ABSTRACT

Beckett’s love of music is frequently commented upon, and Schubert is the composer to whom he refers most frequently in his works. Specific compositions by Schubert are invoked alongside those of Beethoven, particularly in some of the early novels and short stories, and throughout his life Beckett held a particular love for Schubert’s lieder, sometimes singing them himself at the piano.2 However, it is only in the radio play All That Fall (1956) and the television play Nacht und Träume (1982) that we hear actual extracts of Schubert’s music. In All That Fall we twice hear music from ‘Death and the Maiden’, early and late in the play, while Nacht und Träume is named after a Schubert lied, and the only sounds in the play are a few bars from the end of the song.