Das war ich ("Jüngst träumte mir"), song for voice & piano, D. 174a

Das war ich (That Was I) (D. 174), of March 26, 1815, is an early-morning dream of a song, a song that purports to have been written quickly in the light of the rising sun while the memory of the dream is still fresh in the composer's mind. Setting Theodor Körner's four-verse poem strophically, Schubert's song retells Körner's wish-fulfillment song in music of light and languid evanescence, music that follows the logic of the dream as the youthful dreamer finds himself remembering the gentle kindness and ardent desire of his dream of love. Like most of Schubert's 14 settings of poems by Körner, Das war ich is the song of a young man in love, the song of a teenager of great passion but little experience and nonetheless affecting for just that reason.