Hello,
I was wondering if there were any singers who have found information about Schubert's 'Lied der mignon' (nur wer die sehnsucht kennt), as i am currently writing my programme notes and for some reason can't find anything useful about this piece. If anyone could point me in the right direction, that would be great!
Thanks!

Hi rimcd

I'm afraid I don't know a great deal about Schubert - other than at the "pub-quiz" level of general knowledge (most of my recent study of songs has been 20th Century) but he wrote hundreds of leider, so there should be scope to draw parallels with other of his works.

So you're going to have to resort to some lateral thinking.

Please forgive me if the questions I'm going to ask are absolutely obvious, but.....

1. What's the structure of the leid? Is it strophic? What key is it in? What voice was it originally written for? Has it been transposed? What's the accompaniment like?
2. Are many others of his leider the same structure?
3. Have you translated the text? Have you summarised the story the song is telling? How does the music illustrate it?
4. Who wrote the text? When? Would Schubert have known the poet? Would Schubert have set any other of the poet's works? If so, what are those leider like?
5. When did Schubert write the song?
6. What was happening in Schubert's life at that time?

- I assume you've got a biography of Schubert from the library and are therefore reasonably knowledgeable about his life and about how and when he wrote his leider. If not, start with this. It may give you some clues to follow up to make a better and more rounded programme note.

Good luck

Cheers

Katyjay