Tune of the Day: The Shepherd's Lament
This musical setting of Goethe's poem “Schäfers Klagelied” (“Shepherd's Lament”) was the first publicly performed song by Schubert and it was, according to reports, a highly successful debut. Schubert scored Goethe's lament in a pastoral 6/8 in E minor; he often employed this tonal center to symbolize sadness, depression and nostalgia.
High up on that mountain,
I have stood a thousand times,
bowed over my staff
and gazing down into the valley.
“Schäfers Klagelied” is a shepherd’s lament of lost love. The music spontaneously illustrates the state of emotion and scenery the text describes: it is as though Schubert paints a musical artwork of the shepherd standing “high up on that mountain” in which the painting illustrates the vast array of emotions and the depth of meaning the topic implies.