THE BEAUTIFUL MILLER'S DAUGHTER
Songmakers Australia celebrate 200 years of Die schöne Müllerin (The Fair Maid of the Mill), a song cycle based on 20 poems written by Wilhem Müller.
‘I feel myself to be the most unhappy and wretched creature in the world. Imagine a man whose health will never be right again, and who in sheer despair over this ever makes things worse and worse, instead of better; imagine a man, I say, whose most brilliant hopes have perished, to whom the happiness of love and friendship have nothing to offer but pain… My peace is gone, my heart is sore, I shall find it never and nevermore… I may well sing now, for each night, on retiring to bed, I hope I may not wake again…’ With these poignant words Schubert described his state of mind after writing Die schöne Müllerin.