In Schubert's "Gretchen am Spinnrade", text of the lied is closely related to the melody and accompaniment of the music.
First. let's talk about how the accompaniment fits the atmosphere of the Lied. The accompaniment is played by the piano. The simple accompaniment of the piano, consisting of right hand playing semiquavers, close-interval notes throughout and left hand playing simple accompaniment, the sounds and rhythm of the spinning wheel can be felt as Gretchen sits at the wheel. As the song progress to bad 63, as Gretchen remember the kiss of a love and the accompaniment pause to stress that Gretchen's thought is no longer running. She remembers! And she do no just skip the thought, she holds on and think of that.
Now, let's see what's the relationship between the singer's melody ad the text. The first stanza said "My peace is gone. My heart is heavy. I'll never find peace ever again." This set a sad atmosphere. So the melody sort of set a sad tone, start on a D minor chord in correspondence to the text. The singer's melody is also within a short range of notes, projecting a tormented and immature heart of a young girl. It always return to the not "A", seems to me that her thoughts are always coming back to the same point; she cant have peace. The second, third and fourth stanza have similar characteristics as the first stanza. However, in the fifth stanza, she repeatedly refer specifically to "him" and I assume "him" is the one she loves. This time, the melody moved step-wise, her thoughts only linger on "him", not a thought that will pass or move very fast, and it always return to "A" again, i.e. "him". Her thoughts never leave him. The sixth and the seventh stanza, Gretchen describedremembered details of "him": the way he talks, smiles, gaze, touch and kiss. The harmony reached for A flat Major, and the singer reaches for the highest not so far, on the words "and, ah, his kiss", stopping on a diminished chord, which leaves us hanging, and Gretchen holds on the thought of "his" kiss.
