Robert Schumann on Music Theory Print

Adagio and Allegro for Horn and Piano

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Recordings#

Below are incomplete lists of recordings on both period and modern instruments.

Album for the Young

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

First part#

Melodie (Melody), C major # Soldatenmarsch (Soldiers’ march), G major # Trällerliedchen (Lilting song or Humming song), C major # Ein Choral (Chorale), G major. Harmonisation of “Selig sind, die aus Erbamen” or “Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele” found in number 7 of BWV 39 # Stückchen (A little piece), C major # Armes Waisenkind (The poor orphan), A minor # Jägerliedchen (Hunting song), F major # Wilder Reiter (The wild rider), A minor (This piece is more commonly known in English as “The Wild Horseman”) # Volksliedchen (Folk song), D minor # Fröhlicher Landmann, von der Arbeit zurückkehrend (‘The merry peasant’, returning from work or ‘The Happy Farmer’), F major # Sizilianisch (Sicilienne), A minor # Knecht Ruprecht (Santa Claus), A minor # Mai, lieber Mai (May, dear May), E major # Kleine Studie (Little etude), G major # Frühlingsgesang (Spring song), E major # Erster Verlust (First loss), E minor # Kleiner Morgenwanderer (Little morning wanderer), A major # Schnitterliedchen (The reaper’s song), C major#

Second part#

Kleine Romanze (Little romance), A minor # Ländliches Lied (Land song), A major # * * * (untitled), C major (based on “Prison-Terzetto” (“Euch werde Lohn in bessern Welten”) from Beethoven’s Fidelio) # Rundgesang (Chant), A major # Reiterstück (The horseman), D minor # Ernteliedchen (Harvest song), A major # Nachklänge aus dem Theater (Echoes from the theatre), A minor # * * * (untitled), F major # Kanonisches Liedchen (Song in Canon form), A minor # Erinnerung (4 November 1847) (Remembrance), A major (dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn) # Fremder Mann (Foreign man), D minor # * * * (untitled), F major # Kriegslied (Song of war), D major # Scheherazade, A minor # Weinlesezeit – fröhliche Zeit! (Harvest time – happy time!), E major # Thema (Theme), C major #Mignon, E major # Lied italienischer Marinari (Italian mariners’ song), G minor # Matrosenlied (Sailors’ Song), G minor # Winterzeit I (Wintertime I), C minor (sometimes considered one piece with Wintertime II) # Winterzeit II (Wintertime II), C minor/C major # Kleine Fuge (Little fugue), A major # Nordisches Lied (Nordic Song – Salute to G.), F major (dedicated to Niels Gade; it is based on the cryptogram G-A-D-E) # Figurierter Choral (Figurative chorale), F major # Sylvesterlied (New Year’s Eve song), A major#

Appendix (selection)#

More pieces have been identified from various manuscripts; these are not formally numbered and are denoted as pieces from the appendix (German: ). *Soldatenmarsch (Soldiers’ March, Clara Schumann version) *Wilder Reiter (The Wild Horseman, alternate version) *Für ganz Kleinem (For the very young) *Puppenschlafliedchen (Dolls’ lullaby) *Canone “Aus ist der Schmaus, die Gäste gehn nach Haus” (Canon “The feast is over, the guests go home”) *Auf der Gondel (On the gondola) *Linke Hand, soll sich auch zeigen (Left hand, should also show itself) *Gukkuk im Versteck (Cuckoo in hiding) *Ein Ländler von Franz Schubert (A Ländler by Franz Schubert) *Ein Thema von Georg Friedrich Händel (A theme by George Frideric Handel) *Haschemann *Fest in Tact, im Tone rein, Kanon für Singstimmen (Firmly on the beat, in pure intonation, canon for voices) *Ein Stückchen von Johann Sebastian Bach (A piece by Johann Sebastian Bach) *Ein Trinklied von C. M. von Weber (A drinking song by Carl Maria von Weber) *Lagune in Venedig (Lagoon in Venice) *Thema – Beethoven Op. 109 (Theme from Beethoven’s op. 109) *Bärentanz (Bear dance) *Eine berühmte Melodie von L. van Beethoven (A famous tune by Ludwig van Beethoven) *Kleiner Walzer (Little waltz) *Ein Stückchen von Mozart (A piece by Mozart) *Rebus *Ein Stückchen von Gluck (A piece by Gluck) *Ein Stückchen von Beethoven (A piece by Beethoven) *Fragment, Es Dur (Fragment E-flat major) *Präludium (Prelude) *Walzer (Waltz) * * * * (untitled) C Dur (C major) * * * * (untitled) G Dur (G major) * * * * (untitled) A Dur (A major)

Albumblätter (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Following the success of the Album für die Jugend, Op. 68, Robert Schumann began work in late 1850 on a new collection of piano pieces. However, unlike Op. 68, this new collection would comprise material that the composer had written earlier in his career, but held back from publication. Schumann held ambivalent feelings about the material, reflected in the proposed title for this new collection Spreu. In the event, his proposed publisher F. W. Arnold rejected the title and the pieces were instead published in two separate collections, Bunte Blätter, Op. 99, published in 1851, and Albumblätter, Op. 124, published in December 1853. As with Bunte Blätter the pieces span a wide period of the composers active career and come from a variety of compositions by the composer, the earliest material dates from 1832 and comprises pieces, considered for, but not included in Carnaval, Op. 9. Other material used included pieces intended for a composition that was never published entitled XII Burle (English 12 Burleskes), short pieces written to mark specific family occasions and, dating from 1845, a canon sketched for his Studies for Pedal piano, Op. 56, but ultimately not used in that project.

Arabeske (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

In Vienna, Schumann found himself beset by depression and professional disappointment. Nevertheless, he managed to create a few compositions of remarkable grace and beguiling charm, writing (as he put it) in a “lighter more feminine style”. In his letter of 15 August 1839 to Ernst Becker, Schumann characterized both the Arabeske and Blumenstück as “delicate – for ladies”. He was influenced by Christian Schuburt’s book on musical aesthetics, in which C major, the key of the Arabeske, was identified with the childish and simple, relegating more intense emotions to the sharped keys. Schumann wrote in the year of the creation of the Arabeske, “Never refer me again as Jean Paul II or Beethoven II … I am willing to be ten times less than these others, and only something to myself.”

Blumenstück (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Blumenstück was written in Vienna in January 1839; its companion piece, the Arabeske in C, Op. 18, was written in December 1838. Other works written around this time were the Humoreske, Op. 20, and the final movement of the Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22. His intended fiancee Clara Wieck was in Paris, but Schumann stayed in Vienna to compose and write for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, for which he had moved to Vienna from Leipzig. The two pieces were published simultaneously in August 1839, although not as a set. the wife of Major Anton Serre, who together lent Schumann great encouragement in his romance with Clara Wieck, despite being close friends of her father Friedrich Wieck, who was implacably opposed to the marriage. Blumenstück features a falling four-note motif that Schumann had previously used to refer to Clara Wieck in Carnaval, Op. 9. Rather than in his manuscript book, Schumann sketched Blumenstück in his Brautbuch; it was offered, along with the song cycle Myrthen, Op. 25, of 1840, as a bridal gift. In a letter to Clara on 24 January 1839, Schumann wrote that he had recently completed a number of small piano pieces, with the titles: * Guirlande (“variations, but not on a theme”; this could be a mistranslation of “but not on one theme”, meaning “but not on a single theme”) * Rondolette, and * “other small things, of which I have so many, and which I shall chain together prettily under the title Kleine Blumenstücke, much like one might name a series of pictures”. The Blumenstück is in the form of a double theme and variations, and the Arabeske is in rondo form. It has also been suggested that both these works were originally meant to be included in the otherwise unidentified Kleine Blumenstücke.

Bunte Blätter

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History#

Robert Schumann started work on assembling the collection of pieces that were eventually published as the Bunte Blätter Op. 99 and Albumblätter Op. 124 in late 1850. His original plan was to publish the pieces as a single collection entitled Spreu (English: Chaff). When the music publisher F. W. Arnold objected to the proposed title, Schumann decided to split the collection. All of the pieces used were works that Schumann had composed in the past and had either not intended for publication, or had been rejected for publication with earlier sets of pieces. Ernst Herttrich in his preface to the Henle score, comments that the specific criteria the composer used to select the pieces included in either this collection or the succeeding one are unknown, though the pieces are organised loosely from least to most difficult. Dates of composition range from 1834 to 1849 . Both Clara Schumann and Brahms wrote sets of variations on the theme of the fourth movement (“Ziemlich langsam”) from Bunte Blätter: Clara in her opus 20, and Brahms in his opus 9. Many writers have pointed out that several of the pieces had personal associations for the author, for example, the first piece in the collection was a Christmas greeting the composer had composed for his wife Clara in 1838.

Carnaval (ballet)

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History#

Carnaval was created in three spontaneous rehearsals in 1910 for a charity performance in Pavlov Hall, Saint Petersburg, to benefit the magazine Satirikon. When Michel Fokine was approached by two young men involved in the publication (Mikhail Kornfeld, later to be its publisher, and the later-famous poet Grigory Potemkin) they gave him free rein, although they mentioned that the theme of the event was to be carnival. The choreographer immediately thought of Schumann’s Carnaval suite for piano, which he had long admired. On 14 September 1933, the ballet was revived in London by the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo (staged by Woizikovsky) for Alexandra Danilova (appearing as Columbine). In 1937, it was staged by the Vic-Wells Ballet with Margot Fonteyn playing the role of Columbine.

Carnaval (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Carnaval had its origin in a set of variations on a Sehnsuchtswalzer by Franz Schubert, whose music Schumann had discovered only in 1827. The catalyst for writing the variations may have been a work for piano and orchestra by Schumann’s close friend Ludwig Schuncke, a set of variations on the same Schubert theme. Schumann felt that Schuncke’s heroic treatment was an inappropriate reflection of the tender nature of the Schubert piece, so he set out to approach his variations in a more intimate way, working on them in 1833 and 1834. Schumann’s work was never completed, however, and Schuncke died in December 1834, but he did re-use the opening 24 measures for the opening of Carnaval. Pianist Andreas Boyde has since reconstructed the original set of variations from Schumann’s manuscript (published by Hofmeister Musikverlag), premiered this reconstruction in New York and recorded it for Athene Records. Romanian pianist Herbert Schuch has also recorded this reconstruction, with his own editorial emendations, for the Oehms Classics label. The 21 pieces are connected by a recurring motif. The four notes are encoded puzzles, and Schumann predicted that “deciphering my masked ball will be a real game for you.” In each section of Carnaval there appears one or both of two series of musical notes. These are musical cryptograms, as follows: * A, E, C, B – German: A–Es–C–H (the Es is pronounced as a word for the letter S) * A, C, B – German: As–C–H * E, C, B, A – German: as Es–C–H–A The first two spell the German name for the town of Asch (now Aš in the Czech Republic), in which Schumann’s then fiancée, Ernestine von Fricken, was born. The sequence of letters also appears in the German word , meaning carnival. In addition, is German for “Ash”, as in Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Lastly, it encodes a version of the composer’s name, Robert Alexander Schumann. The third series, S–C–H–A, encodes the composer’s name again with the musical letters appearing in Schumann, in their correct order. Heinz Dill has mentioned Schumann’s use of musical quotes and codes in this work. Eric Sams has discussed literary allusions in the work, such as to novels of Jean Paul. In Carnaval, Schumann goes further musically than in Papillons, Op. 2, for he himself conceives the story for which it serves as a musical illustration. Each piece has a title, and the work as a whole is a musical representation of an elaborate and imaginative masked ball during carnival season. Carnaval remains famous for its resplendent chordal passages and its use of rhythmic displacement and has long been a staple of the pianist’s repertoire. Both Schumann and his wife Clara considered his solo piano works too difficult for the general public. (Frédéric Chopin is reported to have said that Carnaval was not music at all. Chopin did not warm to Schumann on the two occasions they met briefly and had a generally low opinion of his music.) Consequently, the works for solo piano were rarely performed in public during Schumann’s lifetime, although Franz Liszt performed selections from Carnaval in Leipzig in March 1840, omitting certain movements with Schumann’s consent. Six months after Schumann’s death, Liszt would write to Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, Schumann’s future biographer, that Carnaval was a work “that will assume its natural place in the public eye alongside Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, which in my opinion it even surpasses in melodic invention and conciseness”.

Cello Concerto (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instrumentation#

The work is scored for solo cello, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.

Structure#

Written late in his short life, the concerto is considered one of Schumann’s more enigmatic works due to its structure, the length of the exposition, and the transcendental quality of the opening as well as the intense lyricism of the second movement. Consistent with many of Schumann’s other works, the concerto utilizes both fully realized and fragmentary thematic material introduced in the first movement, material which is then quoted and developed throughout. Together with the concerto’s relatively short, linked movements, the concerto is thus very unified both in material and in character, although the work’s emotional scope is wide. Schumann’s use of the same themes in different contexts and moods lends the concerto a strong sense of character development and an extended emotional arc, from its opening measures vacillating between deeply meditative and agitated to the brilliant, affirmative conclusion. The concerto is in three movements:

Davidsbündlertänze

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Robert Schumann’s early piano works were substantially influenced by his relationship with Clara Wieck. On September 5, 1839, Schumann wrote to his former professor: “She was practically my sole motivation for writing the Davidsbündlertänze, the Concerto, the Sonata and the ‘Novelettes’.” They are an expression of his passionate love, anxieties, longings, visions, dreams and fantasies. The theme of the Davidsbündlertänze is based on a mazurka by Clara Wieck. The intimate character pieces are his most personal work. In 1838, Schumann told Clara that the Dances contained “many wedding thoughts” and that “the story is an entire Polterabend (German wedding eve party, during which old crockery is smashed to bring good luck)”. The pieces are not true dances, but characteristic pieces, musical dialogues about contemporary music between Schumann’s characters Florestan and Eusebius. These respectively represent the impetuous and the lyrical, poetic sides of Schumann’s nature. Each piece is ascribed to one or both of them. Their names follow the first piece and the appropriate initial or initials follow each of the others except the sixteenth (which leads directly into the seventeenth, the ascription for which applies to both) and the ninth and eighteenth, which are respectively preceded by the following remarks: “Here Florestan made an end, and his lips quivered painfully”, and “Quite superfluously Eusebius remarked as follows: but all the time great bliss spoke from his eyes.” In the second edition of the work, Schumann removed these ascriptions and remarks and the Tänze from the title, as well as making various alterations, including the addition of some repeats. The first edition is generally favored, though some readings from the second are often used. The suite ends with the striking of twelve low Cs to signify the coming of midnight. Peter Kaminsky has analysed the structure of the work in detail. The first edition is preceded by the following epigraph: In all und jeder Zeit Verknüpft sich Lust und Leid: Bleibt fromm in Lust und seid Dem Leid mit Mut bereit In each and every age joy and sorrow are mingled: Remain pious in joy, and be ready for sorrow with courage.

Dichterliebe

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Source: Heine’s Lyrisches Intermezzo#

Author of the sarcastic Die Romantische Schule, Heine was a vocal critic of German romanticism, though he is often described as a quintessentially Romantic writer. In some of his poetry, and notably in Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen (1844), romantic lyrical conventions are used as vessels to deploy biting, satirical nature. Dichterliebe was composed before Heine’s Deutschland and does not appear to portray this ironic dimension: scholarship is divided as to what extent Schumann intended to express it. Heine’s Lyrisches Intermezzo consists of a verse Prologue and 65 poems. The Prologue (Es war ‘mal ein Ritter trübselig und stumm – There once was a Knight, woeful and silent) tells of the sorrowful knight who sits gloomily in his house all day, but by night is visited by his fairy (nixie) bride, and dances with her until daylight returns him to his little poet’s room (Poeten-stübchen). The 65 poems follow, of which the 16 of the Dichterliebe are a selection. The conclusion of it is that he is going to put the old bad songs and dreams, all his sorrowful love and suffering, into a huge coffin that 12 giants will throw into the sea. This catastrophe is slightly reminiscent of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, in which the hero ends by drowning himself in the brook he has followed through the cycle.

Die Lotosblume

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Fantasie in C (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The Fantasie is in loose sonata form. Its three movements are headed: The first movement is rhapsodic and passionate; the middle movement is a grandiose rondo based on a majestic march, with episodes that recall the emotion of the first movement; and the finale is slow and meditative.

Genesis#

The piece has its origin in early 1836, when Schumann composed a piece entitled Ruines expressing his distress at being parted from his beloved Clara Wieck (later to become his wife). This later became the first movement of the Fantasy. Later that year, he wrote two more movements to create a work intended as a contribution to the appeal for funds to erect a monument to Beethoven in his birthplace, Bonn. Schumann offered the work to the publisher Kirstner, suggesting that 100 presentation copies could be sold to raise money for the monument. Other contributions to the Beethoven monument fund included Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses. The original title of Schumann’s work was “Obolen auf Beethovens Monument: Ruinen, Trophaen, Palmen, Grosse Sonate f.d. Piano f. Für Beethovens Denkmal”. Kirstner refused, and Schumann tried offering the piece to Haslinger in January 1837. When Haslinger also refused, he offered it to Breitkopf & Härtel in May 1837. The movements’ subtitles (Ruins, Trophies, Palms) became Ruins, Triumphal Arch, and Constellation, and were then removed altogether before Breitkopf & Härtel eventually issued the Fantasie in May 1839. The work was dedicated to Franz Liszt, who replied in a letter dated June 5, 1839: “The Fantaisie dedicated to me is a work of the highest kind – and I am really proud of the honour you have done me in dedicating to me so grand a composition. I mean, therefore, to work at it and penetrate it through and through, so as to make the utmost possible effect with it.” The Beethoven Monument was eventually completed, due mainly to the efforts of Liszt, who paid 2,666 thaler, the largest single contribution. It was unveiled in grand style in 1845, the attendees including Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and many other dignitaries and composers, but not Schumann, who was ill.

Fantasiestücke, Op. 12

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1. Des Abends#

The first piece is “Des Abends” (“In the Evening”) in D major. It is marked Sehr innig zu spielen (Play very intimately). : Schumann, after completing the work, then gave the piece its title, which introduces the character of Eusebius, who serves as a symbolic representation of Schumann’s dreamy self. He intended the imagery to be a “gentle picture of dusk.”

2. Aufschwung#

The second piece is “Aufschwung” (“Soaring”, literally “Upswing”) in F minor. It is marked Sehr rasch (Very rapidly). : Schumann conceived of “Aufschwung” as a depiction of the character Florestan indulging in his desires, and as the Norton Anthology of Western Music describes “at the height of his passions.”

Fantasiestücke, Op. 73

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Robert Schumann wrote the pieces over just two days in February 1849, and originally entitled them “Soirée Pieces” before settling on the title Fantasiestücke (“fantasy pieces”). The title is one Schumann was fond of, since he used it in several works. This poetic title promotes the fundamental Romantic notion that creative expression is the product of the artist’s unrestricted imagination. In addition, the connotations of “fantasy” justify the sudden mood changes.

Faschingsschwank aus Wien

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Form#

The work is in five movements: Marked () (very lively), the first movement is the longest and one of the more virtuosic movements, notable for its innovative rhythms and its brief quote of “La Marseillaise.” Of all the pieces of Faschingsschwank, this one is the least single-minded in its structure, introducing entirely new themes occasionally, only to be brought back repeatedly to two repeated motifs from the beginning. The piece comes to a crashing close with almost dissonant septuplet arpeggios. Probably the least virtuosic of the works, the second movement takes only a page of music. Despite its shortness and apparent ease, this is undoubtedly the saddest piece in the set. Despite the fact that most of the work is in G minor, the final measure brings a resolution into G major. Much as the title suggests, the third movement is a playful respite between two somber movements. A syncopated rhythm, with a melody based almost entirely on notes of the major chord, keeps the movement light and bouncing throughout, with the possible exception of the last run, a progression of octaves into a quick and bright cadence. The Intermezzo is marked by its flowing sound, created by keeping a steady stream of right-hand notes in the background, interspersed with melody notes. The piece, almost entirely based on transpositions, appears difficult at first due to its speed (some musicologists have remarked that Schumann’s metronome was calibrated such that it went faster than it should have, due to extreme tempi such as this one). While the background notes in the right hand do indeed move extremely fast, the melody is more singing. The background notes are mostly suited to the shape and position of the hand, despite a few leaps of the melody; in the end, the left hand takes a modified, E major version of the E minor melody, under the right hand. The work is a melancholy and emotionally charged display of a pianist’s capability to convey feeling. The “extremely lively” Finale begins with triumphant announcements in B octaves, interspersed with brilliant moving thirds. This section is the second longest, lasting about half the length of the first movement. The patterns seen in the Finale are somewhat reminiscent of Beethoven’s compositional style, using a melody that moves in both hands, while both hands also play unchanging notes beneath the melody. The energetic runs of the final bars bring the set to a dramatic close.

Five Pieces in Folk Style

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The last part of the 1840s were productive years for Schumann. Following his marriage to Clara in 1840, Schumann had rediscovered an interest in the composition of music not for piano solo which he had pursued to a degree in his youth, but which he had largely abandoned to focus upon the more remunerative music that would appear during his twenties. During this time Schumann composed music in an array of genres. In the early 1840s Schumann completed and published his string quartets, the Piano Quintet and Quartet, and the Andante and Variations for two pianos. In 1845 the Schumanns moved to Dresden, which Schumann had considered a suitable location for the couple even before their marriage. They would spend the latter part of the decade there. Schumann turned to chamber music on the smaller scale; all the chamber music of this period was for piano and one or two other instruments. Schumann composed three duets, the first he ever completed, in 1849: the Five Pieces, the Adagio and Allegro for Horn and Piano and the Fantasiestücke for Clarinet, Op. 73. The period 1845–53 was also the time of the composition and premieres of all of Schumann’s concerti and concertante works, beginning with the piano concerto, which appeared in 1845. Between 1845 and 1847 Schumann struggled against actual ill-health, hypochondria, and depression to complete the symphony published as his Second. The year 1849 was a particularly active one for the Schumanns. Robert was busied by finishing touches to his opera Genoveva, whose premiere in Leipzig would take place the following year. But in February and March, he completed the Fantasiestücke, the Adagio and Allegro for Horn and Piano, the Konzertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra, and several choral works and cycles of Lieder including the Romanzen für Frauenstimmen, a set of part-songs, and the Spanisches Liederspiel of songs for four soloists. These meant income for Schumann (a priority for him in 1849, which ended in the publication of the lucrative Album für die Jugend) and also served to raise his profile amongst the genteel public of Dresden, where small-scale music in the home was more popular than concert works of the sort which had made Schumann famous elsewhere. Meanwhile, the violence of the May Uprising in Dresden, where the Schumanns had their home, was brewing. At the time Clara was pregnant with Ferdinand, their sixth child, but they were forced to flee the city in early May, and went to live in the nearby village of Kreischa. The Five Pieces were conceived early in the flowering of Schumann’s interest in chamber works for duet, and so the project’s result was somewhat formally and texturally experimental for Schumann. They preceded his first conventional sonata for soloist and piano accompaniment, the first violin sonata, by two years; they also preceded the composition of the cello concerto by a year, and served as a venue for textural and technical experimentation in cello writing for Schumann. The pieces also reflect Schumann’s longstanding interest in folk music, especially music from Germany and Bohemia. The dedicatee of the work, Andreas Grabau, was a cellist in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and a celebrated chamber musician. He had met Clara Schumann in 1828, when she was nine years old, and was introduced soon after to Robert. Later, he would premiere Schumann’s first and third piano trios. He was a Davidsbündler, whom Schumann, himself a student of the cello in his youth, greatly admired. A year before their publication in 1851, Grabau performed the Five Pieces with Clara in private, in honour of Schumann’s fortieth birthday. The work was published at Kassel by Carl Luckhardt in September 1851. Schumann prepared an alternative edition for violin and piano. After Schumann’s death, Clara staged a public premiere for the work in December 1859 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Friedrich Grützmacher was accompanied by Clara herself.

Frauen-Liebe und Leben

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Text#

Adelbert von Chamisso wrote the cycle of nine poems in late 1829 and early 1830. Kugler socialized with Chamisso and dedicated the Skizzenbuch to him. In 1831, the poems were published twice in the first editions of Chamisso’s poetry and his complete works. The cycle was widely admired in Germany, particularly by young women. The nine poems in the cycle are untitled. # “Seit ich ihn gesehen” Since I first saw him : The woman is blinded by her love for the man she has met. # “Er, der herrlichste von allen” He, the most marvelous of all : She believes only the worthiest woman will capture his love. # “Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben” I cannot grasp it, nor believe it : She is astounded the man would choose a woman as lowly as her. # “Du Ring an meinem Finger” Thou ring upon my finger : She is transfigured by his love and vows to serve him. # “Helft mir, ihr Schwestern” Help me, you sisters : She asks other women to help her prepare for her marriage and laments leaving their company. # “Süßer Freund, du blickest” Sweet friend, you look : She blissfully tells her husband that she is pregnant. # “An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust” Against my heart, against my breast : The new mother relishes nursing her child. # “Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan” Now you have caused me the first grief : She laments the death of her husband. # “Traum der eignen Tage” Dream of my own days : She blesses her granddaughter. Chamisso classified the cycle as lyric narrative poems. His decision to write from the woman’s perspective was also in the German tradition of role-playing poems (Rollengedichte). The heroine’s subservience and naivety have been summed up as “an elegant view of how the more authoritarian paterfamilias hoped to be regarded by his wife, and particularly how he assumed she would greet his death”. She has also been dismissed as “a doormat”. Chamisso filled a gap in contemporary poetry by writing from a woman’s perspective. Likewise, the songs composed to his poems gave female singers a rare opportunity to sing first-person material.

Geistervariationen

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

This was Schumann’s last work before he was admitted to the asylum in Bonn-Endenich. Wolf-Dieter Seiffert wrote in the preface to that at this time of his life, Schumann believed that he was surrounded by spirits who played him music, both “wonderful” and “hideous”. They offered him “most magnificent revelations”, but also threatened to send him to Hell. Seiffert goes on to write that on 17 or 18 February 1854, Schumann wrote down a theme he said was dictated to him by voices like those of angels. He did not recognize that it was actually a theme which he had composed previously. After surviving the suicide attempt, he continued to work on it. The next day, he completed the work and sent the manuscript to his wife, Clara, who had left him the night before, on the advice of a doctor.

Genoveva

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition history#

Schumann expressed the desire to write an opera as early as 1842, and was fascinated by the possibilities of operas based on traditional German legends. His notebooks from this period show that, among others, Schumann considered the stories of the Nibelungen, Lohengrin and Till Eulenspiegel to be good candidates for settings in German opera. Schumann began work on Genoveva toward the end of a period of intense depression. In the early 1840s, discouraged both by the greater public esteem enjoyed by his wife, Clara Schumann, a leading pianist as well as a composer with a high-profile career as a touring virtuoso, and by the fact that he was not offered the directorship of the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Schumann’s depression intensified. In 1844, he and Clara moved to Dresden, where his depression eventually moderated and he began work on a number of compositions, including Genoveva. While in Dresden, Schumann encountered Richard Wagner, whose discouraging comments on Schumann’s libretto for Genoveva strained relations between the two composers. For his part, however, Schumann came to admire the dramatic impact of Wagner’s operas, and the influence of Wagner’s music worked its way into the score for Genoveva. Indeed, some of the musical techniques used in the opera, such as the fluid through-composed music (i.e. there are no recitatives) and lack of purely virtuosic vocal moments, are Schumann’s personal interpretations and adaptations of Wagner’s compositional methods. Although the then recently constructed Dresden Semperoper house declined to stage Genoveva, much to Schumann’s fury, he eventually secured a staging in Leipzig.

Gesänge der Frühe

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Movements#

The five movements are tonally organized by the three notes in the D major triad: D, F, and A. The first, second, and fifth pieces are in D major; the fourth piece is in F minor; and the third piece is in A major. 1. (In a tranquil tempo, D major) : The opening movement is like a chorale with rhythmic simplicity and a subdued, but rich texture. Many dissonant intervals permeate the transparent texture. The main melody is heard in stretto in the final two phrases. The entire movement has an almost religious sonority. 2. (Animated, not too quick, D major) : The movement is nearly entirely contrapuntal. The composer avoids showing listeners where the tonic key is. 3. (Lively, A major) : Probably the most virtuosic of the set, this movement has a constant, galloping rhythmic drive which continues throughout the piece. The octaves and large chords contribute to the heavy sonority. 4. (With motion, F minor) : A melody is mixed with a cascading accompaniment of 32nd notes. The music is restless and becomes agitated in the climax. 5. (First tranquil, then moved tempo, D major) : The final piece returns to a similar character and sonority as the first movement. A quicker 16th note accompaniment emerges from the thin texture. The lack of a strong final cadence brings this enigmatic piece to an ambiguous, but beautiful close.

Hermann and Dorothea

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Summary#

Hermann, son of the wealthy innkeeper in a small town near Mainz, is sent by his mother to bring clothes and food to the refugees which have set up camp near their town. They have fled their villages on the western side of the Rhine river, now occupied by the French Revolutionary Army, in order to seek refuge on the eastern side. On his way to the camp, Hermann meets Dorothea, a young maid who assists a woman in her childbed on her flight. Overwhelmed by her courage, compassion, and beauty, Hermann asks Dorothea to distribute his donations among her poor fellow refugees. Back home, he reveals his affection to his parents. His father brushes away his timid confession, reminding him bluntly that he wants Hermann to choose a wife from a respected local family with a generous dowry. He goes on to express his deep disappointment with Hermann’s perceived lack of ambition to move forward in life, and lectures him about how he should become a respected citizen. After Hermann has left in despair, his mother utters the following timelessly wise and deeply moving verses: :Immer bist du doch, Vater, so ungerecht gegen den Sohn! und So wird am wenigsten dir dein Wunsch des Guten erfüllet. Denn wir können die Kinder nach unserem Sinne nicht formen; So wie Gott sie uns gab, so muß man sie haben und lieben, Sie erziehen aufs beste und jeglichen lassen gewähren. Denn der eine hat die, die anderen andere Gaben; Jeder braucht sie, und jeder ist doch nur auf eigene Weise Gut und glücklich. :Why will you always, father, do our son such injustice? That least of all is the way to bring your wish to fulfillment. We have no power to fashion our children as it suits our will; As they are given by God, so we must have them and love them; teach them as best we can, and let each of them follow his nature. One will have talents of one sort, and different talents another. Every one uses his own; in his own individual fashion, each must be happy and good. Hermann’s mother goes after her son and finally finds him in a far corner of their garden. Having been shaken to tears by his father’s harsh words, Hermann tells his mother that he intends to marry Dorothea or else to stay bachelor for the rest of his life. His mother understands the sincerity and depth of his affections and decides to help him obtain his father’s permission. They return to Hermann’s father, who still discourses with his respected neighbors, the town’s pharmacist and the young and wise parish priest. The two friends offer to collect inquiries among the refugees to find out if Dorothea is virtuous and worthy to be Hermann’s bride. Moved by his wife’s and friends’ persuasion, Hermann’s father grudgingly promises that he will abide by his two friends’ recommendation.

Humoreske (Schumann)

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Structure#

The Humoreske consists of seven sections (not originally indicated as such by the composer except for the last one, “”), to be played attacca after each other. Although the piece is nominally written in B major, most of the piece is set in B major’s relative minor key, G minor. The musical texture and emotional tone, though, varies widely and differs greatly between the sections: # "" (Simple) (B major, , M. M. = 80) #:"" (Very fast and light) (B major, , M. M. = 138) #:"" (Even faster) (G minor) #:"", (First tempo, as in the beginning) (B major, ) # "" (Hastily) (G minor, , M. M. = 126) #:"" (Gradually more lively and stronger) (D minor) #:"" (As previously) Adagio # "" (Simple and delicate) (G minor, , M. M. = 100) #:“Intermezzo” (B major, , M. M. = 100) # "" (Heartfelt) (B major, , M. M. = 116) #:"" (Quicker) (Tempo I) # "" (Very lively) (G-minor/B major, , M. M. = 76) #:"" (Increasingly lively) Stretto # "" (With some pomp) (modulating, , M. M. = 92) # "" (To the resolution) (B major, , M. M. = 112 ) Allegro A typical performance is about 27 minutes long. It is less popular with audiences than with pianists, and Robert Cummings wrote that some musicologists view it as an ill-judged attempt by Schumann to “take his formula in Kreisleriana a step further.” However, it has been championed by critics such as Judith Chernaik and John C. Tibbetts (who consider Humoreske among Schumann’s greatest pieces) as well as Anthony Tommasini, who referred to it as one of Schumann’s “most astonishing, and most overlooked, piano works”.

In Kümmernis und Dunkelheit

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In 1848, the German revolution began. Liberal pressure spread through many of the German states, each of which experienced the revolutions in its own way. The street demonstrations of workers and artisans in Paris, France, from February 22 through 24, 1848, resulted in the abdication of King Louis Philippe and his departure from France to live in Britain, was the immediate spur to revolt in Germany. The revolution spread across Europe and started in Germany with the large demonstrations on March 13, 1848, in Vienna, Austria, which resulted in the resignation of Prince von Metternich as chief minister to Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria and his departure from Austria to live in Britain.

Julius Caesar (overture)

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Background#

Julius Caesar is usually associated with two other Schumann concert overtures written about that time, also inspired by great literature: The Bride of Messina, Op. 100 (based on Schiller’s eponymous play) and Hermann und Dorothea, Op. 136 (based on Goethe’s epic poem). The year 1851 was intensely active for Schumann: not only did he complete these three overtures, he also wrote his Piano Trio No. 3, his 1st and 2nd violin sonatas, a chamber oratorio, lieder, works for chorus and orchestra, and works for solo piano; and thoroughly revised his Symphony No. 4.

Kinderszenen

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History and description#

Schumann wrote 30 movements for this work but chose 13 for the final version. The unused movements were later published in Bunte Blätter, Op. 99, and Albumblätter, Op. 124. Schumann initially intended to publish Kinderszenen together with Novelletten (Opus 21); the shared literary theme is suggested by the original title Kindergeschichten (Children’s Tales). He told his wife Clara that the “thirty small, droll things”, most of them less than a page in length, were inspired by her comment that he sometimes seemed “like a child”. He described them in 1840 as “more cheerful, gentler, more melodic” than his earlier works. Movement No. 7 of the work, , is one of Schumann’s best known pieces; it is the opening and closing musical theme of the 1947 Hollywood film Song of Love, and is the title of a 1944 German biographical film on Schumann. In Russia, a hummed choral a cappella version became known as mourning music, being played annually during the Minute of Silence on Victory Day. The Indian apparel brand, Raymond, used as the theme music in its advertising campaign, “The Complete Man”. Originally called Leichte Stücke (“Easy Pieces”), the section titles were only added after the completion of the composition, and Schumann described them as “nothing more than delicate hints for execution and interpretation”. Timothy D. Taylor, however, has discussed the choice of titles for this work in the context of the changing situation of music culturally and economically, stating that the final movement, entitled Der Dichter spricht (The Poet Speaks), marked a realisation among composers that, due to the decline of patronage structures in the 19th century, their musical works must take on new meanings. There is no known complete manuscript of Kinderszenen.

Konzertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History and reception#

In 1849, Robert Schumann explored the horn as a solo instrument, dedicating to it an “Adagio and Allegro,” Op. 70, before embarking on the composition of an orchestral work featuring four solo horns (having also composed the “Five Songs based on Heinrich Laube’s Hunting Compendium” for men’s choir and four horns, Op. 137 that same year). He worked on the sketches from February 18 to 20, and completed the orchestration from February 27 to March 11, 1849. Schumann was aware of the unusual instrumentation but also acknowledged the qualities of the new work, which he described as “something quite curious” but also as “one of my best pieces.” In a private performance with piano on October 15, 1849, at the residence of hornist Joseph Rudolf Levy, a member of the Dresden Court Orchestra, hornist Heinrich Hübler also participated. Hübler would present his own Konzertstück for the same instrumentation later. On February 25, 1850, Julius Rietz conducted the premiere of the Konzertstück at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. The four soloists—Eduard Pohle, Joseph Jehnigen, Eduard Julius Leichsenring, and Carl Heinrich Conrad Wilcke—were members of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Schumann noted a “friendly reception” by the audience. A reviewer for the Signale für die musikalische Welt wrote: “As strange as the idea of composing a quadruple concerto for horns may be, the composition itself is just as peculiar and valuable … “. However, the work was deemed too lengthy. The autograph of the Konzertstück is housed in the Berlin State Library. After Schumann had unsuccessfully offered the work to several publishers, including Simrock and Breitkopf & Härtel, Schuberth & Co. finally undertook publication of the work in 1851.

Kreisleriana

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Movements#

(Extremely animated), D minor # (Very inwardly and not too quickly), B major. This movement in ABACA form, with its lyrical main theme, includes two contrasting intermezzi. In his 1850 edition, Schumann extended the first reprise of the theme by twenty measures in order to repeat it in full. # (Very agitated), G minor # (Very slowly), B major/G minor # (Very lively), G minor # (Very slowly), B major # (Very fast), C minor/E major # (Fast and playful), G minor. Schumann used material from this movement in the fourth movement of his first symphony.#

Analysis#

Kreisleriana is a very dramatic work and is viewed by some critics as one of Schumann’s finest compositions. In 1839, soon after publishing it, Schumann called it in a letter “my favourite work”, remarking that “The title conveys nothing to any but Germans. Kreisler is one of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s creations, an eccentric, wild, and witty conductor.” In 1843, when he had moved from writing for solo piano to much larger works, in particular Paradise and the Peri, he still listed it as one of his best piano works. The work’s title was inspired by the character of Johannes Kreisler from works of E. T. A. Hoffmann. Like the kaleidoscopic Kreisler, each number has multiple contrasting sections, resembling the imaginary musician’s manic depression, and recalling Schumann’s own “Florestan” and “Eusebius”, the two characters Schumann used to indicate his own contrasting impulsive and dreamy sides. Johannes Kreisler appears in several books by Hoffmann, including Kater Murr and most notably in the “Kreisleriana” sections of Fantasy Pieces in Callot’s Manner, published in 1814. In a letter to his wife Clara, Schumann reveals that she figured prominently in the composition of Kreisleriana:

Liederkreis, Op. 24 (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Songs#

I. “Morgens steh’ ich auf und frage” — The narrator speaks of his daily hope for his beloved to come to him, and his nightly disappointment when she does not. In D major. II. “Es treibt mich hin” — The narrator is driven hither and thither in excitement about seeing his beloved, but the hours go too slowly for him. In B minor. III. “Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen” — The grieving narrator wanders in the woods and finds that the birds already know the word that brings back his sorrow: they heard it from a pretty young woman. In B major. IV. “Lieb’ Liebchen” — The narrator compares his own heartbeat to a carpenter making a coffin; he wishes the pounding would stop so that he can sleep. In E minor. V. “Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden” — The narrator bids farewell to the town in which he first saw his beloved and laments that he ever met her, as he would then never have become so miserable as he is now. In E major. VI. “Warte, warte, wilder Schiffmann” — The narrator tells a boatman that he will come to the harbor to leave both Europe and his beloved. He compares the latter to Eve, who brought evil upon mankind. In E major. VII. “Berg und Burgen schaun herunter” — The narrator is in a boat on the Rhine, which he describes as beautiful but also harboring death within it, like his beloved. In A major. VIII. “Anfangs wollt’ ich fast verzagen” — The narrator remembers how he used to think he could never bear his sorrow. Although he has done so, he does not want to be asked how. In D minor. IX. “Mit Myrten und Rosen” — The narrator speaks of his wish to bury his book of songs, now that the songs lie cold and dead. But he also hopes that one day the spirit of love will rejuvenate them and that his beloved will see the book and the songs will speak to her. In D major.

Liederkreis, Op. 39 (Schumann)

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Songs#

The cycle consists of twelve songs: # “In der Fremde” I # “Intermezzo” # “Waldesgespräch” # “Die Stille” # “Mondnacht” # “Schöne Fremde” # “Auf einer Burg” # “In der Fremde” II # “Wehmut” # “Zwielicht” # “Im Walde” # “Frühlingsnacht”

Form#

The form of “In der Fremde” is ambiguous: there are arguments that it is through-composed and arguments that it is in the A–B–A form. The evidence that “In der Fremde” is through-composed is found in both the melody and the harmony. The harmonic pattern is inconsistent enough to be through composed: The piece modulates from F minor, to A major, to B minor, then back to F minor. Within each of these keys, the general structure is comparable, but the last significant section (mm 22–28) is strikingly different. With each modulation, the melody changes. The modulations are not directly congruent with the stanza changes, which points to a through-composed piece. It can be argued that “In der Fremde” takes an A–B–A–C form. Though they are in different keys, the first and third sections (A) have nearly the same melody and comparable harmonic structures. The second section (B) has all new melodic material and is in a major mode which contrasts with the A section. The final section is new material; it “echoes the last line of the first quatrain and stands in for a return of the entire quatrain”, but does not constitute a restatement of the A section. The form could also be interpreted as A–B– if the focus is predominantly on the vocal line. There is a recurring motif between the A and sections, and the difference between the two sections can be found in sparse accidentals and different intervals that make the variations on the original motif. The big difference is the change in key, as the section is in B minor before the song modulates back to the home key, F minor.

Märchenbilder

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Movements#

The work has four movements: The fourth of these movements is based on a theme that resembles one introduced in the third movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Op. 125). Whether this is coincidental is unconfirmed.

Sources#

Margit L. McCorkle, Robert Schumann. Thematisch-Bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis, München-Mainz 2003, p. 160
Klaus Martin Kopitz & Torsten Oltrogge, Ein Dichter namens Louis du Rieux und Schumanns „Märchenbilder“ op. 113. Annäherungen an einen geheimnisvollen Verehrer des Komponisten, in: Denkströme. Journal der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, no. 11 (2013), p. 112–140 PDF

External links#

Märchenbilder: Schumann’s autograph manuscript in the Library of Congress
Performance of Märchenbilder by Paul Neubauer (viola) and Anne-Marie McDermott (piano) from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format
Background and Ideas for Interpretations by Zsuzsanna Lipták-Pikó, Masters Thesis

Märchenerzählungen

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History#

The composition, one of Schumann’s last works, uses the same combination of instruments as Mozart’s Kegelstatt Trio. The composer was interested in the “picturesque and the fanciful”, but left no link to specific fairy tales, as for his earlier Märchenbilder, Op. 113. The composition was completed in a few days. Clara Schumann noted in her diary: “Heute vollendete Robert 4 Stücke für Klavier, Klarinette und Viola und war selbst sehr beglückt darüber. Er meint, diese Zusammenstellung werde sich höchst romantisch ausnehmen.” (Today Robert completed 4 pieces for piano, clarinet and viola and was very happy about it. He thinks that this compilation will appear highly romantic.) The pieces were first performed privately by Clara as the pianist, the violist Ruppert Becker and the clarinetist Johann Kochner. A little later, Joseph Joachim presented them in public. The compositions were published by Breitkopf & Härtel shortly afterwards, and Schumann could present the first copy to the dedicatee, Albert Dietrich, in February 1854.

Missa sacra (Schumann)

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Characteristics#

The work follows a traditional Catholic or Latin mass with a generally diatonic tone. It utilizes counterpoint that was uncharacteristic of its era, possibly the result of Schumann’s study of Bach and Palestrina. The work was originally created in five movements, with the offertorium added by the composer later. Two versions of the offertorium are regularly performed. One of which is written for solo soprano, cello, and muted strings. The other uses a solo soprano accompanied by an organ.

Myrthen

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Composition#

Myrthen was a product of Schumann’s 1840 “year of song”. On 23 January he jotted down an early version of his setting of Heine’s “Du bist wie eine Blume”, the first song recorded in his Berliner Liederbuch, and eventually to be published as No. 24 in the cycle. This was followed by notes for various songs later to form part of several other song cycles. writes that “the notion of uniting the songs into a cycle appears to have arisen only gradually”. She also points out that the songs were likely originally arranged into books by their librettist: “the songs later published as Myrthen were … intended as a book of songs after Goethe, a book after Burns, and two books of songs after assorted poets.” Only after the great majority of the songs in Myrthen had been worked out did Schumann begin in the late spring of 1840 to consider publication as a cycle for both this work and the Liederkreis, Op. 39. Division into four books seems to have been the intention from early on, not only in light of pragmatic consideration of publication logistics, but also as an aid to the cyclical structure of Myrthen. But even after this approach had been decided upon, Schumann changed the songs’ ordering several times. On 7 March 1840 Schumann offered Myrthen to his publisher Kistner. He wrote that he intended them to appear in print as a bridal gift in the form of a song cycle in four books. The title refers to myrtles, traditionally part of a bride’s outfit. On 1 August, a court judgement gave Clara and Robert permission at last to marry, following a long legal battle in which the bride’s father Friedrich Wieck had bitterly contested their union. Schumann presented Clara with an opulently decorated copy of the first edition of the Myrthen on the eve of their wedding. The printed dedication “To his beloved bride” addresses not only this private occasion, but also the public matter of the legality of their marriage; Schumann was eager to publicise the court’s decision. By the publication of Myrthen, writes Grotjahn, Schumann not only positioned himself as “a man inspired to create by joyous love”; he intended by the work’s symbolic title to provide “proof of his success as a commercially minded man just as well as his success as creative artist”. Schumann gave the collection to Clara on the eve of their wedding which took place on 12 September that year. The musicologist Eric Sams asked in his book, The Songs of Robert Schumann, “what bride ever had a finer wedding gift?”

Nachtlied (Schumann)

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Characteristics#

The work is scored for an eight-part mixed choir without soloists, and an orchestra. Although not explicitly segregated, the work has three distinct sections based on the verses of the original poem. In the first section, a polyphonic structure is established with competing melodic lines from the chorus. In the second, the instrumental writing becomes muddier and more urgent. In the final section, the piece abruptly modulates to D major from its original key in D minor and an echo of the word (sleep) is heard in the chorus. The end is dream-like, invoking a descent into sleep.

Nachtstücke

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Historical background#

The Nachtstücke were composed in 1839 together with Faschingsschwank aus Wien and published one year later. The Intermezzo from Faschingsschwank was originally published as a supplement to the Neue Zeitschrift and identified as a ‘fragment from the Nachtstücke which are to appear shortly’. Schumann envisaged the following titles for the four pieces: # Trauerzug (“Funeral procession”) # Kuriose Gesellschaft (“Strange company”) # Nächtliches Gelage (“Nocturnal revelries”) # Rundgesang mit Solostimmen (“Roundelay with solo voices”) These titles were not included in the original edition.

Novelletten (Schumann)

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Background#

The Novelletten were composed during February 1838, a period of great struggle for the composer. Schumann originally intended the eight pieces to be performed together as a group, though they are often performed separately. The title was chosen in honour of the singer Clara Novello, who made a strong impression on Schumann during her concerts in Leipzig in the winter of 1837–38. At the same time, Schumann alludes to the literary genre of the Novelle, suggesting that the pieces in this cycle possess a narrative character. This set of pieces is an excellent example of Schumann’s keyboard style.

Overture, Scherzo and Finale

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Instrumentation#

The piece is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings.

Structure#

The work is in three movements:

Papillons

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Structure#

The composition’s twelve movements are: :: Introduction. Moderato (D major) # Waltz (D major) # Waltz – Prestissimo (E major) # Waltz – Pomposo (F minor) # Waltz – Allegretto vivace (A major) # Polonaise – Allegretto cantabile (B major) # Waltz – Allegro molto (D minor) # Waltz – Semplice (F minor) # Waltz – Allegro con brio (C minor) # Waltz – Prestissimo (B minor) # Waltz – Vivo (C major) # Polonaise – Allegro con spirito (D major) # Finale (D major)

Paradise and the Peri

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Sources#

Robert Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri and its early Performances Thomas Moore in Europe, 31 May 2017
Das Paradies und die Peri, Op. 50 (Part One, Part Two), Robert Schumann Los Angeles Philharmonic
Peter Ostwald, Schumann: The Inner Voices of a Musical Genius (Boston: Northeast University Press, 1985). . pp. 182–3.
John Daverio, “Expressing The Highest Through Chorus and Orchestra”—Liner notes to the recording Das Paradies und die Peri as performed by the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantiques under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner (Archiv Production 289 457 660-2, released in 1999).

Piano Concerto (Schumann)

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History#

Schumann had worked on several piano concertos earlier. He began one in E major in 1828, from 1829–31 he worked on one in F major, and in 1839 he wrote one movement of a concerto in D minor. None of these were completed. On 10 January 1833, Schumann first expressed the idea of writing a Piano Concerto in A minor. In a letter to his future father-in-law, Friedrich Wieck, he wrote: “I think the piano concerto must be in C major or in A minor.” On 17–20 May 1841, Schumann wrote a fantasy for piano and orchestra, his Phantasie in A minor. He unsuccessfully tried to sell it to publishers. In August 1841 and January 1843 Schumann revised the piece, but was unsuccessful. His wife Clara, an accomplished pianist, then urged him to expand it into a full piano concerto. In 1845 he added the Intermezzo and Allegro vivace to the work. It remained the only piano concerto he finished. The premiere of the first movement (Phantasie) took place on 13 August 1841 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig with Clara Schumann as the soloist. The complete three-movement version premiered in Dresden on 4 December 1845, again with Clara Schumann, and the dedicatee Ferdinand Hiller conducting. Less than a month later, on 1 January 1846, the concerto was performed in Leipzig, conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. After this concerto, Schumann wrote two other pieces for piano and orchestra: the Introduction and Allegro Appassionato in G major, Op. 92, and the Introduction and Allegro Concertante in D minor, Op. 134.

Piano Quartet (Schumann)

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Background#

The Piano Quartet in E major is preceded by a Piano Quartet in C minor, WoO E1, that Schumann composed in 1829, near the end of his first year of study in Leipzig. Possibly inspired by Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G minor and clearly influenced by Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 2, it was Schumann’s most notable accomplishment to that date, and a “remarkably polished work for someone who was as yet without formal training in composition”. Nonetheless, the Piano Quartet in C minor remained unpublished until 1979. Schumann would not compose any major chamber music until 1842, in which he produced several large-scale works for varying instrumentation. The first were his three String Quartets, Op. 41, which were completed by July, followed by the Piano Quintet, Op. 44 that was written from September to October. The Piano Quartet was sketched from 24 to 30 October, and written out in a fair copy between 7 and 26 November; the inscription “Leipzig, 26 November 1842” appears at the end of the manuscript. After the quartet, he wrote the Fantasiestücke for piano trio, Op. 88 in December, and the Andante and Variations for two pianos, French horn and two cellos, Op. 46 between January and February 1843. Like the Piano Quintet, the Piano Quartet was written with his wife Clara in mind, though it was dedicated to Count Mathieu Wielhorsky, a Russian cellist and impresario. A private performance of the work took place on 5 April 1843 at the Schumanns’ home in Leipzig, with Clara at the piano, who described the quartet in her diary as a “beautiful work, so youthful and fresh, as if it were his first”. After making several revisions, on 24 August 1843 Schumann offered the work to the publisher and received a fee of 100 thaler. After several delays due to the Schumanns’ tour of Russia in 1844, where the work was performed at a private recital, it was published in May 1845. The manuscript is today held at the Berlin State Library, while the initial sketches have been lost. The premiere took place on 8 December 1844 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig with Clara Schumann (piano), Ferdinand David (violin), Niels Gade (viola), and Franz Karl Wittmann (cello), as part of a farewell concert for the Schumanns, who were leaving Leipzig for Dresden.

Piano Quintet (Schumann)

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Composition and performance#

Schumann composed his piano quintet in just a few weeks in September and October 1842, in the course of his so-called Year of Chamber Music. Before 1842 Schumann had completed no chamber music at all, with the exception of an early piano quartet composed in 1829. Following his marriage to Clara in 1840, Schumann turned to the composition of songs, chamber music and orchestral works. During his year-long concentration in 1842 upon chamber music he executed the three string quartets, Op. 41, the piano quintet, Op. 44; the piano quartet, Op. 47; and the Phantasiestücke for piano trio, Op. 88. Schumann’s work in that year was buoyant in character; John Daverio considers the Piano Quintet to be the “creative double” of the Piano Quartet that was written few weeks later, both displaying the “extroverted, exuberant side of the composer’s creative genius”. Schumann dedicated the piano quintet to his wife Clara. She was due to perform the piano part in the first private performance of the quintet on 6 December 1842 at the home of Henriette Voigt and her husband Carl. However she fell ill and Felix Mendelssohn stepped in, sight-reading the “fiendish” piano part. Mendelssohn’s suggestions to Schumann after this performance led to revisions to the inner movements, including the addition to the third movement of a second trio. A notable performance came in 1852, when Schumann asked that the younger pianist Julius Tausch replace Clara in the quintet, explaining that “a man understands that better.”

Piano Sonata No. 2 (Schumann)

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Background#

It was one of his three full-length attempts at the sonata genre, the other completed ones being the Piano Sonata No. 1 and Piano Sonata No. 3. Because it was published only in 1839, three years after the F minor sonata, it was given a later opus number (op. 22) but an earlier sequence number (No. 2) was kept. This has caused some confusion, and recordings of the G minor Sonata have sometimes been published as “Sonata No. 3”. There was also an earlier sonata in F minor, which Schumann abandoned; this is sometimes referred to as “Sonata No. 4”. Among his sonatas, this one is very frequently performed and recorded. Because of its great variety and highly virtuosic demands, it is enjoyed both by audiences and performers alike. Clara Schumann claimed to be “endlessly looking forward to the second sonata”, but nevertheless Robert revised it several times. At Clara Schumann’s request, the original finale, marked Presto passionato was replaced with a less difficult movement in 1838.

Piano Trio No. 3 (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Discography#

Schumann: Piano Trios 1 & 3 (no. 1 Op. 63, no. 3 Op. 110); The Benvenue Fortepiano Trio; Avie Records, AV 2210, 2010.
Schumann: The Complete Piano Trios / Piano Quartet, Op. 47 / Piano Quintet, Op. 44, Beaux Arts Trio, Phillips B0000041N8
Schumann: Piano Trios, Israel Piano Trio, CRD 2413
Schumann: The Complete Piano Trios, Piano Quartet, Piano Quintet, Trio Wanderer, Harmonia Mundi, B08WKSQSZJ
Schumann: Complete Works for Piano Trio Leiv Ove Andsnes, Christian Tetzlaff, Tanja Tetzlaff Warner Classics.50999 0 94180 2

External links#

*Performance of Piano Trio No. 3 by the Claremont Trio from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format

Requiem (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Started in 1852, Schumann’s requiem was one of the last works the composer would successfully complete. Critics point to the work as evidence of Schumann’s failing creativity and mental state. Absent any known commission, substantial questions have been raised about Schumann’s motivation for writing a requiem which represented a significant departure from the composer’s previous style, in which he remained mostly secular. While Schumann was contractually obligated to perform in cathedrals several times per year after his move 1850 to Düsseldorf, documentation is not conclusive on the composer’s religious background. During Schumann’s stay in an asylum for a suicide attempt, his requiem was one of few that he continued to compose. The original manuscript indicates that it was heavily revised, demonstrating Schumann’s poor state of mind. It is speculated that Schumann, like Mozart, was writing his own mass.

Requiem for Mignon

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Development#

Schumann was reportedly fascinated by Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and dedicated both parts of his Op. 98 (the songs Lieder und Gesänge aus ‘Wilhelm Meister, Op.98a, and the Requiem for Mignon, Op. 98b) to the book. Schumann was particularly interested in a character named Mignon, a young woman born out of incest. The year of its composition marked the centenary of Goethe’s birth, and Schumann acknowledged this in several of his works. Schumann laid the foundation for the Requiem on July 2 and 3, 1849 and finished its orchestration in September of the same year. The work would premier in a concert for Düsseldorf Allgemeiner Musikverein on November 21, 1851.

Scenes from Goethe's Faust

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Schumann’s work on what he labeled an oratorio began in 1842. This was just over a decade after the death of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who completed Part Two of the dramatic poem Faust in his final year. Many contemporary readers of Faust found Goethe’s epic poem daunting and difficult to grasp. Goethe himself declared only Mozart fit to write the music for it (though Mozart died in 1791, almost 20 years prior to the completion of Part One of Faust). Schumann explained the weight of the task before him in an 1845 letter to Felix Mendelssohn: " A ny composer would not only be judged by his treatment of one of the seminal and most-widely acclaimed works in German literature, but would also be setting himself up to be compared to Mozart." Yet despite Schumann’s expressed reservations about the work, it has been labeled his “magnum opus.” Eric Sams comments ‘There is no coherence in the orchestration, which audibly dates from two different periods (hand-horns in Part III, valve-horns elsewhere)’, leading him to conclude that Schumann did not conceive the work as a whole, although late nineteenth-century ideas of performance mean that in the modern era the piece is predominantly heard with all three parts.

Sechs Gedichte und Requiem

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Composition#

In 1829 Schumann had met the cycle’s main librettist, Nikolaus Lenau, in Vienna. But it was in the summer of 1850 that he undertook to set his poems in a cycle. This came at the end of his period in Dresden, where the Schumanns’ lives had lately been upturned by the violence of 1849. For Schumann, 1850 followed an extremely productive year which saw the composition of piano music such as the Waldszenen; works for solo voice such as the Spanisches Liederspiel and the declamation Schön Hedwig; two concertante works, the Konzertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra and the Introduction and Allegro appassionato for Piano and Orchestra; chamber works such as the Five Pieces in Folk Style and the Adagio and Allegro for Horn and Piano; and many choral and part-song works, such as the Requiem for Mignon, the Nachtlied for chorus and orchestra and the song cycle Minnespiel. The beginning of 1850 saw sketches for Schumann’s Neujahrslied, Op. 144, and several successful productions of the popular Paradise and the Peri. In February, Clara Schumann and her husband travelled from Dresden to Leipzig, to prepare for the premiere of Robert’s opera Genoveva. However, Genovevas staging was delayed in favour of a production of Meyerbeer’s Le prophète, whose premiere at Paris the previous year had been met very warmly. Nevertheless, the Schumanns stayed a month in Leipzig, where performances of Schumann’s works were received well, returning at last to Dresden via concerts in the north-west and a visit to relatives of Clara’s in Berlin.

Symphonic Études

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition#

The first edition in 1837 carried an annotation that the tune was “the composition of an amateur”: this referred to the origin of the theme, which had been sent to Schumann by Baron von Fricken, guardian of Ernestine von Fricken, the Estrella of his Carnaval Op. 9. The baron, an amateur musician, had used the melody in a Theme with Variations for flute. Schumann had been engaged to Ernestine in 1834, only to break abruptly with her the year after. An autobiographical element is thus interwoven in the genesis of the Études symphoniques (as in that of many other works of Schumann’s). Of the sixteen variations Schumann composed on Fricken’s theme, only eleven were published by him. (An early version, completed between 1834 and January 1835, contained twelve movements). The final, twelfth, published étude was a variation on the theme from the Romance Du stolzes England freue dich (Proud England, rejoice!), from Heinrich Marschner’s opera Der Templer und die Jüdin, which was based on Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe (as a tribute to Schumann’s English friend, William Sterndale Bennett). The earlier Fricken theme occasionally appears briefly during this étude. The work was first published in 1837 as XII Études Symphoniques. Only nine of the twelve études were specifically designated as variations. The sequence was as follows: * Theme – Andante C ♯ minor * Etude I (Variation 1) – Un poco più vivo C ♯ minor * Etude II (Variation 2) – Andante C ♯ minor * Etude III – Vivace E Major * Etude IV (Variation 3) – Allegro marcato C ♯ minor * Etude V (Variation 4) – Scherzando C ♯ minor * Etude VI (Variation 5) – Agitato C ♯ minor * Etude VII (Variation 6) – Allegro molto E Major * Etude VIII (Variation 7) – Sempre marcatissimo C ♯ minor * Etude IX – Presto possibile C ♯ minor * Etude X (Variation 8) – Allegro con energia C ♯ minor * Etude XI (Variation 9) – Andante espressivo G ♯ minor * Etude XII (Finale) – Allegro brillante (based on Marschner’s theme) D ♭ Major Other titles had been considered in September 1834: Variations pathétiques and Etuden im Orchestercharakter von Florestan und Eusebius. In this latter case the Études would have been signed by two imaginary figures in whom Schumann personified two essential, opposite and complementary aspects of his own personality and his own poetic world. ‘Florestan and Eusebius’ then signed the Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6; but only in the 1835 version of the Études symphoniques were the pieces divided so as to emphasize the alternation of more lyrical, melancholy and introvert pages (Eusebius) with those of a more excitable and dynamic nature (Florestan). In the 1837 version Florestan prevails. Fifteen years later, in a second edition (Leipzig 1852), the 1837 title Études symphoniques became Études en forme de variations, two etudes (Nos. 3 and 9) that did not correspond to the new title (not being exactly variations) were eliminated, and some revisions were made in the piano writing. The entire work was dedicated to Schumann’s English friend, the pianist and composer William Sterndale Bennett. Bennett played the piece frequently in England to great acclaim, but Schumann thought it was unsuitable for public performance and advised his wife Clara not to play it.

Symphony in G minor ("Zwickau")

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

In the early 1830s Schumann worked on sketches for an opera based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Although that project did not come to fruition, Schumann used the sketches and other fresh material to compose the first two movements of a symphony in G minor and sketches for two further movements before abandoning work on the symphony as well. The nickname “Zwickau” comes from Schumann’s home town where the first movement of the symphony was given a performance at the Gewandhaus on November 18, 1832, a concert at which Schumann’s future wife, the then thirteen-year-old Clara Wieck, performed on piano and had one of her own orchestral compositions performed (the Scherzo for Orchestra - now lost). Later Schumann reworked the first movement and added the second one. The premiere of the earlier took place in Schneeberg on February 18, 1833 and then another performance of it happened in Leipzig Gewandhaus on April 29, 1833, at another Clara Wieck concert. However, the second movement was never performed during Robert Schumann’s lifetime. The composer from Leipzig has completed the reconstruction of the third and fourth movements of the symphony. They were premiered at the 2013 edition of Schumann Festival in Zwickau in a period instrument performance of the whole work.

Symphony No. 1 (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Although he had made some “symphonic attempts” in the autumn of 1840 soon after he married Clara Wieck, he did not compose his first symphony until early 1841. Until then, Schumann was largely known for his works for the piano and for voice. Clara encouraged him to write symphonic music, noting in her diary, “it would be best if he composed for orchestra; his imagination cannot find sufficient scope on the piano… His compositions are all orchestral in feeling… My highest wish is that he should compose for orchestra—that is his field! May I succeed in bringing him to it!” Schumann sketched the symphony in four days from 23 to 26 January and completed the orchestration by 20 February. The premiere took place under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn on 31 March 1841 in Leipzig, where the symphony was warmly received. According to Clara’s diary, the title “Spring Symphony” was bestowed upon it due to Adolf Böttger’s poem . The symphony’s opening has traditionally been associated with the closing lines of Böttger’s poem, "" (“O, turn, O turn and change your course/In the valley, Spring blooms forth!"). This view has been challenged, and the call of a Leipzig nightwatchman has been mentioned as an alternative source. In a letter to Wilhelm Taubert, Schumann wrote: Could you breathe a little of the longing for spring into your orchestra as they play? That was what was most in my mind when I wrote the symphony in January 1841. I should like the very first trumpet entrance to sound as if it came from on high, like a summons to awakening. Further on in the introduction, I would like the music to suggest the world’s turning green, perhaps with a butterfly hovering in the air, and then, in the Allegro, to show how everything to do with spring is coming alive… These, however, are ideas that came into my mind only after I had completed the piece.

Symphony No. 2 (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Schumann began to sketch the symphony on 12 December 1845, and had a robust draft of the entire work by the 28th of the same month. He spent most of the next year orchestrating, beginning 12 February 1846. His depression and poor health, including ringing in his ears, prevented him finishing the work until 19 October. The uplifting tone of the symphony is thus remarkable considering Schumann’s health problems during the time of its composition—the work can be seen as a Beethovenian triumph over fate/pessimism, as Beethoven himself described in the Heiligenstadt Testament. The year of 1845 was important for Schumann because it signaled a shift in his compositional strategy. He began to compose away from the piano, as he noted in his writing: Not until the year 1845, when I began to conceive and work out everything in my head, did an entirely different manner of composition begin to develop The strategic shift above can be ascribed to his intensive study of counterpoint in the same year with his wife, Clara Schumann. Hence, this symphony can be seen as a direct product of his shift of compositional strategy and counterpoint study.

Symphony No. 3 (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Biographical context#

Throughout his life, Schumann explored a diversity of musical genres, including chamber, vocal, and symphonic music. Although Schumann wrote an incomplete G minor symphony as early as 1832–33 (of which the first movement was performed on two occasions to an unenthusiastic reception), he only began seriously composing for the symphonic genre after receiving his wife’s encouragement in 1839. Schumann gained quick success as a symphonic composer following his orchestral debut with his warmly received First Symphony, composed in 1841 and premiered in Leipzig with Felix Mendelssohn conducting. The work which was later to be published as his Fourth Symphony was also finished in 1841. In 1845 he composed his C major Symphony, which was published in 1846 as No. 2, and, in 1850, his Third Symphony. By the end of his career Schumann had composed a total of four symphonies. The published numbering of the symphonies is not chronological because his Fourth Symphony of 1841 was not well received at its Leipzig premiere; Schumann withdrew the score and revised it ten years later in Düsseldorf. This final version was published in 1851 after the “Rhenish” Symphony was published.

Symphony No. 4 (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The work is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and the usual strings. The 1851 (published) version of the work is in four movements which follow each other without pause: Schumann’s biographer Peter Ostwald comments that this earlier version is “lighter and more transparent in texture” than the revision, but that Clara “always insisted that the later, heavier, and more stately version of 1851 was the better one.”. Both Bernard Shore and Donald Tovey wrote analyses of the symphony and preferred the earlier orchestration while noting the improved integration of the revision, suggesting that the revised structure could profitably be paired with the original scoring as far as possible. Schumann’s deficiencies as a conductor led to him doubling entries between parts, so that the score became “playable but opaque”. The symphony is highly integrated for its time, with thematic material recurring between movements. The slow introduction to the first movement reappears early in the second movement, and then has a violin arabesque based on it. A modification of this arabesque then appears in the trio section of the scherzo. The slow introduction to the finale and its main opening theme incorporate phrases from the main theme of the first movement, in different tempi. Dramatic chords from the first movement also reappear in the finale. Tovey described the overall structure as “possibly Schumann’s greatest and most masterly conception”. Schumann may also have borrowed a melody that appears in the first and fourth movements from the continuous string accompaniment for “Siehe! wir preisen selig” (“Happy and blest are they”), the final chorus in scene one of Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio “St. Paul,” a work which Schumann praised in a letter dated March 2, 1839.

Three Fantasiestücke, Op. 111

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Title#

Three Fantasiestücke for piano, Op. 111, composed in 1851, is one of four works by Schumann entitled . The other three are: * Fantasiestücke, Op. 12 (1837), eight pieces for solo piano, also based on Hoffmann’s Fantasy Pieces in Callot’s Manner * Fantasiestücke, Op. 73 (1849), three pieces for clarinet and piano (ad.lib violin or cello) * Phantasiestücke, Op. 88 (1842), for piano, violin and cello in four movements The title was inspired by the collection of letters and writings about music published in 1814–1815, Fantasy Pieces in Callot’s Manner by E. T. A. Hoffmann, one of Schumann’s favourite authors. The composer greatly appreciated the 17th-century engraver’s sense of fantasy.

Three Romances for Oboe and Piano (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

The Romances were written in December 1849, one of the most productive years of Schumann’s entire career. Previously that year, Schumann had written two other works for wind instruments and piano: the Adagio and Allegro, op. 70, for French Horn and piano, and the Fantasy Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, op. 73. as a Christmas present, calling them his “hundredth opusculum.” Schumann’s mental health was quickly deteriorating during the time of the pieces’ writing; shortly afterward, he moved from Dresden to Düsseldorf, where he was admitted to and eventually died in an asylum.

Variations on the name "Abegg"

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

External links#

Pérez, Francisco Javier Plaza. Robert Schumann’s cyclic works: structural coherence and a new poetic approach to piano writing: Kinderzenen op. 15, Waldszenen op. 82, Abegg-Variationen op. 1 and Faschingswank aus Wien op. 26. Diss. Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa-Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, 2018.
Performance of Variations on the name “Abegg” by Paavali Jumppanen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format
, Clara Haskil
, Traum Piano

Violin Concerto (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The concerto is scored for solo violin, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in B, two bassoons, two horns in F, two trumpets in B, timpani, and strings. The concerto is in the traditional three-movement quick-slow-quick form. It belongs less to the poetic and passionate style of Schumann’s early masterpieces than to the more objective, classical manner of his later music, as ushered in by the Rhenish Symphony of 1850. The opening movement, which is in sonata form, is conceived more on symphonic than concertante lines. Its powerful opening subject dominates the proceedings, and although the violin’s role is extremely taxing, its subordination to a “symphonic” scheme is emphasized by the fact that there is no cadenza. : The second movement, in B, has the character of an intensely lyrical intermezzo, the theme of which hints toward the Geistervariationen WoO 24, and passes without pause into the third movement. Until its penultimate bar this movement uses no wind except bassoons and trumpet. : The third movement is a vigorous and dance-like sonata-rondo finale in the parallel major, D major, and has a strong polonaise rhythm. :

Violin Sonata No. 1 (Schumann)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The sonata has three movements:

I. Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck#

The first movement begins passionately, with the theme first played by the violin and amenable like so many of Schumann’s themes to canonic treatment; Schumann once remarked on this fact himself. This theme serves to introduce a compact, driven sonata form pushed ahead by economical use of rhythms (new themes often are based on some of the same rhythms as older ones, and overlap with them as well). The sonata is also driven by the intensity added by canonic treatment of themes, revolving around and pushing towards a small number of climaxes, one of which is the reappearance of the opening theme in a much-slowed-down form just preceding (and followed without pause by) the recapitulation. The coda is in two parts — quiet sustained over an F-E pedal with several recurrences of the main theme, gaining intensity and leading to a section — most of a page — in which the violin has running sixteenth notes, the piano mostly chords, until the final harmonies A major - A minor - B diminished - E major - A minor.

Violin Sonata No. 3 (Schumann)

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Composition#

The Intermezzo and Finale of the sonata were originally written for the F-A-E Sonata which was a joint composition by Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Albert Dietrich. As a result, these two movements use the notes F, A, and E as a motive throughout. Schumann later added his own first and second movements to make the complete sonata. The work was played privately in 1853 and 1854 but was not published until 1956, a century after the composer’s death. The sonata is Schumann’s last surviving work.

Waldszenen

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Movements#

The nine movements are shown in the table below. :

External links#

Autograph manuscript at the National Library of France
: Jörg Demus, 2014
: Martin Leung, at the Alfred Newman Recital Hall, University of Southern California, 2013

Robert Schumann on Music Theory Print

Adagio and Allegro for Horn and Piano

Recordings#

Album for the Young

First part#

Second part#

Appendix (selection)#

Albumblätter (Schumann)

History#

Arabeske (Schumann)

Background#

Blumenstück (Schumann)

Background#

Bunte Blätter

History#

Carnaval (ballet)

History#

Carnaval (Schumann)

Background#

Cello Concerto (Schumann)

Instrumentation#

Structure#

Davidsbündlertänze

Background#

Dichterliebe

Source: Heine’s Lyrisches Intermezzo#

Die Lotosblume

Further reading#

Fantasie in C (Schumann)

Structure#

Genesis#

Fantasiestücke, Op. 12

1. Des Abends#

2. Aufschwung#

Fantasiestücke, Op. 73

History#

Faschingsschwank aus Wien

Form#

Five Pieces in Folk Style

History#

Frauen-Liebe und Leben

Text#

Geistervariationen

History#

Genoveva

Composition history#

Gesänge der Frühe

Movements#

Hermann and Dorothea

Summary#

Humoreske (Schumann)

Structure#

In Kümmernis und Dunkelheit

History#

Julius Caesar (overture)

Background#

Kinderszenen

History and description#

Konzertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra

History and reception#

Kreisleriana

Movements#

Analysis#

Liederkreis, Op. 24 (Schumann)

Songs#

Liederkreis, Op. 39 (Schumann)

Songs#

Form#

Märchenbilder

Movements#

Sources#

External links#

Märchenerzählungen

History#

Missa sacra (Schumann)

Characteristics#

Myrthen

Composition#

Nachtlied (Schumann)

Characteristics#