ABSTRACT
This chapter presents three songs to poems by Johann Friedrich Rochlitz and published by Tobias Haslinger on 28 May 1827. The songs are: Alinde; An die Laute and Zur guten Nacht. Rochlitz was the founder of the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung in Leipzig, its editor between 1798 and 1818, and a well respected contributor to it until 1836. He was therefore a man of considerable influence in the musical world. Since composing Rochlitz's Klagelied in 1812, Schubert had shown no interest in his poetry. Schubert may also have had his 1812 setting of Rochlitz's Klagelied in mind when he composed the set. This is considered to be his first strophic song, but he took only the first stanza into account when he wrote it. He should have composed a modified strophic song, varying each strophe to suit the words. Alinde makes up for his former inexperience because he varies the strophes with great subtlety.
