<<  -- 2 --  Robert Anderson    THE JOURNEYMAN MILLER

For the journeyman miller, the brook and the watermill are almost as important as the beautiful daughter. The never-ceasing waters flow through most of the twenty songs, from the opening Das Wandern, in which love of wandering is learnt from the waters that have no rest by day or night, to the stream's final lullaby, in which the disappointed lover is invited to rest his head on the river bed. The fourth song is a 'Thanksgiving to the stream for guiding the journeyman towards the mill'. Perhaps that was the ultimate meaning of its quiet murmuring [listen -- track 4, 0:00-0:58]. Two songs further on, the question is whether the maid of the mill loves him. There is no point in asking the flowers or indeed the stars, which are too distant; response in a matter that has become increasingly urgent can be given only by the brook, which seems to be flowing more silently than usual [listen -- track 6, 1:08-1:57].

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