Though almost forgotten, Banck was a critic (on Schumann’s team at the
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik), a singing teacher, and one of the foremost song-composers of the 1830s. He was born in Magdeburg and studied in Berlin with Bernhard Klein, Berger and Zelter. He was a famous editor of early music publishing editions of such composers as Scarlatti and Martini. In some of his songs he shows just how aware he is that he was working in a post-Schubertian world. His 1837 cycle
Des Müllersburschen Liebesklage in Mond und Morgenliedern (‘The Miller Lad’s Love-Laments in Moon and Morning Songs’) takes
Die schöne Müllerin as its inspiration, and his
Des Leiermanns Liederbuch (1838/9) takes up the thread of the story of
Winterreise where Schubert and Müller leave off—a kind of sequel, or
Winterreise II. As a bridging song between Schubert’s world and the late 1830s, Banck sets Müller’s text again with an unashamed bow to the original—as if he were making an arrangement of a folk song. This shows how Schubert’s music was perceived by those composers who were neither his friends, nor true contemporaries—it was now a fact of life, an imperishable given, a classic. The image of the frozen hurdy-gurdy player from
Winterreise was one that now belonged safely, if disturbingly, to the history of song.
comparative Schubert listening:
Der Leiermann, No 24 of Winterreise, D911. October 1827
from notes by Graham Johnson © 2006
CDS44201/40
40CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price)
