Well, Schubert himself never intended it for church. And of course, as we all know, the original words are Sir Walter Scott's. This was an art song meant to be sung along with 'The Omnipotence' and 'A nun takes the veil ' on a stage

Good idea Erik.

Yes Donna. It certainly sounds staged to me.

i'm not convinced this piece will leave us anytime soon....

(feeling a rant emerging...)

Yes Erik... The 'real' music of the church has been under attack and seige over and over again, and an all out assault on the sacred liturgy and its music in the last 50 years has indeed been unprecedented. We may loose battles from time to time, but in the end we win the war.

The likes of Mozart and Schubert (to me) are good examples of a very refined counterfeit that is held up to be RC liturgical music. Many people are just ignorant. Others proclaim that taste is subjective. This apparently is an immediate caveat to have whatever one wants during the liturgy. (Who ever said the Mass was about taste anyway?) And the very proof of that is in the confusion about these types of musics within our own professional/ecclesial ranks.

Often the search for truth of what "is" and what "is not" liturgical music gets entirely derailed in the careless pronouncement of ignorant blanketing, defensive false statements in the name of 'taste'. The phrase, "de gustibus non est disputandum" may be in latin, but it certainly is NOT Catholic. It is most often used to defend the inclusion of non-liturgical-in-the-guise-of-Catholic-music within the Catholic Mass!

It is my take that those who understand the rudiments of liturgical music theory (and that includes basic things such as intervalic relationships, counterpoint, harmonic textures, and how these elements interplay with the art of crafting melodic composition which is subserviant to a liturgical text while at the same time being keenly aware of how the psychological and spiritual ethos that is conjured (for lack of a better word) in the use of modal structures) are those who are more capable of identifying the real currency of RC liturgical music. Then you MUST add to that those who come from the 'family' of tradition AND embrace those traditions. That is NOT a small part of being authentic.

So I don't buy the line that any person can be a liturgical musician or an artist. That also goes for priests and prelates who talk the talk but don't walk the walk. We all certainly are quite aware of those counterfeits. Well, it also applies to church musicians (composers, directors, organists, etc.).
"From the heart the mouth speaks."

"multi dicent mihi in illa die Domine Domine nonne in nomine tuo prophetavimus et in tuo nomine daemonia eiecimus et in tuo nomine virtutes multas fecimus. et tunc confitebor illis quia numquam novi vos discedite a me qui operamini iniquitatem."

The enemy's ploy is simple: divide and conquer. Can we list the scenarios? They are countless. For a good many years I could not even find employment as a RC church musician in the diocese I grew up in because the state of liturgical music was so decimated. The Episcopals and the Protestants were always dangling green backs in front of me to take a post. I just went into hiding and took up another career. The long and short of it is that a true RC church musician will always be struggling against ignorance, indifference, and the worst, subtle rebellion against the norms in the name of "multiculturalism", "musical taste", and/or "relevantism", especially the ones that war from within to bring to naught the very things of tradition that is found in the fabric of RC liturgical music and ultimately, Mother Church herself.

(stepping down from soap box now)

mj.... if you need a transposition, let me know.

oblash... i usually do exactly that myself, but got tired of that too. good music never gets tired. nuff said.