Among the Schubert-Liszt transcriptions, the one which probably stands
next to the “Erlkönig” in general popularity is the song “Hark! Hark!
the Lark at Heaven’s Gate Sings!” the words being the well-known,
charming little matin song by Shakespeare which Schubert has set to
music with all his infallible insight into their exact emotional import,
and all his masterly command of musical resources, reproducing in the
melody and its harmonic background the effect intended in every line of
the text, filling every subtlest shade of feeling to a nicety, realizing
once again that ideal union, that perfect marriage of words and music,
so difficult and so rare with most song-writers, but which was a
distinguishing characteristic of Schubert’s work.
In his piano accompaniment Liszt has displayed even more than his usual
skill in preserving all the intrinsic beauty and precise poetic
significance of the original, besides giving to it an eminently
pianistic form. The music is bright, buoyant, joyous as the summer
morning, fresh as its breezes, light as its floating clouds, stirring
our hearts with the revivifying call of a new day, breathing hope and
happiness in every measure, while the airy rippling embellishments
remind us of the exuberant song of the skylark, as he rises exultantly
to meet the dawn, shaking the dew from his swift wings and pouring out
the plenitude of his glad heart upon the awakening earth in a sparkling
shower of music, like the bubbling overflow of some sky fountain of pure
delight.
The player and listener will do well to have in mind Shelley’s lines,
describing the “clear, keen joyance” of that “scorner of the ground,”
the English skylark.