Nacht und Träume
Lied composed by Franz Schubert
Nacht und Träume (Night and Dreams) is a lied for voice and piano by Franz Schubert, from a text by Matthäus von Collin, and published in 1825. In Otto Erich Deutsch's catalogue of Schubert's works, it is D. 827.
The song, a meditation 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, "pianissimo" (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.
A version in the Spaun family collection has the different tempo marking "Langsam, Sempre legato" (Slow, Always legato).
The original publication erroneously attributed the text to Friedrich Schiller.
"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)).
Song text
Heil’ge Nacht, du sinkest nieder;
Nieder wallen auch die Träume
Wie dein Mondlicht durch die Räume,
Durch der Menschen stille Brust.
The public source identifies “Nacht und Träume” as lied composed by Franz Schubert. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Nacht, Träume and Lied.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 27, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q6957204. The Library of Congress control number is no98044387. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1825.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nacht und Träume” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.