Schubert, Die schöne Müllerin, Part 1: "Die liebe Farbe"

Hello! 


After a massive hiatus in which I completed all of the requirements for my degree (huzzah), I've decided to return to blogging! Did it really take me a year and two months to realize how cathartic blogging was? Or am I simply a starving college student who can't find much time on his hands? Or, none of the above?


I'd like to start this comeback by discussing a piece I'm working on right now; Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin. A blog entry for this whole song cycle would surely take a long time, so I'm going to dissect just two selections; "Die liebe Farbe" and "Die böse Farbe", meaning "The Beloved Color" and "The Evil Color", respectively. 


This first post will cover "Die liebe Farbe", and the next will cover "Die böse Farbe". It's a two-fer...kind of?


Especially for a song cycle that is as well-known and revered as Die schöne Müllerin is, I think a bit of back-story is needed to get a good idea of the pieces we're looking at. A cycle of 20 songs, the set follows a young miller, who finds a brook early in the piece. He follows the brook upstream to a mill-house, and begins to work there. He falls in love with the daughter of his employer, and employs various tactics to win her love. Eventually, he believes himself victorious in his courtship of the young girl, but the young girl seems to take great interest in a green band that she has. This troubles the miller given that, in Germany, green is the color that represents hunters, while white represents millers. Sure enough, a hunter begins to come around the mill, and the girl starts to pay more attention to the hunter. The miller, shocked by the girl's desire for the hunter, begins to undergo a mental collapse, first simply exhibiting signs of jealously, and then by obsessing over the color green. It is at this point in the story that "Die liebe Farbe" and "Die böse Farbe" appear. 


Here is a great YouTube video of the incomparable tenor Fritz Wunderlich singing "Die liebe Farbe", with Hubert Giesen at the piano.

Below is the translation for "Die liebe Farbe", courtesy of recmusic.com.

In Grün will ich mich kleiden,                                 In green will I dress,

In grüne Tränenweiden:                                           In green weeping willows;

Mein Schatz hat's Grün so gern.                            My sweetheart is so fond of green.

Will suchen einen Zypressenhain,                         I'll look for a thicket of cypresses,

Eine Heide von grünen Rosmarein:                       A hedge of green rosemary;

Mein Schatz hat's Grün so gern.                           My sweetheart is so fond of green.

Wohlauf zum fröhlichen Jagen!                             Away to the joyous hunt!

Wohlauf durch Heid' und Hagen!                          Away through heath and hedge!

Mein Schatz hat's Jagen so gern.                         My sweetheart is so fond of hunting.

Das Wild, das ich jage, das ist der Tod;               The beast that I hunt is Death;

Die Heide, die heiß ich die Liebesnot:                 The heath is what I call the grief of love.

Mein Schatz hat's Jagen so gern.                        My sweetheart is so fond of hunting.

Grabt mir ein Grab im Wasen,                               Dig me a grave in the turf,

Deckt mich mit grünem Rasen:                            Cover me with green grass:

Mein Schatz hat's Grün so gern.                          My sweetheart is so fond of green.

Kein Kreuzlein schwarz, kein Blümlein bunt,     No black cross, no colorful flowers,

Grün, alles grün so rings und rund!                      Green, everything green all around!

Mein Schatz hat's Grün so gern.                          My sweetheart is so fond of green.

The score I use to analyze the text can be found here:

http://erato.uvt.nl/files/imglnks/usimg/f/f6/IMSLP03233-Schubert_dsm_em.pdf

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Holy emotionally dense text!

In this post, I hope to explore aspects of mental instability as conveyed by the text and by Schubert's setting of the text.

Now if my wits are about me, and they usually are (mostly), I would guess that Schubert would try to represent the color green using some kind of compositional technique; maybe a motive? A repeated note? Both?

Yes, both! In the above except from the first part of all three strophes, it's easy to see that

Schubert repeats an F# constantly, and uses a rhythmic pattern at the pulse-level of the 

piece, also at a constant rate. Schubert repeats the note even if it causes blatant 

dissonance, such as in the fourth and fifth measures of the above excerpt

(E natural and G natural). 

Given that the text suggests that the miller begins to obsess about the color green, not to 

mention that in the two pieces being analyzed, green is called "beloved" and "hated", 

it is, at the very least, safe to suggest that 

F# represents the color green in Die schöne Müllerin.

Now, along the lines of harmonic analysis, the piece begins solidly set in B minor, with 

brief tonicizations of F# major. However, in the sections of the piece where "Mein Schatz 

hat's Grün/Jagen so gern" appears, there is a brief yet striking modulation to B major, the 

parallel major. What makes this shift so striking is its immediate modulation back to B 

minor only a measure after it first changed. Not only that, but it shifts back on the 

repetition of the same text as when it modulated at first ("Mein Schatz hat's Grün/Jagen 

so gern"). 

Considering the visceral nature of the work as a whole, this sudden harmonic change

could represent the miller's parting with reality. This is also paired with the omnipresent F# 

in the right hand of the piano, which seems to hammer away at the miller's rationality and 

sanity.

One last aspect of the piece that is worth examining is the descant-like countermelody in 

the left hand of the piano, which can be seen below;

Obviously, Schubert needed to counter the repeated F# with some kind of harmonic 

material, but why this specific countermelody? I think that the key to understanding this 

lies in the counterpoint between the countermelody and the actual melody, specifically 

the fact that the countermelody, at most times, harmonizes directly with the melody in 

thirds. However, this harmonization often conflicts with the repeated F#, such as the 

before-mentioned dissonances in the fourth and fifth measures of the first excerpt. 

Now, here is a bold statement; I believe that the melody represents the world/situation as 

the miller sees it, the countermelody represents reality, and the repeated F# represents 

how reality affects the miller. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding! The pudding, in this

case, is the relationship between melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic material, which makes 

for a very tasty pudding.

As it has been in the past, I don't analyze pieces completely, so if you see more 

interesting material to comment on, please post it in the comments section! Next time, I'll 

be continuing my analysis with "Die böse Farbe", while maintaining a lens of searching 

for structures of emotional and mental instability.

Best wishes for the end of the academic year!