Julianna Massielo

Musicianship II

Dr. Helvering

23 April 2018

“Der Leiermann” The Hurdy-Gurdy Man

Franz Peter Schubert (​1797-1828) was Austrian composer who bridged the worlds of

Classical and Romantic music. ​Franz Schubert’s work was described by Joseph Bennett, "The

charm of his simple nature, the freshness and beauty of his music, and the mystery of his tragic

life, drew our eyes to him brimming with love and pity, and we could offer him nought but

praise." ​Winterreise​ was composed in two parts, each containing twelve songs, the first part in

February 1827 and the second in October 1827. When it was written, Schubert was very sick,

having contracted syphilis. This illness most likely took a toll on his mental health. He composed

Winterreise​ as he was dying, and a listener can feel that despair and desperation in the song

cycle. ​Winterreise​ is considered to be one of the greatest pieces of the 19​th​ century. Even nearly

200 years after its composition it is performed on a regular basis. Overall, the cycle has varying

levels of emotion, and the final song, “Der Leiermann,” reflects the raw emotion the

narrator(singer) is feeling through its musical nuances and text setting.

“Der Leiermann” is a simple piece. That strophic simplicity is compelling to a listener.

The repetition throughout the piece makes a listener expect change – but change never really

comes. It’s static and endless. It begins with an eight measure intro from the piano. The open
fifth chords in measures one and two are preceded by the leading tone(E#) of the dominant key.

It is thought that this gracenote represents the starting up of a hurdy-gurdy, an eighteenth century

instrument can be described as a ​pear-shaped ​fiddle​, having strings that are sounded not by a

bow, ​but by the rosined rim of a wooden wheel turned by a handle at the instrument’s end. Notes

are made on the one or two melody strings by stopping them with short wooden keys pressed by

the left-hand fingers. Up to four unstopped strings, called bourdons, sound drones. ​As the

melody beings in measure 3, it outlines scale degrees 1 and 3 of B minor. In measure 4, there is a

sixteenth note rest that is repeated throughout the piece in the same pattern. This symbolizes the

unrest and uncertainty that is felt throughout the entire final movement of ​Winterreise​. Each time

it happens, the listener is caught off guard. It can also represent the hurdy gurdy again, if one

stops turning the crank and hesitates, the drone like sound of the instrument will cease to sound.

As the vocal line enters at measure 9, the open fifth drone of B and D continues in the left hand

of the piano, as it does for the entire piece. The melody of this movement is fairly simple, it

shifts from the tonic to the dominant, and does not stray away from those two chords. The

melody in measures 9 and 13 are identical, with a leap from the first scale degree down to the

fifth and back to the first again. This pattern is supported by the drone in the left hand of the

piano. Measure 17 arrives, and the listener has grown comfortable hearing the same melody

repeated four times now. Schubert changes the melody in measure 17 to leap from the first scale

degree up to the fifth this time. This slight shift in the music will be slightly unsettling to the

listener, achieving what Schubert desires. Up until measure 18, the vocal line has had consistent
eight notes, but in this measure there is a slight hiccup in the flow of the line with a dotted eighth

note followed by a sixteenth note. This was done to reflect the text in this very moment,

“Barefoot on the ice he staggers back and forth,” this pause in the flow represents this

hurdy-gurdy man staggering around the cold. At measure 27, the first major dynamic marking

occurs with a messa di voce in the right hand of the piano. This is significant because it occurs

right before the B section of the piece, hinting to a shift in perspective. The B section, though it

sounds different, is identical harmonically to the A section. Shifting between the tonic and

dominant chords, the piece remains simplistic, and it is the vocal line that causes the shift in the

mood. Measures 34 and 35 are very unsettling to listen to. It is not clear to the listener that this is

the end of the piece. The vocal line ends on a lingering F5 and fades away as the accompaniment

finishes out the piece. By ending of the fifth scale degree in B minor, Schubert leaves the listener

wanting more as the piece ends. In measure 36, the piece reaches its first and only forte dynamic.

This occurs as the singer holds out their final note. Though the piece ends with an authentic

cadence, nothing about this piece feels resolved. At no point is there a resolution of any kind,

Schubert does not want to give the listener the satisfaction of resolution. By ending with a

pianissimo minor one chord, ​he resolves the piece. Schubert gives us the tonic chord, and it’s

almost ​far too ​perfect. This is contradictory to how the vocal line ended.​ This eerie ending

reflects the text of the piece and the work ​Winterreise ​as a whole.

“Der Leiermann,” describes not only the singer’s final despair but the deterioration of his

mental state. The desolation and despair are complete. Because the music of this piece is so
simplistic, the text must be delivered in a way that conveys the sadness and despair the singer

feels at the end of the song cycle, ​Winterreise. ​The first four sections of the poem describe the

hurdy-gurdy man from a distance. The repetition of the melody is reflecting the mediocrity of

this man’s life. It is ordinary, he is an ordinary man. Though he leads a humble life, this man,

“lets it all go by, everything as it will.” He knows that his life will remain despair ridden, and he

seems to accept that. The final stanza of the poem shifts perspectives, and now the singer speaks

directly to the man. “Strange old man, shall I go with you? Will you play your hurdy-gurdy to

my songs? (Müller)” The singer wonders if this man feels the same as he does, and if he can find

solace in this man. In the recording by Jonas Kauffmann, he pours the most emotion into the B

section because it is a self reflection. Because he chooses to end on forte with the final words, the

listener expects more text to follow, but is left with only piano.

In conclusion, “Der Leiermann” is an important piece in ​Winterreise​ because it is the last

thing a person hears – the final message on which they will reflect. After twenty-four songs, this

epic song cycle ends on a humble note. The despair felt in this movement digs deep into the

listener’s emotions as they hear about this lonely man. As the signer reflects back on themselves,

a person can understand why the singer has felt such pain for so long. Hearing the emotional text

over the drone of the piano allows each phrase to be delivered directly into a person’s soul.

When a person listens to this movement, they will feel what the singer is feeling in that moment.

This is a powerful tool that Schubert uses. If the audience can be completely immersed in the
music, then they will be able to understand what the Schubert was trying to convey in

Winterreise.

Works Cited

Bennett, Joseph, ​Forty Years of Music​, 1865-1905 (London, 1908), pp. 337 and 342.

Kramer, R. (1994). ​Distant Cycles : Schubert and the Conceiving of Song​. Chicago: University

of Chicago Press.

Suurpää, L. (2014). ​Death in Winterreise : Musico-Poetic Associations in Schubert's Song Cycle​.

Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Youens, S. (1991). ​Retracing a Winter's Journey : Franz Schubert's 'Winterreise'​. Ithaca: Cornell

University Press.