Reframing the Question: The Interrogative in Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin
At the end of “Der Neugierige,” the sixth song in Franz Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, the miller lad finally summons courage to ask the question upon which his future happiness depends: “Sag’, Bächlein, liebt sie mich?” One among many questions in the cycle, this is arguably the most crucial one he poses, surely hoping for an immediate, positive response from his mysteriously babbling travelling companion. A musical model for the pairing of a simple yes-no question and an affirmative answer is suggested by the song’s piano introduction, comprising a two-bar antecedent ending unstably and a two-bar consequent providing resolution. But the crucial question concludes the song text. The brook does not speak, and the miller launches into the next song, “Ungeduld,” ardently proclaiming his passion for the maid of the mill. Only by stages does he come to intuit the answer and, in consequence, his sorrowful destiny.
The fact that “Der Neugierige” ends with a question helps propel the cycle’s narrative even as it exposes the miller’s naiveté and emotional vulnerability. Schubert’s musical setting, however, complicates the matter. The piano postlude, whose rippling 16th notes descend into a deep register, effectively reframes the question and hints at the answer by prefiguring the miller’s eventual drowning. Whether this music signifies the brook’s response or the miller’s subconscious is open to interpretation.
This paper explores how interrogative expression in Die schöne Müllerin helps to shape the cycle. Wilhelm Müller’s poetic texts include questions of many kinds, e.g., direct, indirect, yes-no, (to) where, why, negative, nonsensical, leading, and rhetorical. Their differing narrative functions, and the ways that Schubert reframes them through his musical settings, are illustrated through analysis of individual songs and their interconnections.
At the end of “Der Neugierige,” the sixth song in Franz Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, the miller lad finally summons courage to ask the question upon which his future happiness depends: “Sag’, Bächlein, liebt sie mich?” One among many questions in the cycle, this is arguably the most crucial one he poses, surely hoping for an immediate, positive response from his mysteriously babbling travelling companion. A musical model for the pairing of a simple yes-no question and an affirmative answer is suggested by the song’s piano introduction, comprising a two-bar antecedent ending unstably and a two-bar consequent providing resolution. But the crucial question concludes the song text. The brook does not speak, and the miller launches into the next song, “Ungeduld,” ardently proclaiming his passion for the maid of the mill. Only by stages does he come to intuit the answer and, in consequence, his sorrowful destiny.
The fact that “Der Neugierige” ends with a question helps propel the cycle’s narrative even as it exposes the miller’s naiveté and emotional vulnerability. Schubert’s musical setting, however, complicates the matter. The piano postlude, whose rippling 16th notes descend into a deep register, effectively reframes the question and hints at the answer by prefiguring the miller’s eventual drowning. Whether this music signifies the brook’s response or the miller’s subconscious is open to interpretation.
This paper explores how interrogative expression in Die schöne Müllerin helps to shape the cycle. Wilhelm Müller’s poetic texts include questions of many kinds, e.g., direct, indirect, yes-no, (to) where, why, negative, nonsensical, leading, and rhetorical. Their differing narrative functions, and the ways that Schubert reframes them through his musical settings, are illustrated through analysis of individual songs and their interconnections.