January 26, 2015.Mozart and Schubert.Two giants of classical music were born this week: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on January 27th of 1756 and Franz Schubert on January 31st of 1797.We’ve written about both of them numerous times, so to celebrate Mozart, we’ll just play his wonderful Linz symphony (no. 36).Vienna Philharmonic orchestra is conducted by Carlos Kleiber in a live 1988 performance.
On the other hand, to celebrate Schubert, we’ll publish an article by Joseph DuBose on the song cycle Die schöne Müllerin.We had a delicious problem trying to select a singer to illustrate the cycle.There are many great recordings; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore made a classic one half a century ago; another great German, the tenor Peter Schreier, made a wonderful recording in 1982.A much younger tenor, the current star Jonas Kaufmann, also recorded the cycle.Hermann Prey, Ian Bostrich, Peter Pears, Thomas Quasthoff – the list is long and distinguished.Each of these singers recorded the Müllerin with great musicality and probing interpretation, and all of them have magnificent voices.We do have a favorite recording though, one made by Fritz Wunderlich in May of 1959.Wunderlich was only 29 (just three years older than Schubert was when he wrote Die schöne Müllerin) and already in a great voice.It’s impossible not to admire his singing.Here’s the article
. ♫
Not only among Franz Schubert’s most beloved compositions, Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise firmly established the song cycle as a genre rich in possibilities, and it would be taken up by some of the greatest song composers of the following century—Schumann, Brahms and Mahler. They were not the first of their kind, however. Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte predated the composition of both of Schubert’s cycle and laid the groundwork for the importance of musical continuity across the individual songs of the cycle. Yet, it was Schubert’s cycles that were the first to be widely performed and successful.
The earlier of the two cycles, Die schöne Müllerin was largely composed between May and September 1823, while Schubert was also at work on his opera Fierrabras, and was published the following year. Schubert selected twenty poems from Wilhelm Müller’s collection, excluding among others a prologue and epilogue, to use for his cycle, yet the narrative of the cycle is unharmed. The story follows the plight of a young miller that falls hopelessly in love with a miller maid. Blissful and full of life, he takes great joy in his wanderings. His companion in his journeys is a brook, that, whether for good or evil is yet not known, leads him to a mill. While working at the mill, he becomes infatuated with the master’s daughter, and attempts to win her heart. Though he believes he has gained her affections, his hopes of happiness are ruined by the arrival of a hunter, dressed in green. Jealously rises in the young miller and he develops a fatal obsession with the color green. Finally, he loses all hope and finds only rest in the cold embrace of his faithful companion, the brook.
The narrative of Die schöne Müllerin begins with the young man’s blissful wanderings in Das Wandern ("Wanderings,"play). As he walks alongside the brook, watching its continuous journey and the ceaseless turning of the wheels of the mill, he muses that all things must move—must wander. Schubert sets Müller’s five-stanza poem in a simple strophic setting in B-flat major. The young man’s blithe approach to life is expressed in the almost folk-like characteristics of the song: a simple, unadorned melody and harmonies that hardly depart from the tonic and dominant of the key. Important, however, is the rippling accompaniment of sixteenth notes that depicts the scenic brook, one of the cycle’s three main characters. Continue
The following song, Wohin? ("Where to?,"here) is a continuation of the scene established in the first song. The young man still wanders alongside the brook, but now contemplates where it is taking him. Captivated by its song, he is unable to resist its command over his journey, and the text belies his inevitable fall by alluding to the brook’s descent. Schubert continues this song in much the same manner as the last. A rippling accompaniment, this time of sextuplets, still depicts the brook, yet its compound meter feel juxtaposed against the simple duple of the vocal melody introduces the first subtle signs of conflict into the musical narrative. The strophic setting of the first song, however, is abandoned to give greater importance to Müller’s text. In particular, the fourth stanza, when the young man asks the brook, “Ist das denn meine Straße?”(“Is this then my road?”), is heightened by a determined shift into the key of relative minor via A minor, foreshadowing the hapless lover’s fateful ending.
Halt!(here), begins almost as an immediate answer to the questioning tone of the second song. Its initial arpeggio figuration, which becomes a prominent part of the accompaniment, sounds as if taken directly from the previous song, while the introduction as a whole makes a seamless transition into the key of C major. The young man in his journey of following the brook encounters a mill, and wanders to himself if it the meaning of his wanderings. The closing line of Halt! then becomes the opening line of the fourth song, Danksagung an den Bach ("Giving Thanks to the Brook,"here). In this song comes the introduction of the cycle’s last principal character, the miller maid. The young man believes the brook has led him to her, and even questions the brook, if it was her messenger. Though returning to G major, Schubert establishes the important of this event in the young man’s journey by the sudden change to a slow tempo and a more tender expression that distances itself from the blitheness of the previous songs.
Restlessness enters the young man’s heart in the fifth song, Am Feierabend ("On the Restful Evening,"here), as he struggles to stand out among the other workers and catch the eye of the beautiful miller maid. Set against the same rippling accompaniment as before, now rendered anxious by the impetuous chords that open the song, the young man sings of his body’s inability to express his “faithful thoughts” to the maid. The chords of the introduction, sounding like the anxious throbbing of the man’s own heart, return as the accompaniment to the second stanza. However, his raging emotions subside as he finds himself sitting at evening with his fellow workers, listening to the master congratulate them all on a successful day’s work and then entranced when the maid bids them all good night. The accompaniment slowly dissolves into peaceful chords in the key of F major, with resonate fifths in the bass capturing the serenity of evening. Schubert, however, chooses to recapitulate the first stanza, returning abruptly to that turbulent music. He creates a rather profound sense of insecurity at the song’s conclusion as the turbulence is broken by the serene chords heard earlier appearing beneath the last two lines of the stanza ("dass die schöne Müllerin / merkte meinen treuen Sinn!").
The young man is now entirely captivated by the miller maid. In Der Neugierige ("Curiosity,"here), he returns to his friend, the brook, imploring it to tell him whether the maid loves him in return. Schubert’s setting of the first two stanzas is sparse, with the vocal melody accompanied only by punctuated chords, as the young man resolves to a gain an answer from the brook. The rippling accompaniment returns in the third stanza when he speaks directly to the brook. The fourth stanza is then marked by the young man’s anxiety. Fearing the answer the brook may give him—will it be "Yes" or "No?" —the music suddenly wanders away from the B major tonic into an unsettled C major. Just as deftly, Schubert returns to B major for the fifth and final stanza as the young man implores the brook once again to reveal to him the maid’s true feelings.
After these powerful songs, Schubert returns to simple strophic forms for the next three. Ungeduld ("Impatience,"here) is the young man’s expression of his love for the maid as he declares that his heart belongs to her. In A major, its sprightly triplets capture the restlessness of the man’s heart as the supple melody emphasizes the surge of life given to his actions. Then follows Morgengruss ("Morning Greetings,"here) in which the young man now sings, yet from a distance, to his beloved at first light. Schubert captures the tranquility of daybreak and the tenderness of the man’s love in this C major setting. Lastly, Des Müllers Blumen ("The Miller’s Flowers,"here) is another affectionate declaration of his love. He sings to the flowers beneath the maid’s window, enlisting their aid in his attempt to woo her, calling on them to whisper to her while she sleeps, and to remind her of the tears he will shed until they are together.
Closing out the first half of the cycle is Thränenregen ("Rain of Tears,"here). The young man finally spends an evening alone with maid as they sit next to the brook. Despite the splendor of the night, he is entranced entirely by her beauty. However, the maid remains distant, not yet returning his affections in kind. In the end, she bids an uneasy good night to the young man. Dissonant appoggiaturas capture the anxiety of the smitten lover and the tension of his quiet meeting with the maid. Yet, the brilliant motif that closes each stanza reveals the young man’s hope of still winning the maid’s heart. The setting is strophic, but Schubert alters the final stanza to appear in the minor mode to express the man’s sadness as the maid departs. As the stanza comes to a close and the piano provides a brief coda, the music begins to move back towards the major mode. However, Schubert makes a sudden move back into the minor to end the song with a dramatic sense of uncertainty.
The second half opens with the joyous Mein! ("Mine!,"here). The young miller has won the maid’s heart, and rejoices with the brook that had led him to her. Blinded by his elation, he unfortunately, however, does not realize the tenuous grasp with which he holds her affection. Nonetheless, Schubert’s setting rings out in a brilliant D major, capturing a state of heart which no ill thought can penetrate. Throughout the song, the piano provides an energetic accompaniment that is somewhat of a variation on the arpeggio motif already well-associated with the brook throughout the cycle. While atop the accompaniment, the voice sings a lively and decorated melody that captures every bit of the young man’s uncontainable joy.
Pause (here), the next song, then continues the sentiments of the previous song. The young man now looks upon his lute, an instrument that provided him with much comfort during his efforts to woo the miller maid, offering him an outlet for his intense emotions. Now, he is unable to pick it up and questions its further use to him. On the lute, there is a green ribbon—an object that will soon play an important role in the remainder of the narrative. Much of the song continues in the joyful strain of the previous, though now rendered more contented by the delicate accompanying figure established in the introduction. The music during the final stanza, however, turns more questioning and uncertain as it moves away from the tonic of B-flat major and touches upon A-flat major and even the minor mode, regaining the major just before the close.
In the strophic song, Mit dem grünen Lautenbande ("With the green lute ribbon,"here), that follows, the young man gives the green ribbon that was on his lute to the maid because it is her favorite color. He compares their love to the evergreen, and for this reason even fancies the color himself.However, this tender moment between the couple, rendered so affectionately in Schubert’s setting, soon plays its role in the hapless lover’s downfall. In the next song, Der Jäger ("The Hunter,"here), the young man’s rival, a hunter, arrives and instantly arouses his suspensions and jealousy. Cleverly, Schubert begins his setting with a fugue-like subject followed by an imitation in the octave above, a subtle reference to the original meaning of the word “fugue”—“to chase.” Likewise strophic, the song is full of anxiety, and in it the young man perhaps first realizes that the maid’s affections are perhaps not as faithful to him as he originally thought.
The young man returns to his eternal friend, the brook, in Eifersucht und Stolz ("Jealousy and Pride,"here). Confiding in its murmurings, he expresses his jealousy of the hunter and chides the miller maid for her coquetry. The rippling accompaniment of the brook returns in a greatly agitated form beneath the voice’s jealous intonations. His jealously grows even more during the succeeding song, Die liebe Farbe (“The Favorite Color,”here). The young man’s fatal fascination with the color green, the maid’s favorite color, begins to emerge. He declares that he’ll dress in green and even go hunting as he desperately tries to place himself back within the affections of the maid. However, inwardly he knows he seeks death. The music turns from agitation to despair with the song beginning in B minor with mournful appoggiaturas amidst reiterated chords. Pale and lonely repeated F-sharps persist through the entire song, making particularly poignant the despondent state of the young man’s mind.
Despair turns to animosity in Die böse Farbe ("The Hateful Color,"here). The young man fain would go out into the lonely world and leave the mill and its maid, but all he sees about him is the color green. Making his pain even more acute, he eyes the green ribbon he had given her still wound about her brow. Schubert’s setting wavers between B major and B minor, paralleling the conflicting emotions of the young man’s heart. His farewells are at one moment melancholy, expressed with a dramatic semitone in the vocal melody and agitated sextuplets in the accompaniment, then, affectionate and warm with ascents through the tonic major triad. However, no resolution or consolation is found, and it is the minor mode that brings the song to a restless close.
The young man then faces the bleakness of his reality in Trockne Blumen ("Dry Flowers,"here). He accepts that the maid no longer loves him. The flowers that she had once given him have wilted just like her affections. For the hapless lover, they are nothing but the symbol of a dead love, and all that will be left of him on the earth. Schubert’s setting opens bleakly in the key of E minor, which was foreshadowed in the fourth stanza of Wohin?, with soft chords underpinning the plaintive vocal melody. The song, however, enlivens during the final stanza. The young miller muses when all that is left of him are the pale flowers on his grave, the maid while finally know that his love was true. Modulating into the key of the tonic major, an anxious little motif in the bass propels the final stanza to an emotional climax at its final words. However, the brief coda provided by the piano draws the music back into the minor mode, ending the song with tragic resignation.
The penultimate song of the cycle, Der Müller und der Bach ("The miller and the brook,"here”) is a dialogue between the miller and his eternal friend, the brook. Having accepted his fate, he seeks within its waters consolation and rest. The miller’s song, in G minor, continues in the bleak, severe style heard at the beginning of Trockne Blumen, imparting to it the coldness of his impending death. However, the brook’s aria occurs in a warm and consoling G major, and is perhaps the most sublime music in the entire cycle. Following the brook’s sweet intonations, the miller sings once more, submitting himself to the cold, but restful slumber waiting for him. The music returns to G minor but the rippling accompaniment of the brook continues beneath his final utterance.
Then, Des Baches Wiegenlied ("The Brook’s Lullaby,"here) closes the cycle. It is the brook’s gentle lullaby as it carries away the young miller to his fate, softly lulling him into an eternal sleep. His companion throughout his ill-fated love, the brook in this final moment even rises as his protector, shooing away the “hateful girl” so that her presence may not disturb him. In E major, Schubert’s setting is strophic with a consoling vocal line atop a serene accompaniment that ever so faintly echoes the arpeggios already so associated with the brook. In addition, accented half notes sound nearly throughout the entirety of the song, like distant bells tolling for the miller’s death. Ingeniously, Schubert concludes the song in the same manner as which it began, bringing the cycle to a moving but peaceful close.
Mozart and Schubert, 2015
January 26, 2015. Mozart and Schubert. Two giants of classical music were born this week: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on January 27th of 1756 and Franz Schubert on January 31st of 1797. We’ve written about both of them numerous times, so to celebrate Mozart, we’ll just play his wonderful Linz symphony (no. 36). Vienna Philharmonic orchestra is conducted by Carlos Kleiber in a live 1988 performance.
. ♫
Not only among Franz Schubert’s most beloved compositions, Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise firmly established the song cycle as a genre rich in possibilities, and it would be taken up by some of the greatest song composers of the following century—Schumann, Brahms and Mahler. They were not the first of their kind, however. Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte predated the composition of both of Schubert’s cycle and laid the groundwork for the importance of musical continuity across the individual songs of the cycle. Yet, it was Schubert’s cycles that were the first to be widely performed and successful.
The earlier of the two cycles, Die schöne Müllerin was largely composed between May and September 1823, while Schubert was also at work on his opera Fierrabras, and was published the following year. Schubert selected twenty poems from Wilhelm Müller’s collection, excluding among others a prologue and epilogue, to use for his cycle, yet the narrative of the cycle is unharmed. The story follows the plight of a young miller that falls hopelessly in love with a miller maid. Blissful and full of life, he takes great joy in his wanderings. His companion in his journeys is a brook, that, whether for good or evil is yet not known, leads him to a mill. While working at the mill, he becomes infatuated with the master’s daughter, and attempts to win her heart. Though he believes he has gained her affections, his hopes of happiness are ruined by the arrival of a hunter, dressed in green. Jealously rises in the young miller and he develops a fatal obsession with the color green. Finally, he loses all hope and finds only rest in the cold embrace of his faithful companion, the brook.
The narrative of Die schöne Müllerin begins with the young man’s blissful wanderings in Das Wandern ("Wanderings," play). As he walks alongside the brook, watching its continuous journey and the ceaseless turning of the wheels of the mill, he muses that all things must move—must wander. Schubert sets Müller’s five-stanza poem in a simple strophic setting in B-flat major. The young man’s blithe approach to life is expressed in the almost folk-like characteristics of the song: a simple, unadorned melody and harmonies that hardly depart from the tonic and dominant of the key. Important, however, is the rippling accompaniment of sixteenth notes that depicts the scenic brook, one of the cycle’s three main characters. Continue
The following song, Wohin? ("Where to?," here) is a continuation of the scene established in the first song. The young man still wanders alongside the brook, but now contemplates where it is taking him. Captivated by its song, he is unable to resist its command over his journey, and the text belies his inevitable fall by alluding to the brook’s descent. Schubert continues this song in much the same manner as the last. A rippling accompaniment, this time of sextuplets, still depicts the brook, yet its compound meter feel juxtaposed against the simple duple of the vocal melody introduces the first subtle signs of conflict into the musical narrative. The strophic setting of the first song, however, is abandoned to give greater importance to Müller’s text. In particular, the fourth stanza, when the young man asks the brook, “Ist das denn meine Straße?” (“Is this then my road?”), is heightened by a determined shift into the key of relative minor via A minor, foreshadowing the hapless lover’s fateful ending.
Halt! (here), begins almost as an immediate answer to the questioning tone of the second song. Its initial arpeggio figuration, which becomes a prominent part of the accompaniment, sounds as if taken directly from the previous song, while the introduction as a whole makes a seamless transition into the key of C major. The young man in his journey of following the brook encounters a mill, and wanders to himself if it the meaning of his wanderings. The closing line of Halt! then becomes the opening line of the fourth song, Danksagung an den Bach ("Giving Thanks to the Brook," here). In this song comes the introduction of the cycle’s last principal character, the miller maid. The young man believes the brook has led him to her, and even questions the brook, if it was her messenger. Though returning to G major, Schubert establishes the important of this event in the young man’s journey by the sudden change to a slow tempo and a more tender expression that distances itself from the blitheness of the previous songs.
Restlessness enters the young man’s heart in the fifth song, Am Feierabend ("On the Restful Evening," here), as he struggles to stand out among the other workers and catch the eye of the beautiful miller maid. Set against the same rippling accompaniment as before, now rendered anxious by the impetuous chords that open the song, the young man sings of his body’s inability to express his “faithful thoughts” to the maid. The chords of the introduction, sounding like the anxious throbbing of the man’s own heart, return as the accompaniment to the second stanza. However, his raging emotions subside as he finds himself sitting at evening with his fellow workers, listening to the master congratulate them all on a successful day’s work and then entranced when the maid bids them all good night. The accompaniment slowly dissolves into peaceful chords in the key of F major, with resonate fifths in the bass capturing the serenity of evening. Schubert, however, chooses to recapitulate the first stanza, returning abruptly to that turbulent music. He creates a rather profound sense of insecurity at the song’s conclusion as the turbulence is broken by the serene chords heard earlier appearing beneath the last two lines of the stanza ("dass die schöne Müllerin / merkte meinen treuen Sinn!").
The young man is now entirely captivated by the miller maid. In Der Neugierige ("Curiosity," here), he returns to his friend, the brook, imploring it to tell him whether the maid loves him in return. Schubert’s setting of the first two stanzas is sparse, with the vocal melody accompanied only by punctuated chords, as the young man resolves to a gain an answer from the brook. The rippling accompaniment returns in the third stanza when he speaks directly to the brook. The fourth stanza is then marked by the young man’s anxiety. Fearing the answer the brook may give him—will it be "Yes" or "No?" —the music suddenly wanders away from the B major tonic into an unsettled C major. Just as deftly, Schubert returns to B major for the fifth and final stanza as the young man implores the brook once again to reveal to him the maid’s true feelings.
After these powerful songs, Schubert returns to simple strophic forms for the next three. Ungeduld ("Impatience," here) is the young man’s expression of his love for the maid as he declares that his heart belongs to her. In A major, its sprightly triplets capture the restlessness of the man’s heart as the supple melody emphasizes the surge of life given to his actions. Then follows Morgengruss ("Morning Greetings," here) in which the young man now sings, yet from a distance, to his beloved at first light. Schubert captures the tranquility of daybreak and the tenderness of the man’s love in this C major setting. Lastly, Des Müllers Blumen ("The Miller’s Flowers," here) is another affectionate declaration of his love. He sings to the flowers beneath the maid’s window, enlisting their aid in his attempt to woo her, calling on them to whisper to her while she sleeps, and to remind her of the tears he will shed until they are together.
Closing out the first half of the cycle is Thränenregen ("Rain of Tears," here). The young man finally spends an evening alone with maid as they sit next to the brook. Despite the splendor of the night, he is entranced entirely by her beauty. However, the maid remains distant, not yet returning his affections in kind. In the end, she bids an uneasy good night to the young man. Dissonant appoggiaturas capture the anxiety of the smitten lover and the tension of his quiet meeting with the maid. Yet, the brilliant motif that closes each stanza reveals the young man’s hope of still winning the maid’s heart. The setting is strophic, but Schubert alters the final stanza to appear in the minor mode to express the man’s sadness as the maid departs. As the stanza comes to a close and the piano provides a brief coda, the music begins to move back towards the major mode. However, Schubert makes a sudden move back into the minor to end the song with a dramatic sense of uncertainty.
The second half opens with the joyous Mein! ("Mine!," here). The young miller has won the maid’s heart, and rejoices with the brook that had led him to her. Blinded by his elation, he unfortunately, however, does not realize the tenuous grasp with which he holds her affection. Nonetheless, Schubert’s setting rings out in a brilliant D major, capturing a state of heart which no ill thought can penetrate. Throughout the song, the piano provides an energetic accompaniment that is somewhat of a variation on the arpeggio motif already well-associated with the brook throughout the cycle. While atop the accompaniment, the voice sings a lively and decorated melody that captures every bit of the young man’s uncontainable joy.
Pause (here), the next song, then continues the sentiments of the previous song. The young man now looks upon his lute, an instrument that provided him with much comfort during his efforts to woo the miller maid, offering him an outlet for his intense emotions. Now, he is unable to pick it up and questions its further use to him. On the lute, there is a green ribbon—an object that will soon play an important role in the remainder of the narrative. Much of the song continues in the joyful strain of the previous, though now rendered more contented by the delicate accompanying figure established in the introduction. The music during the final stanza, however, turns more questioning and uncertain as it moves away from the tonic of B-flat major and touches upon A-flat major and even the minor mode, regaining the major just before the close.
In the strophic song, Mit dem grünen Lautenbande ("With the green lute ribbon," here), that follows, the young man gives the green ribbon that was on his lute to the maid because it is her favorite color. He compares their love to the evergreen, and for this reason even fancies the color himself. However, this tender moment between the couple, rendered so affectionately in Schubert’s setting, soon plays its role in the hapless lover’s downfall. In the next song, Der Jäger ("The Hunter," here), the young man’s rival, a hunter, arrives and instantly arouses his suspensions and jealousy. Cleverly, Schubert begins his setting with a fugue-like subject followed by an imitation in the octave above, a subtle reference to the original meaning of the word “fugue”—“to chase.” Likewise strophic, the song is full of anxiety, and in it the young man perhaps first realizes that the maid’s affections are perhaps not as faithful to him as he originally thought.
The young man returns to his eternal friend, the brook, in Eifersucht und Stolz ("Jealousy and Pride," here). Confiding in its murmurings, he expresses his jealousy of the hunter and chides the miller maid for her coquetry. The rippling accompaniment of the brook returns in a greatly agitated form beneath the voice’s jealous intonations. His jealously grows even more during the succeeding song, Die liebe Farbe (“The Favorite Color,” here). The young man’s fatal fascination with the color green, the maid’s favorite color, begins to emerge. He declares that he’ll dress in green and even go hunting as he desperately tries to place himself back within the affections of the maid. However, inwardly he knows he seeks death. The music turns from agitation to despair with the song beginning in B minor with mournful appoggiaturas amidst reiterated chords. Pale and lonely repeated F-sharps persist through the entire song, making particularly poignant the despondent state of the young man’s mind.
Despair turns to animosity in Die böse Farbe ("The Hateful Color," here). The young man fain would go out into the lonely world and leave the mill and its maid, but all he sees about him is the color green. Making his pain even more acute, he eyes the green ribbon he had given her still wound about her brow. Schubert’s setting wavers between B major and B minor, paralleling the conflicting emotions of the young man’s heart. His farewells are at one moment melancholy, expressed with a dramatic semitone in the vocal melody and agitated sextuplets in the accompaniment, then, affectionate and warm with ascents through the tonic major triad. However, no resolution or consolation is found, and it is the minor mode that brings the song to a restless close.
The young man then faces the bleakness of his reality in Trockne Blumen ("Dry Flowers," here). He accepts that the maid no longer loves him. The flowers that she had once given him have wilted just like her affections. For the hapless lover, they are nothing but the symbol of a dead love, and all that will be left of him on the earth. Schubert’s setting opens bleakly in the key of E minor, which was foreshadowed in the fourth stanza of Wohin?, with soft chords underpinning the plaintive vocal melody. The song, however, enlivens during the final stanza. The young miller muses when all that is left of him are the pale flowers on his grave, the maid while finally know that his love was true. Modulating into the key of the tonic major, an anxious little motif in the bass propels the final stanza to an emotional climax at its final words. However, the brief coda provided by the piano draws the music back into the minor mode, ending the song with tragic resignation.
The penultimate song of the cycle, Der Müller und der Bach ("The miller and the brook," here”) is a dialogue between the miller and his eternal friend, the brook. Having accepted his fate, he seeks within its waters consolation and rest. The miller’s song, in G minor, continues in the bleak, severe style heard at the beginning of Trockne Blumen, imparting to it the coldness of his impending death. However, the brook’s aria occurs in a warm and consoling G major, and is perhaps the most sublime music in the entire cycle. Following the brook’s sweet intonations, the miller sings once more, submitting himself to the cold, but restful slumber waiting for him. The music returns to G minor but the rippling accompaniment of the brook continues beneath his final utterance.
Then, Des Baches Wiegenlied ("The Brook’s Lullaby," here) closes the cycle. It is the brook’s gentle lullaby as it carries away the young miller to his fate, softly lulling him into an eternal sleep. His companion throughout his ill-fated love, the brook in this final moment even rises as his protector, shooing away the “hateful girl” so that her presence may not disturb him. In E major, Schubert’s setting is strophic with a consoling vocal line atop a serene accompaniment that ever so faintly echoes the arpeggios already so associated with the brook. In addition, accented half notes sound nearly throughout the entirety of the song, like distant bells tolling for the miller’s death. Ingeniously, Schubert concludes the song in the same manner as which it began, bringing the cycle to a moving but peaceful close.