Quantitative Analysis of Tessitura and Density in Franz Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin

Quantitative analysis of vocal compositions continues to be a topic of exploration in seeking methods that objectively match a singer’s ability with musical difficulty. Work is needed to study the vocal demands of song cycles of Western classical art songs. The objective of this study is to assess the compositional range, musical tessitura, melodic directionality, vocal fold cycle dose, phonation time dose, and accompaniment density of the 20 art songs comprising Die schöne Müllerin by Franz Schubert.