Schubert, "Ruhe, schönstes Glück der Erde"

Schubert, "Ruhe, schönstes Glück der Erde," D657 (1819) is for four-part men's chorus. It is a part-song of images. At the beginning, the hushed opening apostrophe to Rest is followed by a short phrase that does indeed "rest" with a perfect authentic cadence (boxed).

Then, though it begins higher (A4 in the tenor at [b]), Rest is quietly enjoined to sink below, with a blessing, so that quiet can fill us (repeated notes at (c). An A major triad is reached as V of D minor, but then an evocative phrase entirely in A major expresses "as a grave rests in flowers."

Continuing and turning more chromatic, the music reaches Ab major (at [d]), and then a sudden return to the opening at (e) is filled out to a PAC and drooping melodic figures (first box in the second system). A codetta extension repeats the descents in chromatic form over a sustained tonic bass.

The harsh interruption at (f)—"Let the stormy heart be quieted" (pianissimo for "quieted"/"schweigen")—initiates the second half. At (g), a determined chromatic ascent for "as they grow, as they rise, grows and rises the Soul's pain" ends with stark octaves for the repetition of "Seele Pein" at (h).

Rest is then enjoined again to bring peace to the earth, so that the Soul can be healed and rise from the grave: at (j) and (k) dramatically, then following another quiet "codetta" with bass pedal at (m), dramatically again in repetition at (n). Note that is there is no PAC: the tenor rises by step from ^1 to ^3 (and all the lower voices also rise).

Rising figures that close a composition in such dramatic, expressive mode are very rare, but then the ending here is clearly at one with everything that precedes it.

Adam, Le Châlet, part 5 (ns5 & 6: ensemble-aria-ensemble)

Max finishes the aria (n4) in which he affirms his pleasure at returning to the Swiss valley that was his home (and is still for his sister Bettly). Implausibly, Daniel doesn't recognize Max, who, implausibly, doesn't reveal himself, and in fact is later not recognized by Bettly, either (sigh). And with this the plot descends irretrievably into farce—but all eventually ends well after Max pretends to be drunk, inciting Daniel to protect Bettly's honor, whereon she is impressed by Daniel's action and signs the marriage certificate, which she openly calls a ruse because it's not valid without her brother's signature, but of course unbeknownst to her he is there . . . . you see where this is going.

The central ensemble scenes are concerned with the complications created by Max's insistence that his company will stay for a fortnight and by his consequent demand for food and, especially, drink for the evening. Number 5 is a straightforward drinking song, with chorus; at the end, Max promises his own song and n6 opens with it (in the form of couplets); the remainder of n6 is a combination of Max and Bettly's back and forth with the chorus's continuation of the general topic of eating and drinking. (She is increasingly agitated; during the dialogue scene that follows n6, Daniel appears and attempts to defend her.)

The theme of the drinking song allows a good bit of enthusiastic noise with a figure that focuses on ^8, descending from it and returning to it--see below. All we're missing is a "huzzah" or two.  (Here again I am using the German edition of 1835 for examples.)

In a considerably expanded version, one can hear elements of this theme in the final section of n6, including the turn to the submediant vi—see notes in the (several pages of) score below.