The original key is E flat minor, and we have already remarked on its similarity to the sixth strophe of Einsamkeit which is in the same key. Like Einsamkeit the song dates from Schubert’s summer in Zseliz, and its subject-matter may well relate to the Virgin Mary which would put it on a par with certain other works from the same period which have Marian overtones – all of which were probably designed to appeal to the deeply devout sympathies of the young Esterhazy countesses. It has all the hallmarks of the composer’s vocal writing of the period, although the singer’s line is more ornamented than usual. This leads one to speculate whether Vogl had a hand in sprucing the song up for public performance, and if it is this version that Diabelli published in 1842.

The songs remains an enigma in various ways: the origin of its text, and its debt (or lack of it) to such sources as Grétry’s Richard Cœur de Lion, an opera which was a favourite with Viennese audiences in Schubert’s adolescence.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 1997