MUSI3041 Assignment 5 : Agnes Wu

Theme and Variations on Trockne Blumen for Flute and Piano -Franz Schubert

source: google


link to score: https://vmirror.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/a/ae/IMSLP73302-PMLP36137-FS59.pdf 


Background:

Schubert’s Trockne Blumen for Flute and Piano was originally composed for the voice in his collection Die schöne Müllerin, based on Muller’s poem of the same name. The story is of a miller committing suicide due to unrealized love for the maid, in which he walks to his grave in the forest holding wilted flowers.


Although this version of Trockne Blumen does not strictly follow the text of the poem, the story of the poem is still evoked, despite the absence of text. 


Schubert uses the motif of withered flowers to represent the miller, and the seasons to express his emotional state. 


I will be exploring the Introduction, Theme, Variations 3 and 7 of this piece. 


poem

Introduction (00.00):


The beginning 2 bars communicate the affects of death, dying and decay through the monotonous plodding E minor triads. The use of E minor is significant. According to Schubart, it is a key suitable to illustrate undeclared love, yearning, and that of grief and sighing. The opening music depicts the miller sitting by his grave in profound despair, holding on to his withered flowers. However, this sentiment of hopelessness is shaken by a sense of restlessness, as the note B, the dominant, is the central idea of the flute in the opening measures, despite having a firm E minor key in the piano. 

monotonous plodding of the piano



The accents and dotted rhythms in the flute (b18-23) express a sense of contraction, which illustrates the motion of the flowers withering and its petals falling off. 

extreme dotted rhythm to paint 'contraction'


The introduction ends with a diminished scale. The restlessness and uncertainty is then carried on to the following variations as Schubert develops the seasonal changes to depict the emotional world of the miller.



Theme (2.45):


The spare and static piano introduction is akin to heavy, dragging footsteps. It represents the miller walking to his grave. The slow pulsing is also evocative of a breeze-less, stagnant forest air. This feverish and languishing atmosphere of the forest signifies the miller’s inner turmoil of unrealized love, and at the same time, implies that unpredictable weather is stirring up in this stagnant air of depression. 

left hand of piano accompaniment represents dragging, heavy footsteps



Variation 3 (8.02):


Variation 3 is a mellow interlude within the piece that mainly centers around E major. According to Schubart, it is a key expressive of hope. An idyllic, springtime forest is depicted here. During the last few moments of the miller’s death, he is reminiscing the sweet of May and memories of romance. The gentle heaving of the flute’s melodic line illustrates the gentle breeze of spring, as heard in the stepwise motion in the beginning. The large intervallic leaps in bars 3 and 7 depicts birdsong and Schubert further imitates bird tweeting with repeated staccato notes (b21-22), all evocative of Spring. Even more so, the triplets (b19-20) express a joyous character. 

large leap of a 5th degree amongst stepwise motion


The fluid, 16th note piano accompaniment that appears in a gate-like notation on the score throughout this variation could be interpreted as the miller’s wish to cross these ‘wedding gates’ with the maid. When heard, the fluidity depicts the imagery of flowing spring streams after thawing from the frost of winter. These forest streams are also metaphoric of the miller’s tears from reminiscing this bittersweet memory. The central theme is “dry flowers”, so this Variation of the miller re-creating his past memories acts as irrigation to the now withered flowers.

'wedding gates'



Variation 7 (16.58):


The last Variation of the set is a virulent expression of rebirth. Although the miller has died, the maid has finally realized his love for her, which leads to Schubert’s imagined world of resurrection for the miller. The glory of resurrection along with the re-blossoming of withered flowers is shown with a rising intensity that peaks in this last Variation, where acceleration of tempo, crescendos, widening of melodic range and thickening of texture are rampant. 


Set in E major, the bright mood of Springtime is established with a faster tempo as seen with the allegro indication. The quick note values like 16th notes and 8th note triplets enhance the fluency of phrases (b60-65). These extended arpeggios and scalic passages allude to an unrestrained expression of excitement and action. 

scalic passages in both the flute and piano


This variation also represents the heat of Spring. The presence of birds is represented by the trills (b19-20). The repeating, high-pitched scalic passages (b26-32) represent the anticipation of animals coming out of the slumber. At the same time, the call-and-response between the flute and piano, repetition and upward motion of these passages is programmed to the blooming of those once withered flowers. Furthermore, the thick texture from the block chords in the piano accompaniment (b45-65) provides a rich and loud sonic environment that represents a cacophony of creatures and their sounds, as they have all finally come out to experience the warmth and vitality of Spring.  

thick texture of piano accompaniment


This frenzied excitement represents an imagined world, akin to the Garden of Eden. Firstly, the fanfare-like introduction in a 4/4 metre akin to a march is symbolic of a triumphant resurrection, with religious allusions of a chariot. These excited, almost manic passages starting from the second half of the Variation (b60-86) signifies that this is not a real, natural environment. Rather, it is an imagined realm where dead creatures could resurrect. In doing so, Schubert allows the flowers to re-blossom, and the miller to reciprocate the finally realized love.  

running passages in the flute




How nature is viewed by Schubert:


After exploring the musical narrative of Trockne Blumen, it is important to note that Schubert uses the natural environment to evoke emotional sentiments related to 19th century concepts of nature, which often operate on a metaphoric level. As such, this is exemplified in the use of nature and flowers as anthropomorphized beings. These anthropomorphic flowers were able to resurrect not because of the nourishment of water in the natural world, but due to the reciprocation of the maid’s love. Furthermore, Schubert uses sharp contrasts as seen in the natural environment to alternate between grief and joy, death and rebirth. As such, Winter represents death and the loss of love, whereas Spring represents rebirth and blossoming of love. The use of contrasts can also be seen in setting hope against despair, true love against dead love. 


Lastly, a possible reason for Schubert to compose a Theme and Variation on this morbid poem would be to provide a happier ending for the miller, and also to lessen the psychological blow of the theme of suicide. 





Reference works:


Tom Cochrane, Bernardino Fantini, Klaus R Scherer - The Emotional Power of Music: Multidisciplinary perspectives on musical arousal, expression, and social control

Lawrence M Zbikowski - The Blossoms of 'Trockne Blumen': Music and Text in the Early Nineteenth Century

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Commercial Soundscapes of Han SHAO at Tsim Sha Tsui

Assign6 - The song Animism and desertification (Yating)

MUSI3041 Assignment4: The Thumb Piano