Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Schubert’s Winterreise
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Schubert’s Winterreise
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Pitch
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: An Endless Winter Journey
- Part I Schubert’s Winterreise and Its Musical Heritage
- Part II Die Winterreise: Poetic Cycle
- Part III Cultural and Historical Contexts
- Part IV Winterreise: Song Cycle
- 9 Identification in Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise
- 10 Text–Music Relationships
- 11 A Winter of Poetry: Connections Among the Songs in Schubert’s Winterreise
- 12 Discontinuity in Winterreise
- Part V Winterreise After 1827
- Appendix
- Guide to Further Reading
- Index
11 - A Winter of Poetry: Connections Among the Songs in Schubert’s Winterreise
from Part IV - Winterreise: Song Cycle
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2021
- The Cambridge Companion to Schubert’s Winterreise
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Schubert’s Winterreise
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Pitch
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: An Endless Winter Journey
- Part I Schubert’s Winterreise and Its Musical Heritage
- Part II Die Winterreise: Poetic Cycle
- Part III Cultural and Historical Contexts
- Part IV Winterreise: Song Cycle
- 9 Identification in Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise
- 10 Text–Music Relationships
- 11 A Winter of Poetry: Connections Among the Songs in Schubert’s Winterreise
- 12 Discontinuity in Winterreise
- Part V Winterreise After 1827
- Appendix
- Guide to Further Reading
- Index
Summary
While impressions can be deceptive, more often than not that very deceptiveness is significant. At a surface glance, Schubert’s Winterreise (D911) might appear to the imagination as a landscape in twenty-four monochrome studies with only the dark bark of the trees and a few black strokes, representing the crows perching on them, to contrast with the ubiquitous wintry white. Yet, on further inspection, one gradually perceives variations in shades and perspective, so that each part of the whole acquires definition and can be viewed separately. Aurally, one is struck by the unremitting bleakness and severity of the ensemble, which evokes a barren expanse where the flowers of melody seem unable to grow or, if they do, are soon condemned to wither. Sheer quantity is of consequence: twelve parts may be considered and recollected individually, but confronted with double that number, perception shifts towards a more global grasp of its object.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Schubert's ‘Winterreise' , pp. 184 - 205Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021