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Recommended CitationRayl '77, David C., "Die Schöne Müllerin: The Creative Genius of Wilhelm Müller and Franz Schubert" (1977). Papers. Paper 2.http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/music_papers/2
it is piculrly interesting that the ·O words o one o the poes
ro Die schne Mllerin, "Ungeduld" ("Id cre it in the bk eery tree
recl Eund Spencer's "Colin Clouts coe hoe again" o 15 91 ("Her nae in
every tree I ill endosse ) 1 As ill iscussed later, such "booing" is
coon in Mllers poetyAnother o Mller's eat accomplisents w te editorsip o te ist
ten volmes o the Biliotek detscer Dicter es 17 Jnderts Tis ree
sents a istinct contiution to the rediscoery o te ten neglecte Boqe
literate and is a cle example o the intense scolly activity ich com-
pleente Mllers own poetic creation
Appently, both Mller and his poetry ere igy reed y his contepories Heiich Keissle says o im: "He w known as one o te best o
en, a schol o very versatile acquiements, an one o te est lic poets
Those elements o his poey ich the tentieth centy inds distasteul his
sentientity and naivet) ere the ery thin which ere appealing in those
ely ays o Geran Roanticism As Richd Capell points out "There was nothing
ridiculous thenays in being sotheted and woeegone4 Vienna's estigious
Theatereitn in a reiew o Schuert's inteeise, ote:
Mller is naive, sentimental, and sets against nate a pallelo soe passionate soulstate hich tes its color and signiicance
ro the ormer Schubert h nderstood his poet ith the kin ogenis tat is his on Hs sic is as naive the poet's exes-sion; the eotions contained in the poems e as deeply relected in his on eelings, and these e so broght out in sound that no onecan sing or he them ihot being touche to the het
1Deutsch, The Schubert Reader, p 9 Cotell, Mullers ial SongCcles p 4
eiich Kreissle, The ie o Franz Schurt, tra by Arthur Duke Coleridge(onn: ongans, Green, and Co , 1869, Vol II, p 186
4Richd Call, Schuberts Son, rd eition (ondon: Dckworth an Co , t1973), p 1
It is fashionable toda (among certain literati) to belittle lers poetr
in comparison with chuberts settings ne contempor writer has een gone so
far s to suggest that with these songs een the liter-minded listener
would do better to let the words sere as a general bkound ,1 ow-
eer Alan P Cottrell in his outstanding stud ilhelm Mller's Lyical Son-
Ccles aws a different conclusion While admitting that Mllers works abound
with clichs conentional imger and motifs awn from l manner of sources
2 he goes on to state that man of the poems are of the most lilting
musical and show a naie and original manner of epression which cannot be
accounted for simpl in terms of a dilettantes juggling of conentional themes 3
an praises Mller as a lric poet of depth and sensitiit
The final ersion of Mllers ccle Die schne Mllerin published in 1820
has an interesting deelopmental histor An opera b Paisiello La Molinia
188 had appeared on the German stage as Die schne llerin Using this as
a sorce of thematic material a oup of Mllers friends deised a plor oper-
etta (Liederspiel) to be written jointl b all members
The ious chacters of the pla were assigned to the arious members of the oup ach person was to write the poems necess for his pt according to the predetermined plot The pla was cen tered around Rose the prett millers daughter (Hedwig on Stgemann) She was loed b the miller (W Mller) a gardener (Luise ensel) a hunter (W Hensel) and a nobleman (Fr Frster) At first she pre ferred the miller but changed her mind and chose the hunter As the stor is now known it ends when the miller drowns himself Friedlnder reported that originall the millers daughter followed the miller todie in the stre m and that the hunter closed the stor s he sang to
the two loers
ack M Stein Poem and Music in the German Lied from Gluck to Hu 0 Wolf(Cambridge: ard Uniersit Press 1971 p 95
This ersion of "Rose, the loel aid of the mill " labelled b Alfred instein
a "semi-amatic audeille w erformed b the ou in 1816-1817
The comoser Ludwig Berger was also a member of this ou and had set ten
of the oems including fie of Mller's to music These were ublished in 1818
as Gesne aus einem esellschaftlichen Liedersiele "Die schne Mllerin 2
It was Berger who encouraged ller to eole his own set of oems on the lot
established b his friends The end-result was the lric ccle Die schne M-
lerin cosisting of twent-three oems lus a rologue and an eilogue The
ccle hich ller caled a "monoama was ublished in 182 as t of a col-
lection of Mller's oetr entitled Sieben und siebzi Gedichte aus den hinter-
lassenen Papieren eines reisenden aldhornisten (Seent-seen Poems from the oshumous Paers of a traelling Horn Plaer As instein oints out "It sas
uch for Wilhelm Mller that Heirich Heine thought highl of him and dedicated
to the 'horn laer' a co of his Lyisches Intermezzo, with the request that
he 'should honor it with his attention
The oung miller, the fair maid, and the hunter were faorite figures in
omantic oetr (as were such inanimate objects as the mill itself and the lute
According to Maurice Brown:
Goethe himself toed with the idea and wrote in 177 to Schiller:"The re e pretty things o f th .so rt in a certain o lder Ger man period,
and m uch can be exp resse in the f r m (i e. lyric convers a tis) ha beg such a onersation betweenalad who is in le with a miller's maid and the mill-stream and hoe to send it soon"
In site of the fact that these figures were conentional liter moties, instein
1Alfred instei, Schubert: A Musical Portrait ew York: ford Uniersitess 151, 257
2l The Solo Son cle, 77
3instein Schubert 258
aurice J Brown "Schubert Son," BB Music Guides (Seattle: Uniersit
an den he hd and foh of he le The fome en h he ods
"Ei Bchlein liee Bchlein es alo gemen?0 bookle bookle as ean o be so?)
he latte opes ith an exact epetition o thi line
"W e o geeint ein auchene Feun
Dein ngen ein Klingen e alo geeint?"("Wa it eant to e o ippling ien?Yo ong ou uic a it eant to e thu?"
Anothe liking eice i the colo een hich Mlle e thoughout the
lat hal o the ccle Becaue it i the aoite colo o the maien the il
le e he the een ion o hi lute as a smbol of s eeal loe
geen is a lso the hunte 's color a nd con sequen tly b ecom es the sym b ol of the m il-
es happnessO coe thee e othe oe utle techniue ue to uni the poe
t thee e gien ple teatent in Cottell upe ook Don El uote
H M Mut smmaon o Mlle' ccle
De shne Mllein i oe coheent in suue an an na-tie ccle o thi peio (85 830 Te nae poesses smooh- and onssenl an the an inne theatic lik help to ni the op The smmeal angemen of he em aodng to theiou tage o the to gie the oup ance an ace of o-
poton Mlle ucceul teatent of hs le seems o me obe due o t to it the einite nrae oulne hhee fom the eginning a a aeok an econ the act thathe poems ee en spefall fo hs oup and no smple ol-lecte an ange as et the ight. Mlle nee agan aheed e ae peectio o o in an othe ccle
Peha he mos aace qual of Mlle poet i it feel lo-
ig muicali 2 Ding hi lietie the Munich Allgemene usk-Zeng e-
ee to hm as e onul Wilhel Mlle 3 an n ou on a Coell has
made uch of hi "unuul keen uic sens 4 lle hmelf as ae
El The olo ong Cyle p 792
Cottrell, Mu ller'S Lica Song-Cycles, p. 10.
3 esh The hube Reade p. 794 . C 0Cott rell, M ulle9 Lica ong- yc es p . •
hs poems and spoke of them as son He felt that a very
stron relatoshp exsted between hs etry and musc and was very much n1terested n te mscal anmaton o hs verses He wrote n hs diy on
ctober 8 1815 t can nether play nor snyet when I wte verses I sn
and pay after l If I could produce the tunes, y sons would please e better tan they do now But courae! A kned soul ay be found who wll he
2the tunes behnd the wor and gve the back to e
Several cosers of the ay had set hs es to usc, aon them the
gited soncoposer Berhd Josef Klen muscl diector o the Unversty
o Berln n Deceber 15 , 1822 Mller wrote Klen a letter of thaks upon publ
caton of two oks of Klens settngs o hs poes ncludng Der Neugereand Trockne Bluen ro De schne MUlern) For ndeed, my sons lead but
h a le, a paper lfe of black and whte untl usc breath lfe nto
the, or at least calls forth and awakes t t s aleady dorant n them.
ou t s, too, choosng my sons for preference or composton, who penetrate
ost deeply nto the 3 What a pty that Mller obably never knew that another
"knred spt h hed the tunes behnd the wor and had created one of
the ost beautful works n the ente lteratre o son.
How dd Schubert become acuanted wth the Mller poems Hrch Kressles
nterestn, but nauthentcated, verson o hs dscovery of the s recounted
low
ne day Schubert vsted the prvate secrety of Count Seczeny, Herr Benedct Randhtnger wth whhe was on ters of eat ntacyand frendshp He had oly ust entered the room when the secretywas sent for He wthew, after vn the composer to understand that he would retrn n a short tme. Franz went to the wrtntable,and found a volume o poetry lyn there; after readng one or two o
Eten, chubert p. 3022Newman Flower, Franz chubert: The Man and Hs Crcle 2nd edton New
th oms through, h sizd th bookw aiting for Randhtingrs rturnbak, missd his olum of pms, and to th th book
and wnt awayTh lattr, whn h am wnt thnxt day to Shubrt
hn his frind askd about th book Shubrt suosdy rlid Do not b
8
any with m d Bnditus th oms ha so insird m that I had to om
os musi to thm. ha alrady sn oms sts to musi. . . . 2 Th om
osr thn showd him th first llrlidr whih h had tly finshd dring
th night.
Did Shubrt ha his own fair mid? That an oy b assumd for w
know littl of his harts riat aff&irs. Howr it is known that h had
bn in lo with his uil Countss Karolin Estrh � zy but sh antly
nr rturnd his lo and it rmind an ida assion. Prhas sh is
Shubrts fair mid. His frind duard on Baurnfld alls th llrlidr
and works lik thm musi onfssions bathd in th glow of a d and ral
assion and transformd into gnuin works of art roding from th lor's
tndrst sntimnts. 3 On of Shubrts bioahrs Kl Kobald also main
tains that th yl is at last o som xtnt autobioahial
A bautiful mmori to th flings of his own ht th llrlidr On annot hl thinking that Shubrt has drawn hslf in th youth who lings to th lo of a woman, thoug sh has stabbd his young ht to ath. I is an outouring of musial motion; it is th lr's sring awning
4 th glorifid
aothosis of th tist's sffring ausd by lo
Th songs of n llrin wr omosd during tr rios of th
y 1823 Th first songs wr wittn in May of that y, but th blk of
thm wr omposd latr that summr whil Shubrt was a atint in Vinna's
Krisl, Lif of Shubrt, 3 16317
2 tto ih Dutsh, S��b��t�:_
Ly and John Nowll (Nw Yok Th trans by Rosamund 2 02
p.
3 Kl Kobald, ranz Shubrt and is Tims, trans by atri Mshall ashinon Knnikat Prss, 1969), 201
Hopital. He wa in the epth of loom an epair over what he knew
to be an incrable eae (yphilli) an hi ental tate rely
the tone an color of hi on. The cycle wa complete by the en of 1823
an wa pblihe by aer an Leieorf (the latter havin recently become a
frien of chber in five book the firt two on Mch 2 4 182 4 the remaiing tree on gt 12 of that ye It wa pblihe a: Die chne
Mllerina cycle of songs with text b y Wilhelm Mller and et to usic for solo
voice with pianofore compaiment Deicate to l Freihe von chtein.
Op 25 1
M iedlner in hi fine critical eition of 1922 reveal that von
chntein wa one of the ot eitive interpreter of chbet ong an renere a eat ervice in introcin chbert work into the leain ito
cratic circle of iea 2 The eteem with which von chtein wa hel
by chbert frien i indicate by Joeph von pan who ote: Anyone ho
ha he Bon chntein in the Mllerlieer ha omethin to te
with him throghot hi wlife an will never he anythin ore beatifl. 3
The anoncement in the official iena Zeitn of the pblication of the
firt two volme of De chne Mllerin give an inication of cbert tat
an reptation amon hi contmeporie:
e to or opinion that every excellent work cie it own latory recomenation with it we efer to refrain from any empha-tic aie of thee ong an erely remk that the mot favorably
kno tonepoet ha cceee in thee ong to an nally hi e-ee in cobiin the novlty of hi elodie with that intellii-bility by which a ical work of t at once favorably apal t 4the cooie of t a well a to the ecate ical amate.
intein chbert p. 25 6.2Eitein chbert p. 25 6.3Detch chbert emoir by hi Frien p. 139. 4Detch The chbert Reaer p. 327.
ccopimetal figure thee is little resemblce betee y of the sogs
tht tey re eqully effective i evokig the ide of ter
There e other es besides the "ook usic" hich Scubert uses to t-
t
ch belog together) "Des Mlers Blume" (I) d "erege" (X) e both i te sme
key (A jor/ior) d ve the se time sigtre (6/)
2) "Puse" (XII) "1t e e Lutebe" (XIII) e bot i B-flt jor (The B-flt chord hich begis te ltter is uecessy d ccorig to Alfre istei d Gerld Moore2 shoul obbly be otted e te cle is erfored i its etety)
3) "Die liebe Frbe" (XVI) d "Die bse Fbe (XVII) give us so tospe to sides of te se coi d so they e lso liked by
key Both fluctute betee B jor B mior te former le g tod the ior the ltter tods te jor. Moore even
suggests reltiosip i tepo "Die bse Fbe" (=63) souldbe tice te speed of "Die liebe Fbe J 63).3
The chcter of the huter lso helps uify te secod hlf of the cycle
I "Der Jger" (XIV) the ccopimet ith its tree-voice teture gives the
listeer "the brassy suggestio of the hutig hor4
usical Eple 3: "Der Jger"-mm 1-4
f Gehind (Ao)
@ n staccoA �Ac +
• v
1 - -.
Was
;q . p
istei Schubert p 2582
Gerald Moore Te Scubert with Thou ts on Performance
I come hithe fom the mountainsThe valley is steaming the ea is oaingI wande still, ithout joyAnd sigh, s if sking Whee?
The sun sees to me to e cold hee,The lossos ithered and life oldAnd mens speech empty sound
I a st ge everhere.
hee t thou my eloved ndSought d envisged, ut never known?Tht lnd tht ld so een ith hopeTht lnd here roses loo,Where riends go wlkinghee � ded shll rise gainThe lnd tht spes � speecho lnd here t thou?
I nder still ithout joyAnd sigh s if king Where?In ghostly hisp the se returs to me"Where thou t not there is hppiness1 "
-- von Lueck
Anothe inteesting simility exists between the espective philosophies
of Mlle and chubet in thei concepts of death It is significnt that the
young mille·s death in the peaceful flowing wates of the book coesponds
stikingly to chube rt's own view of death e saw death not as a bibica
20
manifestation of Gods wath deseved of ou sins but death who becomes fiend
confidant and comforte the figue opening to us the tanslucent potals of
the world beyond 2 chubert descibed that wold s tht cleashining and
dstant futue in which ou whole hope lies3 In 1817 chubet had composed a
eautiful settig of Hattias Claudius I poe De Tod und Das dchen (Death
and te Haiden) which expesses a simil concept of death:
1Capell chubert's Songs, p 11 4
2chneide chubet p 11
3 0tto E rich Deutsch, Franz Schubert's Lette rs a n d Other W ritin , t ra ns. by
ie e hn e n ene chi! fien ce n chsenBe f g chee! n be feeY wi swee in s!
1M Cis
An ineesing siei f wich e ee a w is wn cnc-
sins is b he sngs enine bve as expessing significn eeens
f ScbeUs pisp, wee as se as e basis f w f is ees
iena wke "Wnee Fnas" in C j f pian n e "Deh
an he ien" sing qe in D in
e s f ie scne Mein see e si n senien--
ceinl n e ei f wic e is ae B ch f Schbes sic is ecepive sipe fe ne e f "ivng" wi is wk,
cnvince i is ne f e s beif n ving wks f he nine-
eenh cen ne sns in we f Scs genis Ws fi exess
e veweing be f ese wen sngs! g Svinsk pehp ce
cses n expnin f e be f Schbe's sic
Scbe's sic evkes even heve se f inn
cence cn eneness e pce wee hse ee gehe wh ve eh e we n eh Schbe's sic is n spiin ws his s pise n his ies is pwe ve s an h s spebn i is in his sese h i is ike n he sic cnicing wih s in ngge is wn
br, Gerld (ed) Te sic of Scbert Pt Wsigto, eikt Press,Ic 197
Beder illi ollo te Liede Tie, CI, o 16 pril 18, 1977), 8
Bie Osc Scbert Te Freeport, e York, Books for Librries Press, 19
Brod lie d Fokes, Robert A Te Ger Lied d Its Poetr e York, St rtis Press, 1972
BroMice Scbert A Criticl Bio Lodo, Mcill d Co,Ltd 1958
Scbert Sogs, BBC Msic Gides Settle, Uiversity of WsigtoPess 1967
Cpell Ricd Scbert·s So 3rd edtio Lodo, Dckort d Co,Ltd, 1973
Cottrell l P ilel llers Lyicl o Ccles Cpel Hill, Te Ui versity of ort Cri Press, 1970
Detsc, Otto ic ed) Frz Scberts Letters d Oter Writi Trs
lted by Veeti vile Lodo, Fber d Gyer, 1928 Scbert: Meoirsb His Frieds slted by Rosd Ley d
o oell e York Te cill Co 1958
Te Scbert Reder: A Life of Frz Scbert i Letters d oc ets slted by Eric Blo e York, W W orto d Co, Ic, 17
l Do L Te Solo So Ccle i Ger (1800-1852 A Arbor, UiversityMcrofils Itertiol, 1977 doctorl disserttio sbitted to te Fclty of te Grdte Scool ofIdi Uiversity i Septeber, 1952 i prtil flillet of te reqire
ets for te deee, Doctor of Pilosopy, i te Scool of sic
Eistei Alfred Scbert Tlted by Dvid Ascoli Lodo, Csell dCo Ltd, 1951
Floer e Scbert Te d His Circle Revised editio e York,Tdor Pblisg Co 1935
Gl Hs Frz Scbert d te Essece of elod Lodo, icor ollcy,Ltd, 1974