Schubert is another great German and Austrian musician after Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. He composed more than 600 art songs in his life and is known as the "King of Art Songs".

Let’s first experience Schubert’s “Singing on the Water”, which expresses a person in a boat’s thoughts about the passing time. And the older you get, the more you like this song “Singing on the Water”. Time is in turmoil. gradually disappear in the waves of time, we ourselves will eventually disappear from the tide of time.

Lieder may not have been invented by Schubert, but it must have been developed in his hands. Compared with pure music such as German and Austrian symphonies and concertos, art songs are more melodic and more singing. Compared with Italian operas, art songs often only have piano accompaniment and relatively simple instrumental music. Therefore, the singing level of the singer is very high, and a slight mistake in singing can easily be exposed.

Here is another purely musical version of "Singing on the Water". Can you compare it with the singing version? Which version do you prefer?

The pinnacle of Schubert's art songs is definitely his "Winterreise", with 24 songs in one song. It takes one and a half hours to sing them all. The video is by the disabled baritone Thomas ·Quastov's version.

The content of "Winter Journey" can be found on Baidu. It roughly depicts the poet leaving the familiar city and his negative lover who married a rich man, and walking alone in the endless winter wilderness. Looking at the weather flags in the early wind and the frozen river, listening to the sound of wind and snow and the jingle of the mail truck, and avoiding the vicious dogs and ominous crows in the forest, I am deeply moved by the scene. The indifference and desolation of the world, where there is no sympathy and mercy, will always be a stranger and a wanderer. The poet wants to avoid this glitzy world and find inner peace in the erratic journey.

If you don’t have time to listen to all 24 songs, just listen to them one by one. The first song "Good Night", from the beginning of the video to about 6 minutes in, the overall listening tone is relatively dark and sad. The reason why German and Austrian music is profound is not only the technical aspect, but also the spiritual aspect.

The last song "Organist", from 1:14:50 to the end of the video, depicts the poet alone in the endless wilderness, finally surrendering to fate and calmly accepting the reality. Listen to see if you feel this way.

Because "Winter Journey" is sung in German, the director was worried that the audience would not understand, so he specially made a piano version. In addition, the movie also has the soundtrack of the Habanera dance "Love is Like a Free Bird" from "Carmen" that was introduced before. The director is absolutely top notch.