Schubert’s Winterreise:

12. Einsamkeit
&
24. Der Leiermann
Analysis - Rúben Carvalho
12. Einsamkeit

• Conclusion of the original cycle

• Change in key
• Manuscript – D minor
• Published (final) version – B minor
• First 2 stanzas
• Slow 8th notes – step-like motion
• “trägem Fuß” (Dragging foot)
(mm. 17)
• Emphasis on words that symbolise
loneliness (mm. 7, 20)
 12. Einsamkeit (3rd stanza)
“It is much more difficult forand
• Depressive him to acknowledge
angrier state
the reality of the world when itchord
• Diminished is discordant with
in tremolo (mm. 24, 26, 26, 28)
• Simple melody
his emotional state”
• Triplets – Raging storms of the past (mm. 28-29, 40-41)
(Dempsey,
• Step-like2020)
motion – “Today” (mm. 31-33, 43-48)
• Repetition of the 3rd stanza
• The last sentence that he sings gives a more satisfactory
ending (mm. 45)
• Last measures
• Return of the step-like motion of the beginning (mm.46-
48)
24. Der Leiermann

• Hurdy-gurdy
• Beggar’s instrument
• Expresses alienation
• Drone strings
 24. Der Leiermann
• Sparse, barren, numb
• “Anti-music”
• Harmony is sparse
• The song stands out
• Unsettling feeling

• The piano symbolise the hurdy-

gurdy
• Drone – “never still” hurdy-gurdy
• D# grace note – wheel starting to turn
 Und er läßt es gehen And he lets it happen
Alles, wie es will, As it always will,
Dreht und seine Leier And his hurdy-gurdy
Steht ihm nimmer still. Is never still.
24. Der Leiermann
(Text)

• 4 + 1 stanzas
• 4 stanzas describing
the beggar
• Last one he speaks
with the beggar Wunderlicher Alter, Strange old man,
Soll ich mit dir geh’n? Should I go with you?
Willst zu meinen Liedern Will you to my song
Deine Leier dreh’n? Play your hurdy-gurdy?
 24. Der
Leiermann
(Music)
• Harmony – tonic and dominant
• Persistent dominant (mm. 4-5)
• Dominant “half-resolving” to the
tonic (mm. 7-8)

• 2 melodic motions
• C-B
• C-B-(A)
• Mm. 25-26, singer keeps the A
24. Der Leiermann (Coda)

• “A” appears for a longer duration

in top-voice (mm. 55)

• Singer dwells on the note “E”

• Motion C-B-A
• Weak cadence
24. Der Leiermann
(Death)

• Physical death

• Emotional death
• Piano symbolises the hurdy-
gurdy
• Wanderer wishes the numbness
• Wanderer asks to join the
beggar (mm. 54-55)
“One might argue that the completion of the
third-progression only after the singer has ended
his part could indicate that the object is beyond 24. Der Leiermann
the reach of the subject, that the peace the
protagonist seeks remains an illusion, even at
(Ending)
the cycle’s very end.” (Suurpää, 2014)

“Alternatively, the fact that the completion of

the third-progression ultimately does arrive,
providing a sense of closure not heard earlier,
could be interpreted in a more positive light,
suggesting that, after the protagonist has asked
his final question, he gets the answer he hopes
to hear.” (Suurpää, 2014)
B minor: 24. Der Leiermann
• Patience (Schubart 1784/1806)
• Expectation (Schubart 1784/1806) (Change of Key)
• Very melancholic (Pauer 1876)
• Earnest character (Riemann 1893)
• True soul struggle (Riemann 1893)
• Sombre but vigorous (Lavignac • Manuscript – B minor
1907) • Published version – A minor
• Bewailing (Moore 1854)

A minor: • 23. Die Nebensonnen – A major

• Tenderness (Schubart 1784/1806)
• Woman feelings (Pauer 1876)
• Quiet melancholy (Pauer 1876)
• Colourless (Riemann 1893)
• Plain character (Riemann 1893)
• Simple (Lavignac 1907)
• Plaintive but not feeble (Moore
1854)
 • Bostridge, I. (2015). Schubert's Winter journey: Anatomy of an obsession. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf.
• Dempsey, M. (2020, May). Hearing voices: The narrative function of the piano voice
in Schubert’s Winterreise (Master’s Thesis). Bowling Green State University, Ohio
Bibliography • Ishiguro, M. A. (2010, September). The affective properties of keys in instrumental
music from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Master’s Thesis).
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts.
• Suurpää, L. (2014). Reflection on the Inability to Find Death: "Mut," "Die
Nebensonnen," and "Der Leiermann". In Death in Winterreise: Musico-poetic
associations in Schubert's song cycle (pp. 141-155). Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana
University Press.