ABSTRACT
This chapter presents four Refrain Songs to poems by Johann Gabriel Seidl, published by Thaddaus Weigl, on 13 August 1828, and dedicated most amicably to the poet.' The songs are Die Unterscheidung; Bei dir allein; Die Manner sind mechant and Irdisches Gluck. John Reed believes it may have been Weigl who harnessed 'Schubert's genius to Seidl's light satirical verse'. Weigl brought them out so that they could be purchased as a bound set for 54 Kreuzer or separately. As in most of his four-song sets, Schubert divides the items into two related but contrasting pairs. Each pair has a comic song for a woman, and a more serious song for a man. The women's songs contrast a woman who has total control over her lover with one whose lover is proving unfaithful. Schubert must have had Viennese light opera or French vaudeville in mind when he composed these songs.
