The original performance and the text point towards a male voice being intended. I think there is one more factor pointing even stronger in the same direction, namely the setting of the music.
I am not going to write a finished text on this topic, as it would take far more work power and time than I can divert from other projects, but maybe my hypothesis and suggested work form might let you get the idea. My hypothesis is that Schubert treats the vocal line like a horn part with roughly the same range as the horn and roughly the same availability of chromatic flexibility. The two “horn” lines are interwoven in dialogues. Both play the lead, but most often the real horn plays the role of the 1st horn. Just a few hints in this direction: The horn opening could be the main theme of the 1st movement of a horn concerto. This opening ends on a full tonic ending (despite the appogiatura). Right thereafter the vocal starts with a typical 2nd horn figure. In the ending the vocal ends on the third of the tonic chord in a position equaling the 5th partial of the horn, if the vocal line is sung by a male voice. The piano doubles the normal ending chord of a horn pair in octaves. The horn should have played its 8th partial, but Schubert uses the horn as the bass, because of the relatively bright bass strings of the Hammerklavier. If the Hammerklavier and the horn were well in tune, the relatively strong horn sound would induce a lot of resonance from the keyboard strings strongly mimicking a full horn chord. To support my hypothesis about the vocal line being treated like a horn part, I should rewrite the vocal line transposed to written C major as if it was sung by a voice in E. That would illustrate my point or counter-prove it. However I am too lazy to do that. If somebody having this music available in a Finale file, I would like access and wouldn’t, of course, abuse the edition copyright by making a bootleg edition. Even better if I got access to a version in C. Another point to research would be whether the vocalist being a male would keep the solo lines within the range of the piano’s chordal range, and whether a female vocalist would take the vocal line up in a more open and unsupported range. And there of course is the possibility that my ideas are just so obvious that at all mentioning them is utterly redundant and just a waste of your time. Klaus --- On Thu, 8/26/10, Steven Ovitsky <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Steven Ovitsky <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Hornlist] Auf dem Strom > To: "'The Horn List'" <[email protected]> > Date: Thursday, August 26, 2010, 5:38 AM > One reason that there are > performances and recordings with soprano is > because there are many more competent lyric sopranos than > there are > competent high tenors. _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
