ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the set Sei mir gegrusst (I greet you) Friedrich Ruckert, Fruhlingsglaube (Faith in Spring) Ludwig Uhland, and Hanflings Liebeswerbung (The Linnet's Wooing) Friedrich Kind. Schubert must have compiled this set in November 1822 before Opus 19. All three poems refer to spring and contain refrains, a device used to create certainty as to what is being expressed. In the first song the lover calls to his beloved and sends her his kisses across time and space to express his continued love for her. In the second song the person addresses himself. He tells his tormented heart that now spring is coming 'all will change'. Finally with the arrival of spring the Linnet can boldly woo the 'loveliest of sisters' in the certainty she will respond. All three songs are in major keys, and to bring out the positive nature of their refrains Schubert 'darkens' the tonalities immediately before they appear.
