l’Hiver a cesse

In this cycle of songs spring is the spring in very different ways musically depicted. In the allegorical song “Viola” by Franz Schubert (1), both spring and flowers are presented as people. Spring is the lover and bridegroom-to-be of Viola, the well-known violet. Viola, in all her beauty, prepares herself for the oncoming reunion with her bridegroom. On her way to her lover Viola is attacked by an unexpected, icy cold, which is also portrayed in the piano part. She suddenly realizes that she has been extremely naïve! An early death for Viola is unavoidable, as she cannot endure the extreme cold. Spring, appearing as sovereign leader of the flowers at the dramatic moment when his sweetheart goes missing, disperses as it were an AMBER Alert among the flowers, urging them to search for Viola, ultimately to no avail. Opposite this lament and fateful forces of the spring, the hymns in “Das erste Veilchen” (5) and “Med and Primula Veris’ (4). The pansy and primula (primrose), the first spring flowers proclaim the coming of the spring and thus the return of love, hope and joy.