Die schöne Müllerin D 795 (1823)

Das Wandern - Wohin? - Halt - Danksagung an den Bach -

Am Feierabend - Der Neugierige - Ungeduld - Morgengruss -

Des Müllers Blumen - Tränenregen - Mein! - Pause -

Mit dem grünen Lautenbande - Der Jäger - Eifersucht und Stolz -

Die liebe Farbe - Die böse Farbe - Trockne Blumen -

Der Müller und der Bach - Des Baches Wiegenlied

The central figure of Die schöne Müllerin is, obviously, the journeyman miller - who meets a beautiful miller girl, falls in love with her, believes she loves him in return, finds himself ousted from her affections by an intrusive huntsman and drowns himself. The principal protagonist, on the other hand, is none of those characters: it is the mill stream, which motivates both the young miller, as he surrenders himself to its influence, and the music of much of the cycle. In the opening song, Das Wandern, the miller identifies himself with the stream, which at this stage runs in harmonically static arpeggios in the piano part. In Wohin?, on the other hand, in a different key and a slightly different rhythm, the running arpeggios lead through a harmonically varying landscape and he follows as though he had no will of his own. The stream continues to run in the next two songs, meeting the mill wheel in Halt and flowing in serene calm in Danksagung an den Bach, as the miller again entrusts himself to what he believes to be its benevolent guaidance.

As the relationship between the miller and the miller girl develops, the stream recedes into the background. It is still there in Der Neugerige, cautiously questioned by the lovesick miller, but is not heard again until Thränenregen, where its characteristic figuration sets the water-side scene in two short piano interludes. In Mein! he bids it be quiet, to make way for his own triumphant song. In Pause there is a new sound, the breeze blowing on the strings of the miller’s abandoned lute, and in Mit dem grünen Lautenbande a new colour as the miller girl declares her love for all things green. The galloping rhythms of Der Jäger ride roughshod over the miller’s dreams, reversing his fortunes in one brief intervention. From now on the stream is his only companion, its figuration urgently recalled to carry the brave message of Eifersucht und Stolz. After the irony of Die liebe Farbe, the despair of Die böse Farbe and the pathos of Trockne Blumen, in Der Müller und der Bach the stream offers consolation to the miller who, inconsolable, knows he will find peace only in its cool depths. The stream, now as calm as a mill pond, has the valedictory last word.