Wilhelm Müller was a sort of A. E. Housman of his day: philologist, historian, librarian. He came from Dessau and fought in the war of independence of 1813. He left five volumes of poetry when he died at an age hardly older than Schubert was to attain. Schubert drew two song-cycles (the other is Winterreise) and two-thirds of a solo song Der Hirt auf dem Felsen ('The Sheperd on the Rock') from these volumes: in quality at least substantial component of his voluminous output of songs. The Schöne Müllerin poems had appeared in 1821 among a collection entitled 'Poems from the posthumous papers of a travelling hornplayer'. Müller himself had complained: 'Indeed, my songs lead only half a life, a paper life of black and white... till music breathes life into them, or at least calls it forth and awakens such as is already dormant in them.' And: 'If i could produce the tunes, my songs would please better than they do now. But courage! A kindred soul may be found who will hear the tunes behind the words and give them back to me.'
Schubert was a soul more kindred than any poet could have dreamed of (though it may be recalled that the first poem in this cycle was given another tune is even more popular in Germany - an nowhere near as attractive).
Müller's poems touched off in Schubert's mind the wretchedness that the stock-in-trade of an artist in his day, and also the frank mirror of his own harassed soul. It is not significant that he composed some of these songs while he was a patient in a hospital undergoing treatment for venereal disease - the treatment was successful but he could not be expected to prophesy that. He chose twenty of Müller's twenty-five poems, and set them partly in May, partly in November of 1823 (shortly before writing the opera Rosamunde). They were 'universally favoured' in his lifetime, and are often referred to by his contemporaries. Although written for a tenor voice, their range was not regarded as rigid, at least by Schubert who himself transposed three of them into baritone keys. ...
William Mann, 1960
Schubert
Die schöne Müllerin, D. 795
Liederzyklus nach Gedichte von
Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, bariton & speaker
Gerald Moore, piano
Recorded: 2-4.XII.1961, Berlin-Zehlendorf (Gemeindehaus)
Quality: mp3, varied kbps
Size: 113 MB
Die schöne Müllerin, D. 795
Liederzyklus nach Gedichte von
Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, bariton & speaker
Gerald Moore, piano
Recorded: 2-4.XII.1961, Berlin-Zehlendorf (Gemeindehaus)
Quality: mp3, varied kbps
Size: 113 MB
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