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Article: The hurdy-gurdy man: classical music. (performances of Franz Shubert's song cycle)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- January 4, 1992
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE great song cycle "Die Winterreise" ("A Winter's journey"), written by Franz Schubert in 1828, has reached untold heights of popularity. Originally intended for the tenor voice, it has been performed and recorded with great success by men and women in almost every vocal range. Although half of these 24 songs to poems by Wilhelm Muller (who also wrote the poems for Schubert's other famous song cycle, "Die Schone Mullerin") were composed in autumn, few works of art evoke so acutely the desolate ice and snow of a romantic landscape. Schubert's friends disliked them; the composer himself called them "gruesome"; but he added "I like these songs more than all the others, and ...