Death in Winterreise: Musico-Poetic Associations in Schubert's Song Cycle

13. Winterreise as a Cycle

13 Winterreise as a Cycle i will now relate the second part of Winterreise to the four perspectives on the large-scale organization of song cycles outlined in the last chapter: textual unity (13.1), large-scale harmonic organization (13.2), musical cross-references (13.3), and whether song cycles should be understood as unified wholes at all (13.4). i will also comment on some published analyses of Winterreise. even though these four areas often appear in the literature on song cycles (as we saw in the preceding chapter), here i propose novel methodologies for approaching them. The poetic cycle is approached from the perspective of hierarchically layered narrative, suggested by roland Barthes (13.1); the overall harmonic organization is analyzed through concepts of neo-riemannian theory (13.2); musical cross-references are seen as growing out of various kinds of musical factors, not just pitch motives (13.3); and aspects creating a sense of discontinuity are seen as being in direct interaction with factors creating unity (13.4). 13.1. Winterreise as a topical and a narrative Cycle The textual organization of early nineteenth-century song cycles can be divided into two basic categories, which were presented in section 2.1: cycles concentrating on a certain theme without a linear narrative, that is, topical cycles, and cycles constituting a logically constructed narrative, that is, narrative cycles.1 Considering Winterreise solely as either a topical or a narrative cycle would, in my view, narrow its dramatic effect. instead, i argue that Winterreise includes aspects of both. The main topic of Winterreise initially seems clear enough: lost love and the protagonist’s longing, the Sehnsucht so characteristic of the early phases of romantic literature. as discussed in section 1.2, scholars such as Thrasybulos G. Georgiades and Susan youens have suggested that the poems show the speaker constantly reflecting on his emotions, which ultimately stem from the loss of his beloved. in short, the poems present variations on the persistent theme of longing. in the cycle’s second part, the focus of this study, the longing is mainly for death, although the loss of love is frequently mentioned as the source of the speaker’s misery. Since longing is the central topic of Winterreise, there is a relationship between the longing subject (S) and the object for which he longs (O). The object assumes two guises: on the one hand, the love that has been lost, the initial source 168 Cycle Table 13.1. textual organization in the second part of Winterreise Songs “Der greise Kopf” (no. 14) and “Die Krähe” (no. 15) “Letzte Hoffnung” (no. 16) “im Dorfe” (no. 17), “Der stürmische Morgen” (no. 18), “täuschung” (no. 19) Textual oppositions S = speaker O1 = love O2 = death S ∪ O2 (S → O1) ⇒ (S → O2) S ∪ O1 (nos. 17 and 19) S → O2 (no. 18) Narrative framework (kernels) The thought of death emerges. Death may replace love as the primary goal of longing. The preceding kernel continues. Narrative situations (satellites) The protagonist considers death as a positive option while lamenting that it does not come. The protagonist notes that finding death requires abandoning all hope of regaining love. He feels a sense of relief. The protagonist considers the outcome of “Letzte Hoffnung,” the idea of abandoning the hope of regaining love. He shows different reactions. Songs “Der Wegweiser” (no. 20) “Das Wirtshaus” (no. 21) “Mut” (no. 22) and “Die nebensonnen” (no. 23) “Der Leiermann” (no. 24) Textual oppositions S = speaker O1 = love O2 = death S → O2 S ∪ O2 S ∪ O2 S ∪ O2 Narrative framework (kernels) The decision to seek death. The inability to find a dignified death. The preceding kernel continues. The decision to seek a numb state (a graceless death). Narrative situations (satellites) The protagonist is not able to have a dignified death. The protagonist reflects on his inability to find a dignified death, showing different reactions: frustration (no. 22) and nostalgia and contemplation of the past (no. 23). The protagonist accepts the numb, graceless nature of death, heading for it without knowing if it can be found. Winterreise as a Cycle 169 of the subject’s misery (O1), and, on the other hand, death, which is central in part 2 (O2). These two forms of the object are fundamentally invariant, even though the actual content of the individual poems might not directly refer to love or death. in Greimassian terminology, applied earlier in the analyses...