ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses three songs: Der Schmetterling (The Butterfly) Friedrich von Schlegel, Die Berge (The Mountains) Friedrich von Schlegel, and An den Mond (To the Moon) Ludwig Holty. This is the first of Franz Schubert's works to be published by Thaddaus Weigl, who had been in business since 1801 and was to publish six of Schubert's works in the composer's lifetime. The decision to publish the sets in this way may have been taken in consultation with Schubert, for there is a link between Opus 57 and 58 in that both deal with the relationship between imagination and reason or reality. As the leading philosopher of Romanticism, Schlegel placed the highest value on imagination, but he knew full well that man is 'rooted in reality' and that he has built his 'edifices of thought' on reason. The imagination can only 'jest on the edge of the abyss' if it is aware of the reality of the mountain.
