Die schöne Müllerin
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Die schöne Müllerin ("The Fair Maid of the Mill", Op. 25, D. 795), is a song cycle by Franz Schubert based on poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is the earliest extended song cycle to be widely performed. One of Schubert's most important works, it is the first of his two seminal cycles (the other being his later Winterreise), and a pinnacle of Lied. It is widely performed and recorded.
Die schöne Müllerin is performed by a pianist and a solo singer. The vocal part falls in the range of a tenor or soprano voice, but is often sung by other voices, transposed to a lower range, a precedent established by Schubert himself. Since the story of the cycle is about a young man, the work is most often sung by men. The piano part bears much of the expressive burden of the work, and is only seldom a mere 'accompaniment' to the singer. A typical performance lasts around sixty to seventy minutes.
