms of his setting of Erlkönig, the great man didn't even deign to respond.

This book follows Goethe's inspiration of Schubert and other composers, and Schubert's place in the hierarchy of German Lieder composers. The first half of the book is in narrative form, the second half considers each of Schubert's 80 Goethe Lieder, in some instances with a page or so of the music. You don't have to be able to read music, though, to derive much information and pleasure from this book, written by a leading scholar of this music, Kenneth Whitton, who also serves as a translator from German (he translated the autobiography of the great German baritone, and Whitton's personal friend, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau). Whitton's knowledge of German Lieder is unsurpassed, but his style is rather stilted, which is why I give this book only 4 stars.