Die schöne Müllerin (The Maid of the Mill)

[virginia]

IMO, Fischer-Dieskau's reading of the poems that Schubert did not set -- and which are included on the Bostridge recording of Muellerin -- are as much a work of art as DFD's singing itself. As opposed to Bostridge's singing, which I find almost unlistenable. I realize I am in a minority of roughly one on the latter.

You don't have to understand a word of German to realize what great art DFD is creating. I like it so much that I have spliced his recitations into several other recordings of Muellerin that I have.

A very good guide to Muellerin is Susan Youens's handbook in the Cambridge Music series; quite affordable and very instructive.

Virginia

[haydnguy]

I agree with you on DFD's recitation at the beginning. You've peaked my curiosity and I'm going to go back and listen to Bostridge a little later today to see how he sounds. I have several versions of this and will listen and decide which I prefer. Will let you know and see if our's are the same.

[haydnguy]

EDIT: Re-post with track.



The Poet's Prologue

Fair ladies, wise gentlemen,
and all who enjoy a good spectacle,

I invite you to a brand-new entertainment
in an absolutely brand-new style.
Simply fashioned, artlessly arranged,
adorned with noble German simplicity,
as jaunty as a lad with his lover's bouquet;
and there's also a little pious humility for the audience.
For me that's enough of a recommendation;
if you too like the sound of it, then come in.

As it's wintertime I expect
you won't regret a brief hour here in the countryside;

for just let me say that in my song today
spring blooms with all its flowers.
The impromptu action takes place outside,
in the fresh air, far from city gates,
through the woods and fields, in the hills and valleys.
And whatever can happen between four walls
you'll half see through the open window;
thus Art is satisfied, and you too.

Yet if you ask about the characters in the play

I must lament for the Muses: I can
really and truly present to you but one,
a young, blond miller's lad.
For, though the brook also speaks at the end,
this doesn't make a brook into a character.
So today you must make do with a one-man drama.

He who gives more than he has is a thief.

The set, too, is richly decorated,
carpeted with green velvet,
colourfully embroidered with a thousand flowers,
with road and path marked out over them.
The sun shines down brightly
and refracts its light and dew and in tears;
and the moon, too looks out from the veil of cloud,
melancholy, as fashion demands.

The background is wreathed in tall woods;
a dog barks, a hunting-horn rings out cheerfully;
the mill-wheel roars, the machinery rattles,

and you can hardly hear the birds in the nearby grove.

So if you find many of these ditties too rough-and ready,

bear in mind that this goes with the setting.
But the fairest thing about these wheels
my solo actor will reveal.
If I were to give it away, it would spoil his play.
Farewell, and enjoy yourselves.

[ame]http://www.classicalmusicforum.net/music/01-Die-schone-Mullerin.mp3[/ame]

[haydnguy]

Müller's title for this poem was Wanderschaft ('Wanderings').

The most extended strophic songs in the cycle are the first and the last, each with five verses. Here the effect is to establish the association with folksong at the very beginning, as though to distance the events of the cycle from real life. The young miller sets out on his travels with a spring in his step, and the sky seems to be unclouded. The brisk, steady movement is the essence of the song; it acts as a point of reference throughout the cycle. And it is worth noting that although it embodies the ideas of a walking pace with the precision we expect from Schubert, it is not merely an imitation of that pace, for at two beats to the bar it is too slow to walk to, and at four beats too fast. The symmetrical four-bar patterns are also more complicated than they seem. The stresses vary from bar to bar, so that the stress at the beginning of bar 2 is the strongest of the first two bars, while the heaviest accent of all in the four-bar prelude falls at the beginning of bar 4. The rhythmical counterpoint is designed to suggest the idea of the mill's unceasing chatter, without monotony.

Lyrics

Das Wandern


Das Wandern ist des Müllers Lust,
Das Wandern!
Das muß ein schlechter Müller sein,
Dem niemals fiel das Wandern ein,
Das Wandern.

Vom Wasser haben wir's gelernt,
Vom Wasser!
Das hat nicht Rast bei Tag und Nacht,
Ist stets auf Wanderschaft bedacht,
Das Wasser.

Das sehn wir auch den Rädern ab,
Den Rädern!
Die gar nicht gerne stille stehn,
Die sich mein Tag nicht müde drehn,
Die Räder.

Die Steine selbst, so schwer sie sind,
Die Steine!
Sie tanzen mit den muntern Reihn
Und wollen gar noch schneller sein,
Die Steine.

O Wandern, Wandern, meine Lust,
O Wandern!
Herr Meister und Frau Meisterin,
Laßt mich in Frieden weiterziehn
Und wandern.


[ame]http://www.classicalmusicforum.net/music/02-Die-schone-Mullerin.mp3[/ame]


Wandering


Wandering is the miller's joy,
Wandering!
He must be a miserable miller,
Who never likes to wander.
Wandering!

We've learned this from the water,
From the water!
It does not rest by day or night,
It's always thinking of its journey,
The water.

We see this also with the wheels,
With the wheels!
They don't like to stand still,
And turn all day without tiring.
With the wheels.

The stones themselves, heavy though they are,
The stones!
They join in the cheerful dance,
And want to go yet faster.
The stones!

Oh, wandering, wandering, my joy,
Oh, wandering!
Oh, Master and Mistress,
Let me continue in peace,
And wander!

[Despina41]

Originally Posted by virginia

As opposed to Bostridge's singing, which I find almost unlistenable. I realize I am in a minority of roughly one on the latter.

Dear virginia,

Maybe the minority is at least one and a half. I don't hate Bostridge, but I find his singing only to be suited to certain repetoire, ie. whiney, quiet repertoire. And within THAT repertoire (many Lieder included) there are usually better performances from the old school, like, as you say, DFD. In fact, I can't think of any piece where Bostridge is my go-to guy. Usually I hear him and think, "that's nice." I know it's just not my prejudice against tenors. Wunderlich can make any Lied amazing, at least while you're listening. But maybe that's like saying, "I guess Beethoven was a pretty good composer - he sure puts that Spohr guy to shame." At any rate, I'm willing to be convinced that Bostridge's art is profound as everyone seems to think. I went to a song concert of his, which was good!, but I think I was distracted by the worry that he might keel over and die of undernurishment at any moment. I guess that's Bostridge for me: good! but not overwhelmingly so.

So don't feel bad if you think DFD is better. He is.

Sincerely,
Despy

[haydnguy]

Wohin! is a favorite with recitalists as a seperate song; its greatness is beyond challenge. Halt!, on the other hand, seems to belong entirely within the cycle, though it has the same on-running style and freedom of form. Both songs gain, however, from being heard in context, for the musical and psychological links between these first four songs are very close.

Wohin? introduces us to the other protagonist in the story, the mill-stream, which holds within itself the key to the solution of the drama. Müller's words hint at tragic possibilities, especially at the mention of the water-nymphs dancing tief unten('far below') and the stress given to the word hinunter at the beginning, but Schubert's music flows unconcernedly along in this loveliest of all his stream-songs.

The song is a seamless robe, and it defies analysis. The first two pages have the feel of a strophic song; and it is easy to identify a a roughly tripartite form, the outer sections in the tonic, and the middle section moving towards the dominant by way of E minor, and back again. But the song flows on as uninterruptedly as the stream. Everything grows from the initial keyboard figure and the opening melodic sentence. The mill-stream holds the secret of the young miller's fate, and it's music is to sound throughout the cycle, as the long held D at the end of the song suggests.

Wohin?


Ich hört' ein Bächlein rauschen
Wohl aus dem Felsenquell,
Hinab zum Tale rauschen
So frisch und wunderhell.

Ich weiß nicht, wie mir wurde,
Nicht, wer den Rat mir gab,
Ich mußte auch hinunter
Mit meinem Wanderstab.

Hinunter und immer weiter
Und immer dem Bache nach,
Und immer frischer rauschte
Und immer heller der Bach.

Ist das denn meine Straße?
O Bächlein, sprich, wohin?
Du hast mit deinem Rauschen
Mir ganz berauscht den Sinn.

Was sag' ich denn vom Rauschen?
Das kann kein Rauschen sein:
Es singen wohl die Nixen
Tief unten ihren Reihn.

Laß singen, Gesell, laß rauschen
Und wandre fröhlich nach!
Es gehn ja Mühlenräder
In jedem klaren Bach.



[ame]http://www.classicalmusicforum.net/music/03-Die-schone-Mullerin.mp3[/ame]



Where to?


I hear a brooklet rushing
Right out of the rock's spring,
Down there to the valley it rushes,
So fresh and wondrously bright.

I know not, how I felt this,
Nor did I know who gave me advice;
I must go down
With my wanderer's staff.

Down and always farther,
And always the brook follows after;
And always rushing crisply,
And always bright is the brook.

Is this then my road?
O, brooklet, speak! Where to?
You have with your rushing
Entirely intoxicated my senses.

But why do I speak of rushing?
That can't really be rushing:
Perhaps the water-nymphs
are singing rounds down there in the deep.

Let it sing, my friend, let it rush,
And wander joyously after!
Mill-wheels turn
In each clear brook.

Halt! is built on the twin motifs presented in the prelude: the sforzando arpeggio figure which traverses a sixth up and down again, which symbolizes the clack of the mill-wheel, and the flowing semiquavers in the pianist's right hand. The leaping phrases on the repeated words 'wie helle vom Himmel sie scheint' are the climax of the song, and there is a touch of foreboding in the last line, 'is that what you mean...?'

Halt!


Eine Mühle seh ich blinken
Aus den Erlen heraus,
Durch Rauschen und Singen
Bricht Rädergebraus.

Ei willkommen, ei willkommen,
Süßer Mühlengesang!
Und das Haus, wie so traulich!
Und die Fenster, wie blank!

Und die Sonne, wie helle
Vom Himmel sie scheint!
Ei, Bächlein, liebes Bächlein,
War es also gemeint?



[ame]http://www.classicalmusicforum.net/music/04-Die-schone-Mullerin.mp3[/ame]



Halt!

I see a mill looking
Out from the alders;
Through the roaring and singing
Bursts the clatter of wheels.

Hey, welcome, welcome!
Sweet mill-song!
And the house, so comfortable!
And the windows, how clean!

And the sun, how brightly
it shines from Heaven!
Hey, brooklet, dear brook,
Was this, then, what you meant?

[haydnguy]

A change of pace, and of mood, Up to this point the young miller has been presented as eager, even lighthearted, and outward-looking. Here the movement is slowed for the first time (Etwas langsam) and the drama turns inward. The song links up with Wohin? and Der Müller und der Bach - all in G major - to form a trilogy which holds the key to this drama. The young man's fate lies in the hands of the mill-stream, not the miller's daughter. It is the human situation which is at issue in Schubert's cycle, not a rustic romance in fancy dress. By analogy in bar 7, the singer's third quaver in bar 35 should be G, not F sharp.

Danksagung an den Bach


War es also gemeint,
Mein rauschender Freund?
Dein Singen, dein Klingen,
War es also gemeint?

Zur Müllerin hin!
So lautet der Sinn.
Gelt, hab' ich's verstanden?
Zur Müllerin hin!

Hat sie dich geschickt?
Oder hast mich berückt?
Das möcht ich noch wissen,
Ob sie dich geschickt.

Nun wie's auch mag sein,
Ich gebe mich drein:
Was ich such', hab' ich funden,
Wie's immer mag sein.

Nach Arbeit ich frug,
Nun hab ich genug
Für die Hände, fürs Herze
Vollauf genug!



[ame]http://www.classicalmusicforum.net/music/05-Die-schone-Mullerin.mp3[/ame]



Giving Thanks to the Brook

Was this, then, what you meant,
My rushing friend?
Your singing and your ringing?
Was this what you meant?

To the Millermaid!
it seems to say...
Have I understood?
To the Millermaid!

Has she sent you?
Or am I deluding myself?
I would like to know,
Whether she has sent you.

Now, however it may be,
I commit myself!
What I sought, I have found.
However it may be.

After work I ask,
Now have I enough
for my hands and my heart?
Completely enough!

[haydnguy]

The first four songs have set the scene - the young miller, the mill-stream, the mill and the maid. Am Feierabend involves us more deeply in the psychological drama. Yet the beginning of the song suggests that like Halt!, it will present another picture of the busy mill, so aptly do the percussive quaver chords and the on-running semiquavers portray its noisy beams and wheels. This time, however, Schubert has a different purpose in mind, and the break in the rhythm at bar 46 calls our attention to the inner dream. This quasi-recitative middle section conveys exactly the casual matter-of-factness of the miller's commendation and the girl's goodnight. Schubert then repeats the first verse, so as to emphasize the contrast between the busy workaday world of the mill and the young man's aspirations. At the end the rushing wheels sound only fitfully and menacingly.

Am Feierabend

Hätt ich tausend
Arme zu rühren!
Könnt ich brausend
Die Räder führen!
Könnt ich wehen
Durch alle Haine!
Könnt ich drehen
Alle Steine!
Daß die schöne Müllerin
Merkte meinen treuen Sinn!

Ach, wie ist mein Arm so schwach!
Was ich hebe, was ich trage,
Was ich schneide, was ich schlage,
Jeder Knappe tut mir's nach.
Und da sitz ich in der großen Runde,
In der stillen kühlen Feierstunde,
Und der Meister spricht zu allen:
Euer Werk hat mir gefallen;
Und das liebe Mädchen sagt
Allen eine gute Nacht.



[ame]http://www.classicalmusicforum.net/music/06-Die-schone-Mullerin.mp3[/ame]



On the restful evening

If only I had a thousand
arms to move!
I could loudly
drive the wheels!
I could blow
Through all the groves!
I could turn
All the stones!
If only the beautiful Millermaid
Would notice my faithful thoughts!

Ah, why is my arm so weak?
What I lift, what I carry,
What I cut, what I beat,
Every lad does it just as well as I do.
And there I sit in the great gathering,
In the quiet, cool hour of rest,
And the master speaks to us all:
Your work has pleased me;
And the lovely maiden says
"Good night" to everyone.

[haydnguy]

The problem of reconciling the dramatic force of recitative with the unity of mood of the true lied had occupied Schubert since his earliest years. In Erlkönig, and Schmidt's Wanderer, he had shown early in his career how the solo cantata could be revivified by giving it the organic unity of the lyric. But the reverse problem, how to bring the dramatic force of recitative within the compass of the lied, was to take him longer.

In Der Neugierige that problem is triumphantly solved. In the opening B major sections the singer seems to be communing with himself, the music has the flow, the Innigkeit, of a serenade to the mill-stream. But suddenly at verse 4, we switch into close-up. The even flow of semiquavers is arrested; the focus is changed; we hear a kind of musical direct speech as the accompaniment slips up a semitone into G major(the flattened sixth again) and there follows a magical passage in a different rhythm (actually 2/4, although it is still noted as 3/4) which sharply delineates the young man's bewilderment and uncertainty. But though this passage is, in a sense, an interruption, it remains firmly in the lyrical context of the song. The song is a wonderful demonstration of Schubert's power to give psychological depth and perspective to the lied.

Here follows in Müller's original cycle a poem called Das Mühlenleben('The Life of the Mill'), which Schubert omitted. Its length(eleven verses) disqualifies it, and it adds little to what has gone before.

Der Neugierige

Ich frage keine Blume,
Ich frage keinen Stern,
Sie können mir [alle]1 nicht sagen,
Was ich erführ so gern.

Ich bin ja auch kein Gärtner,
Die Sterne stehn zu hoch;
Mein Bächlein will ich fragen,
Ob mich mein Herz belog.

O Bächlein meiner Liebe,
Wie bist du heut so stumm?
Will ja nur eines wissen,
Ein Wörtchen um und um.

Ja heißt das eine Wörtchen,
Das andre heißet Nein,
Die beiden Wörtchen
Schließen die ganze Welt mir ein.

O Bächlein meiner Liebe,
Was bist du wunderlich!
Will's ja nicht weitersagen,
Sag, Bächlein, liebt sie mich?



[ame]http://www.classicalmusicforum.net/music/07-Die-schone-Mullerin.mp3[/ame]



Curiosity

I ask no flower,
I ask no star;
None of them can tell me,
What I so eagerly want to know.

I am surely not a gardener,
The stars stand too high;
My brooklet will I ask,
Whether my heart has lied to me.

O brooklet of my love,
Why are you so quiet today?
I want to know just one thing -
One little word again and again.

The one little word is "Yes";
The other is "No",
Both these little words
Make up the entire world to me.

O brooklet of my love,
Why are you so strange?
I'll surely not repeat it;
Tell me, o brooklet, does she love me?

[haydnguy]

An autograph fair copy, transposted to F major, until recently in private possession in Vienna, is now missing. It was made for Schönstein, probably at Zseliz in 1824.

Ungeduld is the first genuinely strophic song in the cycle after Das Wandern, and perhaps the best-known of them all. But so far from being a return to a more primitive design, it is in its way as much a miracle of subtle form as Der Neugierige. The young man's impatient ardor is expressed by a sort of rhythmic dislocation, so that the voice seems always to be a beat ahead of the piano. (This can in fact be easily demonstrated by omitting the third beat of the accompaniment in bar 9, when the harmonic arrival points will coincide, though the song will lose its dramatic urgency.) This sense that voice and piano are out of phase persists until the climax of the verse, when the rhythmic ambiguity is resolved, voice and piano join forces, and the clinching phrase - Dein ist mein Herz - is given an emphasis that makes it every tenor's joy and pride

Ungeduld


Ich schnitt es gern in alle Rinden ein,
Ich grüb es gern in jeden Kieselstein,
Ich möcht es sä'n auf jedes frische Beet
Mit Kressensamen, der es schnell verrät,
Auf jeden weißen Zettel möcht ich's schreiben:
Dein ist mein Herz und soll es ewig bleiben.

Ich möcht mir ziehen einen jungen Star,
Bis daß er spräch die Worte rein und klar,
Bis er sie spräch mit meines Mundes Klang,
Mit meines Herzens vollem, heißem Drang;
Dann säng er hell durch ihre Fensterscheiben:
Dein ist mein Herz und soll es ewig bleiben.

Den Morgenwinden möcht ich's hauchen ein,
Ich möcht es säuseln durch den regen Hain;
Oh, leuchtet' es aus jedem Blumenstern!
Trüg es der Duft zu ihr von nah und fern!
Ihr Wogen, könnt ihr nichts als Räder treiben?
Dein ist mein Herz und soll es ewig bleiben.

Ich meint, es müßt in meinen Augen stehn,
Auf meinen Wangen müßt man's brennen sehn,
Zu lesen wär's auf meinem stummen Mund,
Ein jeder Atemzug gäb's laut ihr kund,
Und sie merkt nichts von all dem bangen Treiben:
Dein ist mein Herz und soll es ewig bleiben.



[ame]http://www.classicalmusicforum.net/music/08-Die-schone-Mullerin.mp3[/ame]



Impatience


I would carve it fondly in the bark of trees,
I would chisel it eagerly into each pebble,
I would like to sow it upon each fresh flower-bed
With water-cress seeds, which it would quickly disclose;
Upon each white piece of paper would I write:
Yours is my heart and so shall it remain forever.

I would like to raise a young starling,
Until he speaks to me in words pure and clear,
Until he speaks to me with my mouth's sound,
With my heart's full, warm urge;
Then he would sing brightly through her windowpanes:
Yours is my heart and so shall it remain forever!

I would like to breath it into the morning breezes,
I would like to whisper it through the active grove;
Oh, if only it would shine from each flower-star!
Would it only carry the scent to her from near and far!
You waves, could you nothing but wheels drive?
Yours is my heart, and so shall it remain forever.

I thought, it must be visible in my eyes,
On my cheeks it must be seen that it burns;
It must be readable on my mute lips,
Every breath would make it loudly known to her,
And yet she notices nothing of all my yearning feelings.
Yours is my heart, and so shall it remain forever.