Analysis of Franz Schubert's Lied 'Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel' - op. 2

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Musicology, grade: A- (entspricht 1-), Utrecht University (Roosevelt Academy), course: Musiktheorie, language: English, abstract: Franz Schubert (1797-1828) composed one of his most famous Lieder 'Gretchen am Spinnrade' ('Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel') in 1814 when he was just seventeen years old. This Lied which is a setting of a scene of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust I exemplary shows the mastery of Schubert. With seemingly simple means he paints the clear picture of smitten Gretchen who sits at the spinning wheel and yearns for the intellectual, older, nobleman Heinrich Faust after their kiss in the garden house. The following provides an in-depth musictheoretical analysis of this Lied to show that Schubert did not only provide a suitable musical adaption of Goethe's poem but he even enhanced the picture of smitten Gretchen and 'paints' beside her emotions and thoughts also her motions.