Lilla an die Morgenröte ("Wie schön bist du"), song for voice & piano, D. 273

Lilla an die Morgenröte (Lilla to the Dawn, D. 273), of August 25, 1815, was one of six songs Schubert composed that day (apparently all his friends were away from hot and sultry Vienna in late August). And although the day was clearly full of creative activity, it seems that Lilla an die Morgenröte must have come first: it is both infinite in its sense of space and endless in its sense of time. A simple-seeming strophic song setting two verses by an unknown poet, Lilla an die Morgenröte has a long legato vocal line of wonderful suppleness, while its piano accompaniment evokes both horns echoing through Alpine valleys and a soft flute wafting through the mountain breezes.