Nacht und Träume
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"Nacht und Träume" (Night and Dreams) is a song for voice and piano by Franz Schubert, written some time in the mid-1820s on a text by Matthäus von Collin. In Otto Erich Deutsch's catalogue of Schubert's works, it is D. 827.
The song, a meditation, as the name suggests, on night and dreams, is marked "Sehr langsam" (very slowly) and is in the key of B major (with a modulation to the flattened submediant, G major, in the middle). There is a single dynamic indication, "piannissimo" (very quietly), which does not change throughout the song. The piano plays broken chords in semiquavers for the song's duration in a manner similar to bar five (the bar in which the voice enters), for example:
A typical performance will last around three to four minutes.
"Nacht und Träume" is one of several Schubert songs that Max Reger arranged for voice and orchestra. The last seven bars of the original version feature in Samuel Beckett's television play of the same name (see Nacht und Träume (play)).
