The trouble with alliteration is that once you start in on it, it’s not so simple to stop.

Anyway, it’s not the title of Wilhelm Müller’s pithily named collection of poems (Gedichte aus den hinterlassenen Papieren eines reisenden Waldhornisten) – the source of the Winterreise texts –that concerns us here but more the wandering horn player himself.

The unaccompanied, distant horn call that starts Schubert’s last symphony is buzzy with layers of significance/emotion, both in its poetry and the wonderful ambiguities of its musical architecture.

Let’s explore…

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