Der Leiermann by Franz Schubert

 

 

Matthew G. Doublestein

Form and Analysis

November 6, 2001

 

       Der Leiermann, for voice and piano, is a beautiful piece with many interesting events to be observed.  The final member of the song cycle Die Winterreise (the Winter Journey), the work pleases the ears and the intellect.  This paper will attempt to account for some of Schubert’s choices and techniques in composing the song, as well as to analyze the significance of these musical events.

            Perhaps an understanding of the title Der Leiermann would help to put this piece in its proper context.  Though some have translated the German as “The Organ Grinder,” a better translation might be “The Hurdy-Gurdy Man.”  The hurdy-gurdy is a European instrument that was in common use during the 12th-19th centuries A.D.  It is a stringed instrument that is played by turning a crank attached to a rosined wheel.  This wheel rubs the strings and produces a sound not unlike a mixture of violin and the bagpipes.  Two strings are set to specific pitches before a performance and act as a drone, while the other strings are lengthened and shortened (to produce melody) by pressing the keys.  This droning string sound is the characteristic color of the hurdy-gurdy.

            This understanding of the instrument will give more insight into the structure of the song.  Many aspects of its composition and even performance are directly related to the function of the hurdy-gurdy.  At the beginning of the piece (m.1-2), we hear chromatic E# (not in the key) grace notes to the F# in the left hand of the piano.  This singular chromatic moment creates the tuning sensation one might experience as Der Leiermann tunes his droning strings before he plays his instrument.  Once the strings are tuned, the drone is very effective in reminding the listener that he is not listening to a piano, but a hurdy-gurdy.  The obvious omission of the third in the droning P5 provides stark contrast to the harmony of the Common-Practice Era.  Such sound not only accurately portrays the instrument, but also recalls a certain medieval quality.  Contributing to this is the lack of any harmony more complex than I-V.  The simplicity adds to the eerie scene portrayed by the text and provides the dark background for the story of our Leiermann. 

            Wilhelm Müller’s text is inseparable from the music in this song, and we can better grasp its meaning by examining the entire song cycle.  Our main character is a man who has lost the love of a fickle woman he dared to care for.  The girl’s mother had even talked of marriage, but he is left to wander the town in the cold winter night.  He hopes to die as he walks the streets.  Eventually he comes to an inn on the road “from which no one returns,” but finds that he is not even welcome there.  Further down the road is the graveyard.  The rest of the cycle involves this man’s internal conflict without much reference to specific places or events, until the final song, Der Leiermann.

It seems from the progression of events and other textual evidence that our narrator is not actually seeing a human Leiermann in this song, but death personified.  The hurdy-gurdy man (Death) is beyond the village wandering through the graveyard.  He totters on the ice, illustrating the fragility of life, while playing with fingers numb with cold.  No person notices him, as death creeps up unnoticed.  The town dogs growl at the unwelcome sight of Death, but he knows his power and continues to play, never stopping, just as death is incessant.  In his depression and desire for death the narrator asks to go with Death as he plays the songs.

The piano motive is very simple.  Some of this simplicity is due to the nature of the hurdy-gurdy instrument, but it is also programmatically significant.  We have two distinct variations on the original theme (m.3-5).  It is as if Death is playing sections or hints of the song of one who is to go with him to the grave.  The first measure of the motive is one hint at the song, which is followed by anticipation of death in the lifted sixteenth note and the settled peace of final passing in the triad on beats 2&3. Measure six begins the second hint.  As with nearly all of the hints or variations, this passage only differs from the original in its tonal content and direction (the final four notes of the first measure may tier as in m.3, ascend as in m.6, or descend as in m.27) while maintaining rhythmic continuity. 

Our narrator begins in m.9 with his eleven-note motive, which is followed by an eleven-note death hint motive in the piano.  These alternating eleven-note variations continue with one significant differentiating detail.  Each piano motive contains a note that is one degree higher than the highest note in the vocal motive.  It is as if Death is taunting the man as he looks on. 

In m.17, Schubert adds a voice to the left hand.  The rhythmic activity of this line illustrates Death slipping on the ice, as the rhythm is inconsistent and displaced.  The added voice also serves to build tension through m.24.  In m.25-26, the tension switches from the piano to the voice as the vocal rhythm becomes slightly more complex.  Tension is also enhanced by the repetition of the more ominous lines of poetry being repeated here.  “His little plate is always empty,” and “His hurdy-gurdy is never still,” are two lines that illustrate the qualities of death in the musician.  The repetitive effect is striking. 

We reach the highest point of tension to this point in m.27, and the death hint song still plays above the vocal motive.  The tension is in the rhythmic complexity, which exactly matches the complexity of the previous vocal line, and in the doubling of the piano phrase.  It has gone from two measures to four.  It is the greatest hint at the narrator’s death song to this point.  Death is beginning to sing his song, but this song is only a hint of the final dirge.

The repeat of this section serves to fill out the text and further describe Death and his walk through the town.  Here we see his effect on the dogs and his superior attitude.  It seems that the narrator is now grasping who this hurdy-gurdy man really is.  He observes the dogs, the attitude, and the incessant playing, and only after the repeats is the narrator sure enough of the musician’s identity that he will ask him to relieve his heartbreak and rejection.

After the second time through the repeated section, it is as though the narrator recognizes his song being played by the hurdy-gurdy man.  Measure 31 begins the narrator’s plea for death.  He begins with static F# and a B as he initially asks to go with Death.  The initial vocal phrase is one measure long, followed by a two-measure phrase and finally a three-measure phrase (m.31, m.32-33, m.34-36).  Under this, the piano plays phrases of 2, 3, and 4 measures (m.31-32, m.33-35, m.36-39). This displacement might hint at the frantic feeling of the narrator.  Perhaps he is unsure of his question and of his desire to die.  As the section progresses, he becomes more resolute and confident, so adding more notes and then more measures.  Finally the man sings his song for Death.  His song is in his question, “Will you play your organ to my songs?”  Previously, we saw that the piano had always played a note higher than the vocal line.  The piano line had also consisted only of notes that the vocalist had sung, with the exception of a G#.  The G# is finally sung here in m.34 when the man asks Death to play his songs. 

The addition of the G# indicates that we finally have the man’s song in m.34-35, followed by Death’s answer in m.36.  This answer begins with a new dynamic that we have not experienced before.  The f illustrates the significance of the measure to the story.  Here we have the first instance where the death song and the narrator’s song include all the same notes.  We have previously only had hints at the man’s death motive, but it is now complete in m.36-39.  The motive is entirely made up of notes sung previously by the narrator.  We should also note this final motive’s similarity to the motive that prompted the narrator’s recognition in m.27-30.  After Death has answered the narrator’s plea in the affirmative, we have an anticipation of death and peace in passing in the lifted sixteenth and the dominant chord.  This was hinted throughout the rest of the song, but now fits in with the rest of the completed death motive. 

There seems to be a bit more here at the end.  The “resolution” of the dominant in the final measure leaves us without a great sense of completion, though we would expect to feel resolution with a V-I cadence.  This somber mood suggests that the singer should return to sing again for Death.  Tonic only shows up in the rest of the piece after the dominant death-hint motive and when the singer is to sing again, as each vocal entrance is on tonic.  Hypermetrically, then, we feel the last measure as an upbeat.  Such a feeling may be intended to symbolize Death’s continued presence.  Everyone must die, and Death will return to answer yet another death song when the time comes. 

Death’s actions are the key to the piece, and perhaps the key to its form. We might call the piece AB because it consists of an “alive section (for the narrator)” from m.1-36, and a “dead section” from m.36-end, but this disregards either the material before or after the repeats.  We could also call it ABC with the introduction, repeated section and conclusion, but it seems that that does not do justice to the piece as a whole.  Perhaps the best description might be ABCA1.  The A section is Death playing his hurdy-gurdy alone in the streets.  B would encompass all of the narrator’s third-person observations of Death through the repeated passage.  The C section involves the four measures where the narrator interacts directly with Death.  This is followed by Death wandering the streets again for four measures, A1.

Der Leiermann is a great programmatic piece that inseparably binds music and language.  Every musical aspect of the work has some relevance to the text, and the text to the music.  Schubert has synthesized a whole greater than its parts while conveying a story humankind can identify with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note: An alternate translation from the one provided in class was consulted for this paper.  Celia Sgroi’s translation is available at http://www.mrichter.com/opera/files/winter.pdf.