Die Winterreise and Winterreise: A Comparison of Wilhelm Müller’s Cycle of Poems and Franz Schubert’s Cycle of Songs for Voice and Piano

This article examines closely the textual origins of Schubert’s Winterreise in order to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between Wilhelm Müller’s set of poems and Franz Schubert’s song cycle based on those poems. A study of the genesis of the poetry and the final arrangement of poems in both Müller’s and Schubert’s cycles illustrates a contrast between a work of hope and another of despair.