Steve Schwartz wrote:

>I learned the song as an undergraduate voice student and have heard
>several interpretations of it, both live and recorded for about thirty
>years.  To this day, the song makes no impression on me whatsoever --
>neither the poem nor the music.  The poem strikes me as an instant
>cliche.  The music seems ...  well, pleasant.  I don't find anything
>interesting at all in the music.  I have no idea why cultured listeners
>gravitate in such numbers to this song.  ...

This is one of the pitfalls of considering the song out of context.
Its place in the cycle serves a reflection and breathing space which
emphasizes the protagonists continued longing for comfort and release.
Winterreise develops in stages.  This songs very tenderness provides a
telling contrast to the savage desolation that is to follow.  It's not
all unmitigated gloom.: Part of the skill in perfornance is to portray
the protagonist as a sympathetic personality, not just some neurotic
loser.  The imagery of the tree itself is important.  One recent performance
I attended emphasized the pictorial content, the images of nature, and
the protagonists connection to it, in true Romantic pathetic fallacy.
The tree is rooted in its place but reaches up to the sky.  It provides
shelter in summer, when the man and his lover used it: but in winter,
if he stops to rest he'll find eternal sleep.  But he's not ready for
this: indeed, it's equivocal whether death is the ultimate goal.  Der
Lindenbaum is often performed on its own as a stabd alone because it is
a beautiful, delicate song on its own terms.  It reminds me of Schumann's
Nussbaum.

Anne
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