Ständchen, D 889 (Schubert)

"Ständchen", D 889, (known in English by its first line "Hark, hark, the lark" or "Serenade") is a lied for solo voice and piano by Franz Schubert, composed in July 1826 in Währing, then a village north-west of the walls of Vienna, now a suburb. The lied is a setting of the 'Song' in Act II, Scene 3 of Shakespeare's Cymbeline. Schubert died aged only 31 in 1828, and the song was first published posthumously by Anton Diabelli in 1830. The song in its original form is relatively short, and two further verses by Friedrich Reil were added to Diabelli's second edition of 1832.

Although the German translation which Schubert used has been attributed to August Schlegel (apparently on the basis of various editions of Cymbeline bearing his name published in Vienna in 1825 and 1826), the text is not exactly the same as the one which Schubert set: and this particular adaptation of Shakespeare had already been published as early as 1810 as the work of Abraham Voß (), and again — under the joint names of A. W. Schlegel and J. J. Eschenburg — in a collected Shakespeare edition of 1811.

This 1810 version by Abraham Voß, and various other adaptations of Cymbeline, bear remarkable similarities to an earlier translation of Cymbeline by Eschenburg, first published in 1777.

Works by other composers appearing in 1826 included Hector Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique; Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream; and Weber's opera Oberon had its first performance at the Covent Garden, London.

...
Wikipedia