Gretchen am Spinnrade

Along with “Erlkönig” to be heard in few minutes, “Gretchen am Spinnrade” remains one of Schubert’s most beloved and most performed songs. These songs also share several key features: both are settings of Goethe, both are highly repetitive internally, and use repetition of a basic motive to express obsession. What that obsession is in “Erlkönig” will be mentioned below. For “Gretchen am Spinnrade” the piano’s circling, perpetual motion figuration in the right hand embodies not only the whirr of the spinning wheel; it also signifies the weight of this woman’s loneliness, as she sits working (or simply staring, hands going through the motions), trying to forget her desolation in the steady, relentless, and hypnotic motion of the wheel. The ever-present piano figuration binds each stanza together, and Schubert interrupts the spinning only once: at the song’s midpoint he puts a dramatic punctuation to the phrase “und ach, sein Küss!” Immediately thereafter, a touch of brilliance—having stopped, the wheel must slowly regain momentum, so Schubert re-engages the circling motive hesitantly, one half measure at a time. The final refrain of the opening material is cut off mid-phrase; or conversely interpreted, Schubert provides just enough to suggest that Gretchen’s cyclical thoughts may never cease.

(c) Jason Stell