ABSTRACT
Some of the poems dutifully conform to the conventions of texts to be sung in religious services, but in the most powerful of them Novalis avoids that structure altogether, breaking instead into wild free verse. Schubert composed the strophic poems as solo songs, using a genre and musical style most often associated with performances in concerts or private homes, not in churches. This chapter devotes more attention to critical commentary by other scholars than does the Abendrote chapter and offers less poetic analysis, as there is much more work left undone with regard to Schlegel's poetry. Five of Schubert's six Novalis settings were taken from the collection published as Geistliche Lieder; originally all in one manuscript, though one song was later separated from it those songs were composed in May 1819. Schubert's approach to the Novalis settings was distinctly different from that he took to his Abendrote songs.
