Schubert’s “Auf dem Flusse” from “Die Winterreise” song cycle is based on the poem by Wilhelm Müller; the 5 stanzas describe the frosted torrent and compare it to the narrator’s heart after a failure in marriage (“ein zerbrochner Ring”, Eng. ‘broken ring’). Even though “Auf dem Flusse” is written in the ternary song form, the first two sections which contain the first 4 stanzas are as long as the return where the last, fifth stanza, is repeated twice in a form of variations on the material of A section (the form reminds chaconne/passacaglia structure but is in 2/4).
Section A: opening
The first two stanzas – two musical sentences – describe the frosted stream, once “clear and wild” in E minor. The structure of a musical sentence and a single stanza is 2+2+5 measures: the 2 measures phrases (both tonic and dominant) round the I-V tonal relations resolving all tension as it appears. Yet the V in the end of the fourth measure (m.8 and m.17) serves as a pivot chord for a mediant modulation to D# minor, a distant key. There the voice and the accompaniment are stuck in one pitch (A# – dominant in the voice, I6 chord in piano part) for two measures with the third and the fourth bars being a subdominant cadenza in D#. The fifth measure of the phrase serves as a bridge between stanzas/musical sentences, modulating back to E minor through B-major chord (VI in D#minor, V in E minor). The second stanza repeats the first musical phrase almost to the note with the addition of a few vocal ornaments (emphasizing the word “Rinde” , Eng. ‘Crust’, ‘Cortex’ in m.15 with B-C-B gesture (‘1-2-1’ in B major, the dominant of E), where the additional chord tone C passes through B11 chord instead of Bsus (B9) like in the first stanza. Also the word “unbeweglich”, Eng. ‘motionless’ in m.18 gets to the high D# before falling back to A#).
The atmosphere of the first two stanzas is pretty immobile: the vocal line repeatedly climbs stepwise from E (I) to B (V), and leaps there chromatically half-tone down to stalk A# (D# minor) in the fifth measure of a sentence. Beside the D#minor modulation which creates the centrifugal tendency in the piece, the composer widely uses suspended chords (9), especially ones built on V (Bsus) before resolving them to the actual V. Additionally, the ornamentation of melody produces occasional 9 chords in their inversions, reminding suspended chords (for example, cadenza in m.11/m.20 passes through G#9 or even G11 chord considering the small passing tones, the IV9(11?) in D#minor, however, it strongly gravitates towards G#7 definition).
The rhythmically invariant chords accompaniment in piano in section A contributes to the rigidness of the poem, evoking the imagery of stillness and hardiness of the element (unlike the arpeggios, tremolos, or scales accompaniment which evokes the images of flowing water; it appears only in the return section). The right hand of piano accompaniment has always G-F# gesture (‘3-2’) in the soprano line regardless of the harmonic filling of this voice. The constant ‘3-2’ gestures contain the tendencies of the bass line and voice line to move the music. My guess is that the motivic leap ‘3-2’ and its transpositions (in section B and return), paired with a suspended (or 9) chord create the Grungestalt of this song.
Section B: submediant major episode
The second modulation in m.22 from D#minor goes to the submediant E major for the B part: the third and fourth stanzas refer to the memories of the happier times in the narrator’s life. Here the sentence structure is simple 2+2+8 measures for a single stanza; the tonic phrase is in E major, the dominant phrase tonices F#minor, the reductions phrase tonicize A major for a brief moment (m.28; m.36) and modulate back to the B major (V of E), with the voice cadence serving the elimination purpose in the sentence. The voice line stalks G# (E-Major) in the beginning of the B section, reminding the D# minor phrase in the A section. Here the voice picks up on the G#-F# (‘3-2’) gesture immediately as a resolution to G# in m. 23 [tonic phrase], for the first time in the voice part. The melodic line of the voice climbs stepwise higher with each phrase (third stanza begins with offbeat F# in m. 22; dominant phrase of this stanza starts with offbeat G#, the reductions phrase rises from offbeat A and climaxes in high E). Measures 29-30 feature the vocal line actually cadencing on G-natural leaping to F# (minor ‘3-2’), doubled by the soprano voice of the right hand (vii7*/V – Vsus, resolved by V).
The atmosphere of the third and fourth stanzas warms even more with exciting triplet piano accompaniment of the fourth stanza, which repeats the harmonic and structural material of the third one. Rhythmically, 3 (piano) against 2 (voice) create the centrifugal tendency by simply speeding up the music, establishing the rhythmical imbalance between the voice and accompaniment parts. The tonal scheme of the B section as well flourishes with 7th, 9th, 7* and suspended chords, which enrich the sonic texture of the “human” section of the song with the abundant polyphonic voice leading in all the voices of piano accompaniment. ‘3-2’ gestures appear in the left hand in m. 24-25/32-33 (tonicization of F# minor), m. 27/35 (modulation toward A major), and in right hand: mm.23-24/31-32 in soprano, transposing to F# minor in m. 25/33 and to B minor in m.27/35 in the tenor voice, mm.27-28/35-36 in alto voice ‘3-2’ happens in E major; in mm.29-30 the soprano voice of the right hand echoes the voice part with minor ‘3-2’. In mm.37-38 right hand soprano line plays the minor ‘3-2’ again, but the actual voice part cadences in B major in a manner of a reversed cadence of mm.11-12/20-21. In the following 4 measures interlude, the minor ‘3-2’ gesture appears in a bass left hand line (m.39) while the soprano of the right hand moves counterwise F#-G-A (‘2-3-4’), foreshadowing the B (‘5’) in the vocal part in m.41, and therefore collecting the pitches of the initial voice line motif of mm.5-6 in the opening.
The return: variations
The return mirrors in ways the section A: here the bass (left hand) and the voice parts switch places with bass taking over the melodic motifs (‘E-F#-G-A-B-C-B’) in mm.41-44, while the right hand marches the relentless minor ‘3-2’ chords. The poetic and musical climax of the song falls to the return section with the tension growing towards the end of the piece. The composer shuffles motifs, melodies and cadences in transpositions, as if this section was an elaboration episode in a sonata form with wild modulations to distant keys, fragmentation and repurposing of the material, and rhythmical and textural variations to the known motifs.
Fifth stanza is repeated twice, comparing narrator’s heart to the frozen torrent in a form of a question, and inquiring from the heart (“Mein Hertz”) if the structure of the stream is solid or if there’s a ‘surging’ flow underneath the crust/cortex (“Rinde”). The first question (1 and 2 strophes) brings back the tonal material of A section but in only seven measures long sentence (the two stalking bars in D# are cut), which modulates to D# minor without getting back to E-minor. The vocal line brings the motifs of the D#minor phrase of the opening section, – but here they sound in E minor. In the seventh measure (m.47) the left hand introduces an arpeggiated variation to the gesture ‘1-2-1’ (seen before in the second stanza on the word “Rinde”, here it echoes the vocal ‘1-7below-1’ in D# minor on the words “nun dein Bild”, Eng. ‘your own image’): clearly, the ‘frozen and immobile torrent’ starts thawing with anger and increasing tension of textures. The second sentence which is set to the 3d and 4th strophes of the fifth stanza consists of 6 measures (mm.48-53) 2+2+2. The pivot chord D# major in the last beat of m. 47 (submediant major in D#minor, V in G#minor) allows the modulation of the initial motifs to G#minor (4 scale degree of D#). The voice line constructs a new melodic motif with the material of the first phrase ‘E-F#-G-A-B’ in transposition paired with the second phrase’s gesture A#-D#-A# (m.18 “und beweglich”, ‘immobile’) in reverse, on the words “seine Rinde”(‘your crust/cortex’) in mm. 48-49/50-51. G# minor with G# in the downbeat of the bass line as a new tonic in this sentence also refers to the E major of the episode B (the memories of narrator’s happiness), which begins with G# downbeat in the vocal line. The fragmentation phrase of the second sentence modulates back to E minor, where is the repeat of the 5th stanza.
The third musical sentence of the return is built with 2+2+4 structure. It starts like the first sentence of the return in the antecedent, but the consequent tonicizes G major instead of repeating E minor like every time before. The fragmentation phrase here appears in F# minor instead of the previously established D# minor. The strong F# minor arpeggiated cadence of the measure 60 repeats itself in m. 61 on B7 harmony (IV7 of F# and V7 of E). The last sentence of the song features the 9 measures structure 2+2+5. With the tonic phrase appearing in E minor, the dominant phrase gets into G minor, creating a harmonic variation to the third sentence of the return, where the dominant phrase was in G major. The fragmentation phrase is taken from the second sentence of the return respectively, and is repeated twice in piano accompaniment while the vocal part builts the climax of the whole song in mm.66-70, resolving in E minor. A piano postlude of additional 4 measures settles the E minor with the initial motif played in the left hand. The tension in the piece is never really resolved because most of the centrifugal tendencies (modulations, fragmentations, deconstructions) are gathered in the return towards the final climax of the song. The unresolved tension – the unanswered questions of the narrator – is rather calmed by the ‘immobile’ postlude which rhythmically slows the tempo down: in mm.70-71 the right hand plays tremolos but in mm.72-73 is back to the marching chords of the opening.
The quickening 32 note value tremolos in the right hand which appear in the second and fourth phrases of the return contribute to the growing excitement of the texture, hinting to the peaceful flow of triplet accompaniment of the 4th stanza. Even though the text of the poem and harmonic choices suggest the pessimistic ending of the song, the arpeggios in the left hand and the tremolos in the right hand both imply the flow of the stream underneath the crusted surface. The idea of a hidden life of the stream/heart is reinforced with the raise of tessitura of the voice part over the piano accompaniment towards the climax of the song in mm. 66-70, with optional high A in m. 69.
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