1 ene 1814 año - Gretchen am Spinnrade, D. 118 (NAWM 128)

Descripción:

Composer: Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Genre: Lied

Trans: Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel

Though only just 17 when he wrote this piece, Schubert had already composed more than forty songs and was developing his mature style.

In this scene from dramatist Johan Wolfgang von Goethe’s drama Faust, Gretchen is alone, spinning thread and admitting to herself how much she has been affected by Faust (the handsome young man she has recently met).

Accompaniment:
Sets the scene and portrays Gretchen’s emotions. The top line depicts rapid rotations of the spinning wheel through the constantly rising and falling figuration, while the left hand
inserts rhythmic pattern into the middle of the texture and imitates action of the treadle (pedal that must be pushed periodically to keep the spinning wheel spinning). This motion can also suggest her emotional agitation.

Though the piano part caries much of the meaning, it remains an accompaniment and must never overpower the singer.

While the poem is strophic, Schubert did not adopt a purely strophic setting common at this time for Lieder. He instead varied the setting of each stripe to convey the drama, and created a refrain by periodically repeating the first stanza. Building from pianissimo to forte, this refrain spins back to the spinning wheel and represents Gretchen's turbulent and stuck emotions. The harmony modulating shockingly from D minor to C major highlights her restlessness, and each refrain more intensely explores new and impassioned harmonic regions.

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