FRANZ SCHUBERT S CYCLE OF SONGS "DIE SCHÖNE MÜLLERIN"

Franz Schubert wrote "Die schöne Müllerin" (The Beautiful Maid of the Mill) originally for high voice and piano. The love story of optimism, despair and tragedy between the miller s boy and the beautiful maid continues to fascinate and inspire composers, performers and music lovers today. This work presents an arrangement of Schubert s "Die schöne Müllerin" for Double Bass and Piano. Transcriptions and arrangements in the nineteenth century were largely intended to supplement an instrument s literature, and continued to be part of the instrument s literature in the twentieth century. Chapters 1 to 4 discuss the significance of presenting the richness and art of Schubert s musical setting of Wilhelm Müller s poems through this new medium: the double bass. Followed by a brief historical context of transcription and arrangement, songs of "Die schöne Müllerin" are analyzed and such aspects of the arrangement as transpositions, revoicings, articulations, dynamics and performance practices explained. The book closes with all 20 songs of Schubert's cycle arranged for Double Bass and Piano at the appendix.