ABSTRACT
The stories behind the Opus. 85 songs involve lovers who are prevented from fulfilling their love. In the case of Annot Lyle and the Earl of Mentieth the barrier was their social standing. This is also the issue in Karoline Pichler's poem Der Ungluckliche. Franz Schubert uses the poem as the starting point for a set about love across social barriers. Hoffnung puts forward the belief that we are born for better things, and can dream of better days to come, while Der Jungling am Bache speaks of a youth who manifests hope by calling up to his beloved in her proud castle to join him in his humble cottage. In many instances Schubert's music contains an even higher degree of saturation and can be looked on as being a transition between Mozart's use of the appoggiatura and Wagner's.
