Description
In late 1823, with his “Schöne Müllerin”, Schubert created not only his own, but indeed the first large song cycle. The tragic story of the enamoured miller’s apprentice traces back to poems by Wilhelm Müller. From February 1824, Schubert’s song cycle was issued in five consecutive volumes by a Viennese publisher. In his advertisement for the first volume, the publisher pointed out, for promotional effect, that Schubert had succeeded in “combining the novelty of his melodies with that comprehensibility through which a musical work of art captivatingly speaks to both the connoisseur as well as the learned music lover”. This is not an exaggeration, for to the present day the poignant melodies from “Die schöne Müllerin” number among the evergreens of the Romantic lied repertoire.
The new Urtext edition is based primarily on the first edition, since Schubert’s autographs have for the most part been lost. Apart from that, other contemporary sources, which provide interesting insights into the ornamentation practice of the time, were consulted.
