“Gretchen am Spinnrade” was composed by Franz Schubert in 1814 while the text written by Goethe. Base on the form, key modulation, and rhythm structure, it is indeed true that Schuman developed a fantastic emotional composition for listeners thereby allowing them to share the experience of the composer.
The composition has ten stanzas, and each stanza has four lines. The ten stanzas take the form “ABCADEFAGH” whereby stanza A acts as the chorus since it is repeated thrice. The piece is written in a form whereby each pair of two lines in a stanza produces four strong beats. However, they have several varying syllables before each beat. The rhythm produced by the beats creates the sound of a spinning wheel. For the accompaniment composed in the left hand, Schubert uses a dotted minim pedal tone and a quaver note followed by quaver rest and the two quaver notes. With this rhythm, Schubert can produce the sound of the character’s foot on the pedal while cycling the wheel. The repetitive 16 note provides the repeated revolution of the wheel in a semiquaver pattern, usually played using the right hand. Besides, the constant motion is embraced further by adopting the 6/9 time signature than allows the spinning to be amplified, replicating the pressing of the pedal.
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A good part of the composition demonstrates that Gretchen’s love for Faust which causes her distress due to infatuations. In the music, the distress is created by the tonality of the minor key that is repeated in most parts of the piece. In the parts of the text where Gretchen thinks about him, the piece tends to gain intensity as it gradually rises in pitch. In stanza eight-second line “…the magical flow…,” the music diverts to a major key though at a rising scale, crescendo and achieving more intensity. The rising noted demonstrates Gretchen's rising emotions. The stanza ends “and ah! His kiss.” The line is attained with a sudden pause of the piano, which shows that her spinning yarn stops. The pause is then accompanied by voice together with slightly dotted-minim chords, which allows Gretchen to shine her voice and emotions. When she sings “Kiss,” the top note is paused to let her voice to fade before the piece proceeds.
