Die Schöne Müllerin: storytelling through brass playing
Schubert never meant for Die Schöne Müllerin to be performed by people in tails for packed concert halls or final recitals. I am aiming to return to the environment of the 19th century parlour in which the cycle would originally have been performed.
Researcher: Alex Hassib
I want audiences to feel as if they are experiencing Schubert for the first time rather than engaging with already familiar music. I am developing a combination of musical arrangements and narration in order to deliver a unique experience for the audience.
Song has the power to be one of the most effective and compelling forms of storytelling and of expressing emotion. How can brass players convey the same level of communication whilst missing a crucial aspect, the text? Schubert was a master of creating evocative and vivid works of narrative through his song cycles. As an instrumentalist, and particularly a brass player, it presents an interesting challenge for the interpretation of works such as Die Schöne Müllerin. This project aims to explore not just the issue of the ‘missing text’, but also what it means more broadly to interpret such music.
Image: Le Moulin (1751) by François Boucher. Musée du Louvre.