Analysis Of Schubert's Poem From Winterreise

Schubert’s No. 11 Frühlingstraum from Winterreise

Hello friends, and welcome to my blog! Today, I will be sharing with you guys a really nice art song by romantic composer, Franz Schubert.

Schubert’s Winterreise (Winter Journey), published in 1828, is a song cycle of 24 movements for voice and piano. The songs were based on poems written by German poet, Wilhelm Muller and is the second song cycle Schubert composed based on Muller’s poems. Winterreise was written in two parts and is about a heartbroken man. Schubert composed Winterreise while he was dying of syphilis and the darkness and melancholy is prevalent throughout the song cycle. Schubert died in 1828, the same year that Winterreise was published.

The text in Fruhlingstraum speaks

After the third section, C, the whole piece is repeated, starting with section A, albeit with different lyrics. The piece ends with section C. Basically, the structure is ABCABC. The piece is repetitive but maintains listener’s interest through the dramatic dynamics and different characters of the section.

Fruhlingstraum begins in the key of A major in the A section. It modulates to A minor in the B section in bar 15, which is the parallel minor of A major. The piece modulates back to A major in bar 28 for the C section. The piece yet again modulates during the C section in bar 37 to A major’s parallel minor, F# sharp minor, before modulating back to A major for the repeat in bar 45.

The accompaniment and harmonies in Fruhlingstraum are varied between each section. In the A section, the accompaniment is in pianissimo and is meant to played etwas bewegt or somewhat with movement. Most of the harmonies in this section are diatonic and functional. The piece begins with a E major arpeggio in its first inversion, or a V6 chord. Most of the accompaniment in the A section consists of arpeggios in the right hand, with a chord in the left hand played on the first beat. This continues throughout the A section. The accompaniment is consistent and a driving force. It is meant to depict the first and fourth stanzas of the poem, in which the character dreams

It is forceful and heavy and is very different to the accompaniment of the first section. The accompaniment has a sudden crescendo from the pianissimo of the first section to the mezzo forte of the second section, which shocks the audience. The harmonies are also more chromatic and dissonant, adding to the unease and discomfort felt, both by the character and the audience. In bar 23, instead of the dyads, the left hand begins playing octaves while the right hand plays chords, making the piece feel more menacing. The crescendos, diminuendos and sforzandos in the accompaniment, and the harmonies accurately portray the second and fifth stanzas of the poem, where the character is pulled from his lovely dream and sees his reality, where it is cold and he is alone. This thus explains why section A and B have such contrasting musical