This is a welcome addition to the Cambridge Companions to Music series, which hitherto has dealt primarily with volumes dedicated to genres, composers or musical instruments. Two notable exceptions have been on Wagner's Ring cycle (practically a genre in itself), and Beethoven's Eroica Symphony (iconic by any standard, despite the over-use of that term). For Schubert's Winterreise to join these two is tribute to the enormous importance of the work and the great affection felt for it by so many.
The 14 chapters are sorted into five sections, dealing with (I) musical heritage, (II) Müller's poetry, (III) cultural background, (IV) Schubert's music and (V) reception. At first sight this seems a sensible way to divide the topics, but inevitably there are several overlaps and omissions, and even some differences of opinion. This is to be expected in a multi-authored volume, and reflects the complexities involved. Scholarly approaches vary, so a certain lack of overall coherence is not necessarily a bad thing.
The opening chapter (Andrea Lindmayr-Brandl) provides a succinct picture of Schubert's Vienna and its musical life, reflecting the changes in society following the Napoleonic Wars. The second chapter (Marjorie Hirsch) illustrates Schubert's maturing genius as a songwriter by comparing earlier and later settings of the same text, Goethe's ‘An den Mond’. The first is a straightforward strophic setting, the second more complex, both structurally and stylistically. Here in microcosm is what Schubert's contribution to the development of the Lied is all about – a progression from primitive, almost folk-like melody with simple accompaniment, to a complex, multi-faceted interpretation of text with expressive vocal lines and integrated accompaniment. Needless to say, all of the songs in Winterreise fall into this latter category, but this comparison helps us to understand how they reached that point. In the third chapter, Lisa Feurzeig looks at songs reflecting different seasons, particularly the contrast between winter and spring, and offers some initial thoughts on wanderers (a theme taken up in more detail in chapter 8). She closes with consideration of earlier examples of cycles, more well-established as a concept than one might have supposed (Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte is not an isolated case). Further discussions of what actually constitutes a cycle are taken up in later chapters.
In Part II, the two chapters on Müller offer us some biographical information and further context for his poetry (including consideration of poetic models for wandering in Byron and Homer), and then a detailed examination of the various re-orderings of the poems by Müller himself (three versions) and Schubert (two versions), a topic which is returned to in later chapters. Unlike Die schöne Müllerin, the poems in the Winterreise cycle do not offer a clear narrative thread, so Schubert had some license to shuffle the order to suit his own aims – and there continues to be speculation about what those aims might have been.
Part III provides three different angles on cultural background. Chapter 6 has two contributors. To begin with, David Romand reminds us that psychology as a discipline did not begin with Freud, but the quite lengthy summary of German philosophy of mind in the years around 1800 is probably more than this volume needs, particularly as Müller appears not to have been greatly influenced: ‘His references to psychology are most often conventional and general, and thus hardly conducive to contextual interpretations’ (p. 103). In an effort to pinpoint what is relevant, particularly regarding Schubert's response, Lisa Feurzeig completes the chapter by exploring less ‘academic’ areas of psychology, including the behaviours of characters existing on the peripheries of society in a range of literary examples. She goes on to consider the idea of ‘animal magnetism’ (hypnosis) and Schubert's brief flirtation with it, and to explore a slightly tenuous link between Spiess's ‘glass chest’ and the image of a frozen heart in ‘Erstarrung’. She concludes that Müller ‘engages with psychological topics through symbolic language’ (p. 111), which is certainly true, but a lot of the psychological interpretation of Schubert's Winterreise has emerged much later. Blake Howe's chapter invites us to consider the wonderment in the reactions of contemporary Germans to the advances in the understanding of nature and science. Humboldt's writings on exploration, Goethe's on organicism, and Schelling's Naturphilosophie evidently fired imaginations, and Müller's verses are full of imagery related to nature, particularly its wintry aspects (snow, ice, wind, storm). Special attention is given to two phenomena which at that time would appear uncanny: the parhelion, which creates the illusion of three suns in the sky (‘Die Nebensonnen’), and the ignis fatuus, which causes strange lights to appear over marshland (‘Irrlicht’). Despite having rational explanations, our wanderer still interprets these phenomena as supernatural encounters, both of which impinge on his state of mind.
Wandering is the subject of the final chapter in this section (George S. Williamson), and a vivid picture is painted of the varieties of humanity that would have been travelling when Müller was writing. While some were regarded as fairly reputable (journeymen, pilgrims, itinerant musicians, bands of actors), others were less so (displaced persons, racial minorities, deserters, bandits), highlighting further the dangers of taking to the open road. Even riding in the mail coach, alluded to in ‘Die Post’, was not without its hazards. Political context is also explored here, including Müller's enthusiastic support for Greek independence (although not Schubert's own brushes with authority). The suggestion of a political allegory is made, and the idea of the wanderer as fremd (stranger) explored in relation to the first song (‘Gute Nacht’), but this could be developed much further. For instance, is the charcoal-burner's hut in ‘Rast’ a veiled reference to the Carbonari, a secret revolutionary society of the time?
The focus is on Schubert's music in Part IV, beginning with James Sobaskie looking at the extent to which we identify with the protagonists in both Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise. He argues that Schubert enhances our appreciation through his handling of form, texture and ‘contextual processes’, which are defined as ‘structural sequences that generate anticipation in advance of a climactic fulfilling event’ (p. 161). Detailed examples are provided, but given the limitations of space, a focus on Winterreise only might have been more beneficial. I would also take issue with there being ‘no supernatural presence’ (p. 150) in Winterreise. There are many portents: the linden tree whispers an invitation to rest (= death); the crow circles menacingly as a harbinger of death; the hurdy-gurdy man can be interpreted as another death figure (perhaps even a Doppelgänger of Schubert himself); there are also the uncanny lights mentioned above. More importantly, there are many signifiers in the music that an audience of the time would have associated with the supernatural, and which would certainly have engaged their attention (‘Der Wegweiser’ being the prime example).
Susan Wollenberg returns to the wandering theme, viewing the winter's journey as an introspective version of the Grand Tour. Her main focus is on the music, though, with perceptive analysis of musical motifs that connect throughout the cycle, identification of several of Schubert's stylistic ‘fingerprints’, and topical references (i.e. using musical ideas that derive from another source, such as marches, dances and lullabies). The next two chapters are also concerned with connections, or their absence. Both Xavier Hascher and Deborah Stein are keen to emphasize the lack of continuity in the cycle, yet they try to impose a structure on the tonal organization (always tricky when five of the songs exist in alternative keys), and then go on to identify other linking features such as falling semitones, recitative and dotted rhythms (Hascher) and tempo, metre, triplets and use of silence (Stein). Both also offer different interpretations of the ‘journey’, Hascher drawing parallels with Dante by alluding to a passage through the Underworld (supernatural again!), and Stein referencing the stages of the grieving process as a psychological corollary. Comparison of these two chapters certainly highlights the value of differing viewpoints.
The final section has two chapters (Benjamin Binder and Laura Tunbridge) that assess the legacy of Winterreise, looking at performing traditions and other artistic responses to Schubert's material, such as arrangements, literary references and visual media. Given the recent debates about the gender of performers (Joyce DiDonato's acclaimed Winterreise recording springs to mind), it was interesting to learn about performances of songs from the cycle by a female singer, Fanni Pratobevera, during Schubert's lifetime.
One might think that there would be little new to say about a canonical work like Schubert's Winterreise, yet this volume offers plenty of material to mull over. I would like to have seen more discussion of the music, although there are references to Schubert's score outside Part IV. Fascinating areas like Schubert's harmonic language, the relationship between text and music, and the role of the piano (particularly the fortepiano's expressive capabilities) receive little or no attention. There is always more to say about the greatest masterpieces. The wealth of information and scholarly insight makes this volume an indispensable guide to anyone who loves this music.
