Tenor Frank Kelley, performing this coming weekend in our performance of Schubert & Beethoven, is a particular student of Schubert’s “Die Schöne Müllerin,” a piece he has honed over years of performance. He appears with Aston Magna Aug 1, 2 & 3.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the intelligentsia and the bourgeoisie of German-speaking lands were having a love affair with Nature. Rising economic activity and growing wealth allowed for the leisure necessary to enjoy this new-found enthusiasm for the out-of-doors, country walks, and even for long journeys on foot. In my current reading of Die Schöne Müllerin (1823), I imagine a love triangle involving 1) the Miller; 2) love, commitment, stability, marriage, work, and “staying” represented by the Millergirl and the White of a Miller’s working clothes; and 3) “leaving”, wandering, exploring, changing, and freedom represented by the Brook and the sounds and the Green of Nature.
We begin with the sounds of the Brook seducing the Miller to leave and to “Wander”, and continue in (Wohin) with the Brook encouraging the lad “down into the valley and ever onward”. Soon, however, the Miller is quite happy to find the Mill and the inviting house. He questions the Brook thoroughly as to whether this is his goal and seems to have his answer. Impressing the Miller-girl is now at the forefront of his mind, and pleasing the master with his work also seems to be rewarding. Unsure of his decision to stay at the Mill and to court the girl, he returns to the Brook (Der Neugirige) to ask if he is mistaken—“Ja” or “Nein”. The Brook has turned petulant and refuses to answer leaving our Miller to conclude that he is in love with the girl and should stay: “Dein ist mein Herz and shall it always remain so.”
A new day dawns (Morgengrüss) and we have a fragile, tentative, awkward meeting of the lad and the girl—one can just imagine how Caspar David Friederich (1774-1840) or John Constable (1776-1837) would have painted this. The Brook, perhaps jealously, begins to stir in the left hand of the piano in the second half of each of the verses. The triplet eighths becomes more pervasive when the Miller goes to the Brook to collect flowering plants (Des Müllers Blumen) in order to plant them under his beloved’s window. Now (Tränenregen) we have a scene of true courtship between the Miller and the Miller-girl that is continuously interrupted by unmistakable, beautifully seductive, and increasingly active Brook music. This is a truly remarkable poem. The surface of the water (the interface between the dream-world and reality) reflects the couple and also the majesty of Nature: the moon, the stars and the “ganze Himmel”. The Miller professes to not see these glories that Nature deploys, but only the girl’s eyes. This is belied in verse three where he sees the vast heavens sunken in the Brook and hears in the gurgling of its shimmering surface: “Friend, friend, come back to me.” When tears ensue and the mirror is blurred (Has he heard the Brook’s call? Is he leaving? Has he professed his love to the girl?), the girl leaves. Whatever the reason, The Miller interprets this as a true sign of the Miller-girl’s complete capitulation (Mein). The Brook froths, the wheels roar, birds big and small sing, Nature pulls out all of the stops (“Spring, is that all of the flowers you have? Sun, can you shine no brighter?”), and the Miller wants only to silence everything so that “Mein” will be the only sound heard. Nature has lost this round.
(Pause) The lad has hung up his lute with a “green” ribbon. He can no longer sing his melancholy songs—no sound on earth can contain his happiness. Nature, however, is not so easily defeated, and the breezes conspire to makes the green ribbon rub against the strings of the lute in an unexpected key. Listen for the shocking pre-Wagnerian harmonies used for “Liebespein”. The Miller-girl arrives for a visit and promptly declares that green is her favorite color. As soon as the Miller has convinced himself to remain in the world of work and stability (donning the traditional white of the guild of Millers) and relational bliss with the Mill owner’s daughter, she now is bitten by the call
of freedom and Nature, in the guise of the rugged, rich outdoorsman (clad in the traditional green of the Hunter). A very sad attempt at convincing the girl that they are, or can be of one mind ensues but to no avail. (Der Jäger) arrives with the sounds of the hunt and the truculent Miller fears the obvious. The Brook is either recriminating or ferociously supportive and protective in (Eifersucht und Stolz). The Miller pleads that his pain not be divulged to the girl.
Nature returns in abundance in (Die liebe Farbe). The Miller asks to be clothed in green, to go hunting (albeit for Death on the heath of Love’s Torment), and to be buried under the green turf, since his love is so fond of Green. But no, (Die Böse Farbe) wait a minute! I hate green! “Why do you look at me, so proud, so insolent, so gloating; at me, a poor white miller?” With completely recognizable teenage bitterness he declares: “I, sad, sad, white man would like to lie at her door in the snow (white) and sing softly day and night one single word: Farewell.” The song ends with a last plea for her to take the green ribbon off from around her head. (Trockne Blumen) The Miller asks that the flowers that the girl has given him be buried with him that they might bloom anew in May and remind her of her former lover’s faith unto death. There is a final conversation with the Brook (Der Müller und der Bach) about the strength that Love lords over the Nature versus the
ability of Nature to console those who have struggled through Love’s sorrow. Nature’s lullaby closes the song cycle. The Brook promises to be The Miller’s faithful companion until they reach the sea, and to surge and roar in protection should a hunter’s horn sound. In the final verse the Moon rises, the mists dissipate, and the vastness of the heavens is seen. Nature triumphs and all is now clear, perhaps momentarily for the traveler, or perhaps for all eternity.
~Frank Kelley (c)2019