An die Musik

Schubert dedicated the song to the Viennese piano virtuoso Albert Sowinsky on April 24, 1827, a decade after he composed it.

[3] At the end of Gerald Moore's farewell concert in London's Royal Festival Hall in 1967, in which he accompanied Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Victoria de los Ángeles and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, he came out onto the stage alone and played his piano-solo arrangement of "An die Musik" as his parting gift.

Du holde Kunst, in wieviel grauen Stunden, Wo mich des Lebens wilder Kreis umstrickt,

Den Himmel beßrer Zeiten mir erschloßen, Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür, Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir!

Translation[5] O blessed art, how often in dark hours, When the savage ring of life tightens round me,

Manuscript of "An die Musik"
Incipit of "An die Musik"
"An die Musik", Armelle Mathis (tenor), Adrien Poupin (piano)
Portrait of Franz Schubert by Franz Eybl (1827)