ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses two songs to poems by Friedrich von Schiller: Der Pilgrim (The Pilgrim), and Der Alpenjager (The Alpine Huntsman). Both poems relate to aspects of Schiller's philosophy which influenced the German Romantic movement, namely the relationship between the ideal and the real, man's responsibility for nature, and the relationship between inclination and duty. Both are about young men who leave home to search for something that ultimately eludes them. Although these songs have no distinctive melodic, harmonic or rhythmic features in common, they are structurally similar. Both are scenas containing set pieces, a dramatic section in which the young man fails to gain his quest, and a slow coda containing the moral of the story. In addition, both end in a key a minor third lower than the one in which they begin.
