Schlaflied ("Es mahnt der Wald"), song for voice & piano ("Schlummerlied"), D. 527 (Op. 24/2)

Schubert wrote relatively few lullabies in his career, but his Schlaflied (Slumbersong, D. 527) of January 1817 is far and away one of the best of them. Interestingly enough it is not a nocturnal lullaby but rather an aubade, a morning song, which lulls the child to sleep. Indeed, it is more of a stately pavane in F major than a serenade but no less lovely for that. Setting the cheerful words of the more often melancholy Johann Mayrhofer in a three-verse strophic song, Schubert's Schlaflied features an almost aria-like melody whose subtle leaps and quiet turns would mitigate its restful qualities in all but the most accomplished performance. The piano accompaniment is simplicity itself, consisting as it does of alternations of tonic and dominant chords in the first pair of lines, modulating through but never stopping on minor chords in the central pair of lines to return again to tonic-dominant alternations for the final pair of lines.