Friedrich Schiller’s 1788 poem, Die Götter Griechenlands (“The Gods of Greece”), is filled with nostalgia and longing for the long-vanished world of Greek antiquity. Rebelling against mechanical philosophy, it idealizes man’s harmonious interaction with the Greek gods and nature.
Schubert’s 1819 song, Die Götter Griechenlands, D. 677 sets only a fragment of the lengthy poem. It begins with a faltering three note motif (E-D-E), repeated by the piano, followed by the despairing opening line, “Fair world, where are you?” A minor shifts suddenly to sunny A major, and we enter a hallucinatory dreamscape evoking the “sweet springtime of nature,” and “the magic land of song.” Ultimately, the haunting opening motif returns, and the song ends with a sense of alienation (“only a shadow has remained”). As the final notes drift away, the home key of A minor feels empty and static, denied a concrete tonic pitch.
Schubert returned to this lamenting motif, quoting it in the Minuet of the String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, “Rosamunde,” as well as the ghostly introduction to the final movement of the Octet, both of which were composed in 1824.
This 1968 recording features mezzo-soprano Janet Baker, accompanied by Gerald Moore:
English translation of the text by Richard Wigmore:
Fair world, where are you? Return again,
sweet springtime of nature!
Alas, only in the magic land of song
does your fabled memory live on.
The deserted fields mourn,
no god reveals himself to me;
of that warm, living image
only a shadow has remained.
Recordings
- Schubert: Die Götter Griechenlands, D. 677, Janet Baker, Gerald Moore Amazon
Featured Image: “The Parthenon” (1871), Frederic Edwin Church
Beautiful!