Winterreise (The Winter Journey) - D911 (Muller)

[haydnguy]

Excerpt from: The Schubert Song Companion by John Reed

The text is by Wilhelm Muller, the author of Die schone Mullerin, and both cycles were published under the general title of 'Seventy-seven Poems from the Posthumous Papers of a Traveling Horn-player'. Muller's title is Die Winterreise, but both the autograph and the first edition of Schubert's cycle omit the article.

The poems which make up the complete Winterreise were assembled gradually. Twelve poems were published in Urania, a Leipzig almanac, in 1823, and these correspond exactly with the songs in Schubert's Part I, both in content and sequence. Ten more appeared in the same year in a Breslau periodical. Finally Muller added two more, Die Post and Tauschung, and rearranged the whole cycle in a new order when it was published in 1824 in Dessau as vol. II of the 'Posthumous Papers'. This volume was dedicated to the master of German song Carl Maria von Weber, as a token of friendship and respect'.

Schubert's autograph, now in New York (PML), establishes beyond a doub that the two parts of the cycle were written at different times. Part I is dated 'February 1827' at the beginning. The sourse was Urania, and Schubert wrote the words 'Finis' at the end of no. 12, a clear indication that at that time he regarded these twelve songs as making up the complete cycle. It is of interest that in the first draft the last song, Einsamkeit was written in D minor, the key of the opening song.

Part II of the autograph is a fair copy, dated October 1827, made from earlier drafts now for the most part lost. It is head 'Continuation of Winterreise' and the songs are numbered 1 - 12. With one exception, Schubert set the additional songs in the order in which they appear in Muller's final version, as the following list makes clear:



There are close links between the two song cycles (Schone Mullerin and Winterreise), and if we are to make a proper assessment of Schubert's greatness as a song-writer they should be seen as complementary. Looked at in isolation it is possible to underrate the earlier work as no more than a charming essay in popular whimsy; and it is easy to overestimate the suicidal despair of Winterreise, and to ignore the stoic resolution of its end. There is a philosophical dimension to both cycles. Together they constitute the greatest achievement in the history of song; moreover they provide us with a unique insight into the development of Schubert's own mind and art.

Both works owe their existence to Muller's gift for the short evocative lyric in what might be called the sophisticated folksong tradition, and to his invention of the narrative thread. Both acheive
their unity and their cumulative power by means of a subtle control - whether consciously exercised or not is beside the point - of pace, rhythm, Bewegung and tonality. But there are profound
differences between them. The Schone Mullerin cycle has a real, though shadowy, plot involving three principal characters, though we see them all through the eyes of the young miller. The listener is allowed to participate, in an oblique and allusive way, in the development of the drama, and the mood changes from eager expectation at the beginning to Romantic glorification of death as the only possible consummation at the end. Winterreise, on the other hand, is a wholly interior drama. There is no plot, no real change of circumstances, and little change of mood except from bitter irony to a resolute defiance. The only human figure to penetrate the close circle of despair is the pitiable hurdy-gurdy man in the last song, and he belongs to the same tribe as the Harper in Wilhelm Meister. His quarrel is not with individual wrongs, but with fate itself. This gives to the protagonist of Winterreise a stature as a Romantic hero, as the artist figure at war with society and with fate. Significantly, the definitive tragedy has happened before the cycle opens. There is no villain in the piece except the nature of things.

Beyond this, the protagonist in Winterreise is a more tragic figure than the young miller in the earlier cycle, not only because his isolation and alienation are more complete, but because he is denied
the consolation of death. At the climax of Die schone Mullerin, Trockne Blumen sounds a triumphant fanfare over the grave of the rejected lover ('Denn Blumlein alle/Heraus, heraus!/Der
Mai ist kommen/Der Winter ist aus!'). At the corresponding point in Winterreise, however, the symbolism of Das Wirtshaus is unambiguous. There is to be no place for the outcast in the
Inn of Death - 'Nun weiter denn, nur weiter,/Mein treuer anderstab!' Like Byron's Manfred, he is condemned to suffer without respite; unlike Wagner's hero, he is denied even the solace of redemption through love; his fate is a life in death, relieved only by the comradeship of the pathetic hurdy-gurdy man.

The organic unity of the cycle is largely a matter of tanility and Bewegung, though Gerald Moore, in the preface to his study of the song cycles identifies a recurrent ascending phrase. The
wanderer's footsteps echo through the cycle in a variety of guises, usually in 2/4 time and in a minor key. At the other extreme the songs of derangement and alienation, like Fruhlingstraum, Tauschung, Die Nebensonnen, Der Leiermann, are in triple time and take A major/minor as their tonal center. Another group, more static and contemplative, is based upon E major/minor. But although these tonal associations play an important part in our apprehension of the work's form, they cannot easily be reduced to a rational theme, and the fact that Schubert himself changed the key of several songs before publication makes it more difficult to find one.

[haydnguy]

'A stranger I came, a stranger I depart.' Gute Nacht sets the tone for the whole cycle, and in a sense it sets the pace too. We hear the footsteps of the wanderer throughout the song. They never falter, except momentarily as the music melts into the major for the last verse, and even there there is only a suggestion of a ritenuto, rather than a change of pace.

The verses are grouped in pairs. The switch to the major gives a magical tenderness to the last two verses, and a special pathos to the return to the minor in the postlude.

Lyrics

A stranger I came, a stranger I depart. The month of May treated me kindly, with many a flowery bouquet.

The girl spoke of love, her mother of marriage even. Now the world is drear, the way covered with snow.

I cannot choose my own time to travel. I must find my own way in this darkness.

My shadow, cast by the moon, keeps me company; and on the blanched fields I seek out the deer tracks.

Why should I linger, until they drive me away? Let the stray dogs howl at their masters' gate.

Love is a happy wanderer, for God has made it so, from one to another. Good night, sweetheart.

I will not disturb your dreams. It would be a shame to spoil your rest. You shall not hear my footsteps, as I close the door softly.

As I depart I write 'Good night' on your door, so that you may see that I thought of you.

------------------------

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRg6geGIef4"]YouTube - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - "Gute Nacht" - Die Winterreise[/ame]

[micrologus]

And in German ...

Gute Nacht

Fremd bin ich eingezogen,
Fremd zieh' ich wieder aus.
Der Mai war mir gewogen
Mit manchem Blumenstrauß.
Das Mädchen sprach von Liebe,
Die Mutter gar von Eh', -
Nun ist die Welt so trübe,
Der Weg gehüllt in Schnee.

Ich kann zu meiner Reisen
Nicht wählen mit der Zeit,
Muß selbst den Weg mir weisen
In dieser Dunkelheit.
Es zieht ein Mondenschatten
Als mein Gefährte mit,
Und auf den weißen Matten
Such' ich des Wildes Tritt.

Was soll ich länger weilen,
Daß man mich trieb hinaus?
Laß irre Hunde heulen
Vor ihres Herren Haus;
Die Liebe liebt das Wandern -
Gott hat sie so gemacht -
Von einem zu dem andern.
Fein Liebchen, gute Nacht!

Will dich im Traum nicht stören,
Wär schad' um deine Ruh',
Sollst meinen Tritt nicht hören -
Sacht, sacht die Türe zu!
[Ich schreibe nur im Gehen
An's Tor noch gute Nacht]1,
Damit du mögest sehen,
An dich hab' ich gedacht.

[Philidor]

Uploads from Despina:

Schubert, Die Winterreise, D 911 - Gute Nacht



Schubert, Die Winterreise, D 911 - Die Wetterfahne


(Hans Hotter and Gerald Moore)

[virginia]

Brilliant. The entire video of Fischer-Dieskau and Brendel is available on Netflix. Highly recommended and I'm putting it in my queue once more.

[haydnguy]

The first song is concerned with the inner drama, the wanderer's state of mind. In Die Wetterfahne he pauses on his journey, and we catch a sharp glimpse of the hostile world about him. The song is first of all a marvelous piece of tone-painting. The fitful scurrying wind, the biting cold, the empty landscape, the gyrating weather-vane are all portrayed with a kind of photographic intensity by those bare swooping unisons, wide leaps, and insistent trills. The song is full of a wild impersonal energy.

Lyrics

The wind plays with the weather-vane on my fair love's house. In my folly I thought that it mocked the wretched fugitive.

He should have noticed earlier this emblem on the house, then he would never have thought to find a faithful woman within.

Inside the house the wind plays with hearts as it does outside on the roof, though not so loudly. What do they care about my suffering? Their child is a wealthy bride.

[Despina41]

Originally Posted by SchubertGuy

Lyrics

The wind plays with the weather-vane on my fair love's house. In my folly I thought that it mocked the wretched fugitive.

He should have noticed earlier this emblem on the house, then he would never have thought to find a faithful woman within.

Inside the house the wind plays with hearts as it does outside on the roof, though not so loudly. What do they care about my suffering? Their child is a wealthy bride.

GERMAN! It's not about whether one speaks German or not - it's about better following along with the text setting.

Der Wind spielt mit der Wetterfahne
Auf meines schönen Liebchens Haus.
Da dacht ich schon in meinem Wahne,
Sie pfiff den armen Flüchtling aus.

Er hätt' es [ehr] bemerken sollen,
Des Hauses aufgestecktes Schild,
So hätt' er nimmer suchen wollen
Im Haus ein treues Frauenbild.

Der Wind spielt drinnen mit den Herzen
Wie auf dem Dach, nur nicht so laut.
Was fragen sie nach meinen Schmerzen?
Ihr Kind ist eine reiche Braut.

[haydnguy]

In the third song the traveller stirs his frozen limbs and plods on. Gefrorne Tränen links with Gute Nacht as the second of the gehende Lieder. The power of the rhythmical image, the laboured alternation of tonic and dominant, the slow staccato movement and the repeated rising notes in the pianist's left hand combine to suggest an obsessive weariness and sense of effort. But the bare unisons at the close, and the open octaves at 'Ei Tränen, meine Tränen' remind us also of Die Wetterfahne, while the more even stresses and lyrical flow of the last verse has something of a tenderness of the last verse of Gute Nacht. Already Schubert begins to weave the various strands of the drama into a satisfying pattern.

Lyrics

Frozen teardrops fall from my cheeks. Did I not notice then, that I have been weeping?

Ah tears – my tears – are you so lukewarm that you can turn to ice like the cold morning dew?

And yet you spring from the heart’s source so red-hot, as though you intended to melt all the ice of winter.

[micrologus]

In German:

Gefrorne Thränen

Gefrorne Tropfen fallen
Von meinen Wangen ab:
Und ist's mir denn entgangen,
Daß ich geweinet hab'?

Ei Thränen, meine Thränen,
Und seid ihr gar so lau,
Daß ihr erstarrt zu Eise,
Wie kühler Morgenthau?

Und dringt doch aus der Quelle
Der Brust so glühend heiß,
Als wolltet ihr zerschmelzen
Des ganzen Winters Eis.



Christophe Prégardien - Andreas Staier
Schubert, Winterreise, D 911 - Gerfrorne Tränen

[Despina41]

Wow, the Brendel-DFD is so driven. Already in Moore-Hotter it sounds like the main character is suicidal. heh, at least we might hope to get somewhere in the Reise in the B-DFD version...