Zachary Gates Historiography II Essay

A Brief Analysis of Die schne Mllerin Die schne Mllerin is a German song cycle composed by Franz Schubert. It tells the story of a young man that decides to travel down the path of a river to explore, but he soon happens upon a mill, and at the mill there is the millers daughter. Very quickly, the young man falls in love the daughter but sees that a hunter dressed in green is already courting her. Because she does not reciprocate his love, he falls into despair and drowns himself in the river that he followed to get there. As written in the Grove Encyclopedia, Franz Schubert, who died at an early age of 32, wrote Die schne Mllerin only when he was about 27 years old. It was around this time that he had begun to show symptoms of what historians believe was his cause of death: syphilis. In addition, while Schuberts work was being played in concert and he was very successful in the quantity and quality of music that he wrote, he had issues managing the money that he received from these successes. It was through these hardships that Schubert wrote this song cycle. What may have influenced his longing to write his own song cycle was his own admiration for the recent success of Beethovens own song cycle, An die Ferne Geliebte. The musical content, like the text that was written, form a cohesive story that can be followed and references itself throughout the cycle. In the music, we hear continuing themes

of running rivers, hunting horns of the hunter dressed in green, and combinations of leaps and steps that are repeated in the piece. Arthur Coleridge documented other ideas that may have permeated the mind of Schubert at the time. Coleridge compiled the multiple letters and diary entries of Franz Schubert into one document. In one of the diary entries, Schubert wrote, Grrief sharpens the understanding and strengthens the soul, whereas joy seldom troubles itself about the former, and makes the latter either effeminate or frivolous.. I believe that this understanding of the role of grief in humanity and nature led Schubert to want to write in the classic Lied style that we analyze today. Also, Schubert was greatly influenced by the poets that he befriended and used for his music. The poet for Die schne Mllerin, Wilhelm Muller, has received varying degrees of acknowledgment for his work in the song cycle. For instance, Nicholas Williams reviewed an account of the song cycle by Susan Youens, where Williams states that Youens discusses too many of the difficulties and issues with the text, and does not argue the music as much. Williams concluded that by trying to lay criticism on mostly the poet to make the composer look good, you are in fact still insulting the composer by criticizing his taste in poetry. David Rayl furthers the defense of the poet, and therefore the composer by citing a study called Wilhelm Muller's Lyrical SongCycles by Alan Cottrell in his dissertation. He states that even though the Lieder-esque imagery and descriptions might be considered clich and too conventional, there is still an honesty and originality to the text that speaks to the qualities of rustic and folk culture. To back up the defense of Wilhelm Mullers ability as a poet, Rayl uses a letter written by the

extremely successful German poet Goethe. It reads, "There are pretty things of the sort in a certain older German period, and much can be expressed in the form (i. e. lyric conversations) . I have begun such a conversation between a lad who is in love with a miller's maid, and the mill-stream, and hope to send it soon. It is safe for us to assume that this may very well be Muller Goethe is referencing. In the actual performance of the piece, we can hear many instances of the incredible text painting Schubert inserted into the piece. For instance, for all of the songs in which the young man is following the babbling brook/river, we have fast repeated notes that outline chords in the left hand of the piano that also serve to symbolize the movement of the brook. The young mans extreme fixation on the millers daughter is enhanced by the fact when he does see her, we leave the context of the babbling brook, and therefore the fast notes in the left hand. These running notes, as discussed by David Fay in his review of a performance of the song cycle by Florian Boesch, are crucial to the beginning of the piece. However, a common and accepted practice in the performance of Lied is to transpose the score so that they fit the range of the singer performing the songs. In this case, Boesch took the cycle down enough to a point that the left hand running notes sounded a little muddy because of this transposition. This of course cannot be held against the composer, but is a bittersweet situation for performer. We can hear the harmonic and melodic content of the composition, but with a different weight. We can derive from Fays review that Boesch took great care and interest in the text and the theatrical performance tendencies that came from it. Fay states that he wishes more emphasis was given on the musical expression rather than just the

theatrical. Fray also didnt enjoy the physical cues that Boesch was taking to help perform the music. Fray analyzed his use of body in terms of insecurity that coincided with music and the interest the young man has with the millers daughter. Its surprising that two very skilled musicians of the Lieder style, Boesch singing with Lieder expert Malcolm Martineau on piano, performed this cycle with out a strong sense of the text painting that Schubert filled the piece with.

Each writer seemed to have an opinion on how the text was handled in terms of respect, attention, or performance style, as to the musical content. Williams addressed the reputation and credit of the poet, Muller, very well by tying critical judgment of the poet as critical judgment of the composer too. Rayl disputed the actual ability of Muller very well with the direct quote from a letter from Goethe, and spoke to the rustic quality that Muller so genuinely approached and succeeded in. We can see then, that Schubert was very involved and thoughtful about his own ideas and thoughts within the Lieder culture, as they pertained to grief and death. Arthur Coleridge did an incredible job of collecting and translating the letters and diaries of Schubert, and because of that, we were able to see that Schubert was interested in the rustic and classic German ideas of nature, love, and grief. Fays review of the performance, however, turns our attention back from the importance of the quality of the poem, and back to the importance to perform the musical content that contains intense and intelligent text painting that Schubert inserted into this song cycle.

Bibliography 1. GilPiotr. Jonas Kaufmann: The complete "Die schne Mllerin" (Schubert) . Youtube . Youtube, October 16 2012. Video. May 4, 2013 2. "Die Schne Mllerin, D.795 (Schubert, Franz)." IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library. IMSLP, 15 Jan. 2007. Web. 03 May 2013. <http://imslp.org/wiki/Die_Schne_Mllerin,_D.795_(Schubert,_Franz)>. 3. Coleridge, Arthur D. "Full Text of "The Life of Franz Schubert"" Full Text of "The Life of Franz Schubert" Longmans, Green, and Co., n.d. Web. 04 May 2013. <http://archive.org/stream/lifeoffranzschub02kreiuoft/lifeoffranzschub02kreiuoft _djvu.txt>. 4. Winter, Robert, Maurice J.E. Brown, and Eric Sams: 'Schubert, Franz (Peter)', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 3May 2013), http://www.grovemusic.com 5. Rayl '77, David C., "Die Schne Mllerin: The Creative Genius of Wilhelm Mller and Franz Schubert" (1977).Papers.Paper 2. 6. Nicholas Williams, The Musical Times Vol. 134, No. 1800 (Feb., 1993), p. 92 (May 1 2013) 7. Fay, David. "Die Schne Mllerin with Florian Boesch and Malcolm Martineau."Bachtrack. Bachtrack, 24 Mar. 2012. Web. 04 May 2013.