Identification in Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise
ORCID
Sobaskie: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9083-3425
MSU Affiliation
College of Education; Department of Music
Creation Date
2026-04-29
Abstract
The devastating impact of Franz Schubert’s Winterreise arises from our identification with its primary persona. We walk with the wanderer, privy to his thoughts, and imagine ourselves in his shoes, psychologically associating ourselves with the authorial creation. Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin also inspires identification, but our rapport with its central character gradually grows tenuous. We witness the journeyman’s enthusiasm, but become troubled by his choices and perceptions, wondering why common sense or rationality doesn’t intervene. Both cycles set Wilhelm Müller’s poetry, feature rejected unfortunates, and address mortality. Yet we regard and respond to their focal figures differently. Die schöne Müllerin solicits sympathy for its greenhorn, encouraging us to understand his feelings and regret his unhappiness.
Publication Date
2-2-2021
Publication Title
Cambridge Companion to Schubert's 'Winterreise'
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
First Page
147
Last Page
164
Recommended Citation
Sobaskie, James William. “Identification in Die Schöne Müllerin and Winterreise.” The Cambridge Companion to Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’. Ed. Marjorie W. Hirsch and Lisa Feurzeig. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 147–164. Cambridge Companions to Music.
