For 5 horns in E (F) - score 4 p. & parts.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was a great admirer of the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. For many years, he was fascinated by the poems in Goethe’s half autobiographical/half fictional educational novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1796). The seven deeply melancholic songs from this novel, were set to music by Schubert a total of 18 times between 1815 and 1826. His absolute favourite is the song Sehnsucht. Schubert composed four versions to this text for soprano and piano, one setting as a duet for soprano and tenor with piano accompaniment, and finally a version for five-part male choir a capella D. 656. The latter version (1819) works well in a transcription for horn ensemble: horn sounds often symbolise melancholy and loneliness in the 19th century, and the original setting and key could be preserved without any editing.