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Hüttenbrenner wrote about 250 songs, the great majority of them, perhaps not surprisingly, after Schubert’s death. His choice of poets was very different: there are only two Goethe settings, two of his own poems, six of Bürger (a fine poet more or less ignored by Schubert), and two each of Uhland and Schubart. There are thirty settings of Carl von Leitner (also an important Schubert poet) and no fewer than 160 by Ferdinand von Rast who wrote poetry under the pseudonym ‘Hilarius’ (Rast lived in Marburg and was a patron of the composer’s later years).

Die Seefahrt appears in the Gedichte of Hiazinth von Schulheim, published in Graz in 1836, and it is probable that this delightful song dates from about this time, as does Die Sterne (Leitner’s poem published in 1825). Der Hügel and Lerchenlied are later songs from the Hilarius/Rast years (between 1855 and 1858), not that the style is markedly different. I am indebted to my colleague Irwin Gage for copies of this difficult-to-obtain music.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 2006