ABSTRACT
Two songs to poems by Matthaus von Collin are Der Zwerg (The Dwarf), and Wehmut (Melancholy). Sauer & M. J. Leidesdorf destroyed most of Schubert's manuscripts of the songs they published soon after the engraver had finished with them, so these are difficult to date precisely. The painter Franz Stohl said that Der Zwerg was sung at a reception given by Karl Pinterics towards the end of 1822. On the grounds that this song has strong resemblances to the opening of the Unfinished Symphony, John Reed believed the two songs may date from November 1822. It was then that Franz Schubert's symptoms of syphilis became manifest. The relationship between these songs is strong. Both songs begin and end with an interval of a fifth in their vocal lines; both make use of measured tremolo and Schubert's death motif, and both are formal structures containing material in a constant state of development.
