Im Frühling (Op.

Opus number

An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...

 101, no. 1, D.

Otto Erich Deutsch

Otto Erich Deutsch was an Austrian musicologist. He is known for compiling the first comprehensive catalogue of the works of Franz Schubert, first published in 1951 in English, new edition in 1978 in German...

 882) in G major

G major

G major is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp, F; in treble-clef key signatures, the sharp-symbol for F is usually placed on the first line from the top, though in some Baroque music it is placed on the first space from the bottom...

 is a Lied

Lied

is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...

 by Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 Franz Schubert

Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...

.

Schubert composed the song in 1826 to a poem by Ernst Schulze

Ernst Schulze

Ernst Conrad Friedrich Schulze was a German Romantic poet, born at Celle.-Early life and education:The son of the Mayor of Celle, his mother died while he was only two years old and much of his early education was overseen by his two grandfathers, who were a Celle bookseller and a minister.Widely...

 (1789–1817) as part of ten poems by Schulze he set to music; they were part of Schulze's Poetic Diary which he wrote from 29 June 1813 until 17 February 1817. Schulze's original title was "On the 31st of March 1815". The poems were published by Brockhaus

Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus

Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus was a German encyclopedia publisher and editor, famed for publishing the Conversations-Lexikon, which is now published as the Brockhaus encyclopedia.-Biography:...

 in 1822, the most probable source for Schubert.

Text

Still sitz' ich an des Hügels Hang, der Himmel ist so klar, das Lüftchen spielt im grünen Tal. Wo ich beim ersten Frühlingsstrahl einst, ach so glücklich war. Wo ich an ihrer Seite ging so traulich und so nah, und tief im dunklen Felsenquell den schönen Himmel blau und hell und sie im Himmel sah. Sieh, wie der bunte Frühling schön aus Knosp' und Blüte blickt! Nicht alle Blüten sind mir gleich, am liebsten pflückt ich von dem Zweig, von welchem sie gepflückt! Denn alles ist wie damals noch, die Blumen, das Gefild; die Sonne scheint nicht minder hell, nicht minder freundlich schwimmt im Quell das blaue Himmelsbild. Es wandeln nur sich Will und Wahn, es wechseln Lust und Streit, vorüber flieht der Liebe Glück, und nur die Liebe bleibt zurück, die Lieb und ach, das Leid. O wär ich doch ein Vöglein nur dort an dem Wiesenhang dann blieb ich auf den Zweigen hier, und säng ein süßes Lied von ihr, den ganzen Sommer lang.

Quietly I sit on the hill's slope. The sky is so clear; a breeze plays in the green valley. Where I was at Spring's first sunbeam once – alas, I was so happy! When I was walking at her side, So intimate and so close, and deep in the dark rocky spring was the beautiful sky, blue and bright; and I saw her in the sky. Look how colorful Spring already looks out from bud and blossom! Not every blossom is the same for me: I like best to pick from the branch from which she picked hers! For all is as it was: the flowers, the field; the sun does not shine less brightly, nor does the spring reflect any less charmingly the blue image of the sky. The only things that change are will and delusion: Joys and quarrels alternate, the happiness of love flies past, and only the love remains – The love and, alas, the sorrow. Oh, if only I were a little bird, there, on the meadow's slope, then I would remain here on these branches, and sing a sweet song about her the whole summer long.

Notable recordings

Some singers who have made recordings of this work are Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is a retired German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous lieder performers of the post-war period and "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century"...

, Renée Fleming

Renée Fleming

Renée Fleming is an American soprano specializing in opera and lieder. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice.Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano repertoires. She has sung roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She also...

, Elly Ameling

Elly Ameling

Elisabeth Sara "Elly" Ameling is a Dutch soprano.-Career:Ameling was born in Rotterdam. She studied with Bodi Rapp, Jo Bollekamp, Sem Dresden and Jacoba Dresden-Dhont and later French art song with Pierre Bernac...

, Elena Gerhardt

Elena Gerhardt

Elena Gerhardt was a German mezzo-soprano singer associated with the singing of German classical lieder, of which she was considered one of the great interpreters...

, Anne Sofie von Otter, Vesselina Kasarova

Vesselina Kasarova

Vesselina Kasarova is a Bulgarian mezzo-soprano opera singer.- Early life and education :Vesselina Kasarova was born in the central Bulgarian town of Stara Zagora. Under the communist regime she studied Russian as a second language and had an early start in music education...

, Bernarda Fink

Bernarda Fink

Bernarda Fink Inzko is an Argentinian mezzo-soprano. Born in Buenos Aires to Slovene parents, Bernarda Fink studied at the "Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón" in Buenos Aires. She won First Prize at the Nuevas Voces Líricas competition in 1985 and moved to Europe...

, Marilyn Horne

Marilyn Horne

Marilyn Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring a large sound, beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages....

, Donna Brown, Lisa Della Casa

Lisa Della Casa

Lisa Della Casa is a Swiss soprano most admired for her interpretations of major heroines in major operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss, of German lieder, and for her great beauty. She was dubbed “the most beautiful woman on the operatic stage”...

, and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, DBE was a German-born Austrian/British soprano opera singer and recitalist. She was among the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century, much admired for her performances of Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, and Wolf.-Early life:Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike...

.

External links

• List of recordings at Amazon.com
  Amazon.com
  Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
  
   (Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
  Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
  Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, DBE was a German-born Austrian/British soprano opera singer and recitalist. She was among the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century, much admired for her performances of Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, and Wolf.-Early life:Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike...
  
  , Edwin Fischer
  Edwin Fischer
  Edwin Fischer was a Swiss classical pianist and conductor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, particularly in the traditional Germanic repertoire of such composers as J. S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert...
  
  , 4:36)