Schumann, Robert (6/08/1810-7/29/1856)

The son of a bookseller, publisher and writer, Robert Schumann showed early abilities in both music and literature,
the second facility used in his later writing on musical subjects. After brief study at university, he was allowed by his
widowed mother and guardian to undertake serious study of the piano with Friedrich Wieck, whose favourite daughter
Clara was later to become Schumanns wife. His ambitions as a pianist were thwarted by a weakness in the fingers of
one hand, but the 1830s nevertheless brought a number of compositions for the instrument. The year of his marriage,
1840, was a year of song, followed by attempts in which his young wife encouraged him at more ambitious forms of
orchestral composition. Settling first in Leipzig and then in Dresden, the Schumanns moved in 1850 to Dsseldorf,
where Schumann had his first official appointment, as municipal director of music. In 1854 he had a serious mental
breakdown, followed by two years in the asylum at Endenich before his death in 1856. As a composer Schumanns
gifts are clearly heard in his piano music and in his songs.
Orchestral Music
Symphonies
Schumann completed four symphonies, after earlier unsuccessful attempts at the form. The first, written soon after
his marriage and completed early in 1841, is known as Spring and has a suggested programme. His Second
Symphony followed in 1846, and the Third Symphony, Rhenish, a celebration of the Rhineland and its great
cathedral at Cologne, was written in Dsseldorf in 1850. Symphony No 4 was in fact an earlier work, revised in 1851
and first performed in Dsseldorf in 1853. The Overture, Scherzo and Finale, Op 52 was described by the composer
as a symphonette.
Concertos
Schumanns only completed piano concerto was started in 1841 and finished in 1845. The Cello Concerto of 1850
was first performed four years after Schumanns death, while the 1853 Violin Concerto had to wait over 80 years
before its first performance in 1937. The Konzertstck for four French horns is an interesting addition to orchestral
repertoire, and hisIntroduction and Allegro for piano and orchestra was completed in 1853.
Overtures
Schumanns only completed opera, Genoveva, was unsuccessful in the theatre, but its overture holds a place in
concert-hall repertoire, along with an overture to Byrons Manfred, again first intended for the theatre. Concert
overtures include Die Braut von Messina (The Bride from Messina), based on Schillers play of that name; Julius
Csar, based on Shakespeare; andHermann und Dorothea, based on Goethe. A setting of scenes from
Goethes Faust also includes an overture.
Chamber Music
Schumann wrote three string quartets in 1842, a fertile period that also saw the composition of a piano quintet and a
piano quartet. Other important chamber music by Schumann includes three piano trios, three violin sonatas, and a
number of shorter character pieces that include the Mrchenbilder for viola and piano, collections
of Phantasiestcke with alternative instrumentation, the Fnf Stcke im Volkston for cello (or violin) and piano, and
other short pieces generally suggesting a literary or otherwise extra-musical programme.
Choral and Vocal Music
Schumann wrote a number of part-songs for mixed voices, for womens voices and for mens voices, including four
collections of Romanzen und Balladen and two of Romanzen for womens voices. His choral works with orchestra
include Scenes from Goethes Faust; Das Paradies und die Peri, based on Thomas Moores poem Lalla Rookh;
and Requiem for Mignon, based on Goethes novel Wilhelm Meister. In his final years he wrote a Mass and a
Requiem. The solo songs of Schumann offer a rich repertoire and are an important addition to the body of German
Lieder. From these many settings mention may be made of the collections and song cycles Myrthen, Op
25, Liederkreis, Op 39, Frauenliebe und -leben, Op 42, andDichterliebe, Op 48, all written in the Year of Song, 1840.
Piano Music
The piano music of Schumann, whether written for himself, for his wife, or, in later years, for his children, offers a
wealth of material. From the earlier period comes Carnavala series of short musical scenes with motifs derived
from the letters of the town of Asch; this was the home of a fellow student of Friedrich Wieck called Ernestine von
Fricken, to whom Schumann was briefly engaged. The same period brought the Davidsbndlertnze (Dances of the
League of David), a reference to the imaginary league of friends of art against the surrounding Philistines. This
decade also brought the first version of the monumental Symphonic Studies (based on a theme by the father of
Ernestine von Fricken) and the well-known Kinderszenen(Scenes of Childhood). Kreisleriana has its literary source in
the Hoffmann character Kapellmeister Kreisler, Papillons (Butterflies) has a source in the work of the writer Jean
Paul, andNoveletten has a clear literary reference in the very title. Later piano music by Schumann includes
the Album fr die Jugend (Album for the Young) of 1848, Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) of 1849, and the
collected Bunte Bltter (Coloured Leaves) and Albumbltter (Album Leaves) drawn from earlier work.
Dichterliebe, 'The Poet's Love' (composed 1840), is the best-known song cycle of Robert
Schumann (Op. 48). The texts for the 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo of Heinrich
Heine, composed 18221823, published as part of the poet's Das Buch der Lieder. Following
the song-cycles of Franz Schubert (Die schne Mllerin and Winterreise), those of Schumann
constitute part of the central core of the genre in musical literature.
Das Buch der Lieder was given its second edition, with preface from Paris, in 1837, the songs
were composed in 1840, and the first edition of Dichterliebe was published in two volumes by
Peters, in Leipzig, 1844. Though Schumann originally set 20 songs to Heine's poems, only 16 of
the 20 compositions were included in the first edition. (Dein Angesicht (Heine no 5) is one of the
omitted items. Auf Flgeln des Gesanges, On Wings of Song (Heine no 9), is best known from a
setting of Felix Mendelssohn's).
The very natural, almost hyper-sensitive poetical affections of the poems are mirrored in
Schumann's settings, with their miniaturist chromaticism and suspensions. The poet's love is a
hothouse of nuanced responses to the delicate language of flowers, dreams and fairy-tales.
Schumann adapts the words of the poems to his needs for the songs, sometimes repeating
phrases and often rewording a line to supply the desired cadence. Dichterliebe is therefore an
integral artistic work apart from the Lyrisches Intermezzo, though derived from it and inspired by
it. Schubert's selection of lyrics for his own Heine songs had sought different themes.
Although frequently associated with the male voice, the work was dedicated to the great
soprano Wilhelmine Schrder-Devrient,
[1]
so that the precedent for performance by a female
voice is primary. The first complete public recital of the work in London was given by Harry
Plunket Greene, accompanied from memory by Leonard Borwick, on 11 January 1895 at St
James's Hall.
[2]

1. Im wunderschnen Monat Mai (Heine, Lyrical Intermezzo no 1). (In beautiful May, when
the buds sprang, love sprang up in my heart: in beautiful May, when the birds all sang, I told
you my desire and longing.)
2. Aus meinen Trnen sprieen (Heine no 2). (Many flowers spring up from my tears, and a
nightingale choir from my sighs: If you love me, I'll pick them all for you, and the nightingale
will sing at your window.)
3. Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne (Heine no 3). (I used to love the rose, lily, dove
and sun, joyfully: now I love only the little, the fine, the pure, the One: you yourself are the
source of them all.)
4. Wenn ich in deine Augen seh (Heine no 4). (When I look in your eyes all my pain and woe
fades: when I kiss your mouth I become whole: when I recline on your breast I am filled with
heavenly joy: and when you say, 'I love you', I weep bitterly.)
5. Ich will meine Seele tauchen (Heine no 7). (I want to bathe my soul in the chalice of the
lily, and the lily, ringing, will breathe a song of my beloved. The song will tremble and
quiver, like the kiss of her mouth which in a wondrous moment she gave me.)
6. Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome (Heine no 11). (In the Rhine, in the sacred stream, great
holy Cologne with its great cathedral is reflected. In it there is a face painted on golden
leather, which has shone into the confusion of my life. Flowers and cherubs float about Our
Lady: the eyes, lips and cheeks are just like those of my beloved.)
7. Ich grolle nicht (Heine no 18). (I do not chide you, though my heart breaks, love ever lost to
me! Though you shine in a field of diamonds, no ray falls into your heart's darkness. I have
long known it: I saw the night in your heart, I saw the serpent that devours it: I saw, my love,
how empty you are.)
8. Und wten's die Blumen, die kleinen (Heine no 22). (If the little flowers only knew how
deeply my heart is wounded, they would weep with me to heal my suffering, and the
nightingales would sing to cheer me, and even the starlets would drop from the sky to
speak consolation to me: but they can't know, for only One knows, and it is she that has
torn my heart asunder.)
9. Das ist ein Flten und Geigen (Heine no 20). (There is a playing of flutes and violins and
trumpets, for they are dancing the wedding-dance of my best-beloved. There is a thunder
and booming of kettle-drums and shawms. In between, you can hear the good cupids
sobbing and moaning.)
10. Hr' ich das Liedchen klingen (Heine no 40). (When I hear that song which my love once
sang, my breast bursts with wild affliction. Dark longing drives me to the forest hills, where
my too-great woe pours out in tears.)
11. Ein J ngling liebt ein Mdchen (Heine no 39). (A youth loved a maiden who chose
another: the other loved another girl, and married her. The maiden married, from spite, the
first and best man that she met with: the youth was sickened at it. It's the old story, and it's
always new: and the one whom she turns aside, she breaks his heart in two.)
12. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen (Heine no 45). (On a sunny summer morning I went out
into the garden: the flowers were talking and whispering, but I was silent. They looked at
me with pity, and said, 'Don't be cruel to our sister, you sad, death-pale man.')
13. Ich hab' im Traum geweinet (Heine no 55). (I wept in my dream, for I dreamt you were in
your grave: I woke, and tears ran down my cheeks. I wept in my dreams, thinking you had
abandoned me: I woke, and cried long and bitterly. I wept in my dream, dreaming you were
still good to me: I woke, and even then my floods of tears poured forth.)
14. Allnchtlich im Traume (Heine no 56). (I see you every night in dreams, and see you
greet me friendly, and crying out loudly I throw myself at your sweet feet. You look at me
sorrowfully and shake your fair head: from your eyes trickle the pearly tear-drops. You say
a gentle word to me and give me a sprig of cypress: I awake, and there is no sprig, and I
have forgotten what the word was.)
15. Aus alten Mrchen winkt es (Heine no 43). (The old fairy tales tell of a magic land where
great flowers shine in the golden evening light, where trees speak and sing like a choir, and
springs make music to dance to, and songs of love are sung such as you have never heard,
till wondrous sweet longing infatuates you! Oh, could I only go there, and free my heart, and
let go of all pain, and be blessed! Ah! I often see that land of joys in dreams: then comes
the morning sun, and it vanishes like smoke.)
16. Die alten, bsen Lieder (Heine no 65). (The old bad songs, and the angry, bitter dreams,
let us now bury them, bring a large coffin. I shall put very much therein, I shall not yet say
what: the coffin must be bigger than the 'Tun' at Heidelberg. And bring a bier of stout, thick
planks, they must be longer than the Bridge at Mainz. And bring me too twelve giants, who
must be mightier than the Saint Christopher in the cathedral at Cologne. They must carry
the coffin and throw it in the sea, because a coffin that large needs a large grave to put it in.
Do you know why the coffin must be so big and heavy? I will also put my love and my
suffering into it.)

Still more popular is the cycle Schumann composed in the space of a week at the end of May 1840,
Dichterliebe, Op. 48, settings from the Lyrisches Intermezzo of the Buch der Lieder. From Heines 66 (in
later editions 65) poems Schumann had originally marked an extensive group of 28 texts for setting, of
which unfortunately only twenty songs were written. Schumann omitted four of these from the publication
and first issued them years later as part of Opp. 127 and 142.
The title Dichterliebe (Poets Love), which is Schumanns, is a concise summary of its contents. The person
who speaks in the individual poems is identified with the poet and at the same time the disappointed lover,
whose beloved has married another. The figure of the woman remains shadowy, and at the centre stands
the poet in his moods of despair and anger, transfigured memories and sadness.
Schumanns setting follows Heines sequence with minor changes, and offers a concentrated picture of the
Lyrisches Intermezzo. At the beginning come memories of the start of the affair, yet doubt soon insinuates
itself as to the honesty of the beloved: Doch wenn du sprichst: ich liebe dich! / So muss ich weinen
bitterlich (Yet when you say; I love you! / I must weep bitterly) it says in the fourth song. Despair
changes to anger also in the seventh placatory Ich grolle nicht (I bear no grudge), which
Schumann rightly sets with a forceful piano part of complaint and revolt against the declaration
of the speaker. The poet now gives in to his pain, but also finds alleviation in the dream vision,
and finally wins, through his mourning, distance from what has happened in the sixteenth song,
Die alten, bsen Lieder (The old, bad songs).
The exactly calculated sequence of original keys corresponds to this arch of emotions. With the uncertain
swing between F sharp minor and A major in the first song the cycle starts in the range of sharp keys and
sinks down into B flat; the crux is reached with the C major of Ich grolle nicht. Through G minor, E flat
major and B flat major we reach the desperate E flat minor of Ich hab im Traum geweinet (I wept in my
dream), where through the enharmonic modulation (B major instead of C flat major) in the fourteenth song
there is a return to sharp keys. Through E major we come in the final song to its relative C sharp minor; the
postlude, notated in D flat major, stands for C sharp major, the dominant major of the initial F sharp minor.
The next unhappy love affair could follow the same pattern, or, as Heine himself says, Es ist eine alte
Geschichte, doch passiert sie immer neu (It is an old story, but it always happens anew).
The cycle ends in a different way: the return to the beginning is given not to the singer but to the
pianist. In none of the other song-cycles of Schumann is such an independent rle given to the
piano. Not only do the individual songs often have extended postludes, but the final postlude has
rather the independence of a separate piece. It reflects and meditates on the whole cycle, and
notably picks up again the piano ending of the twelfth song, Am leuchtended Sommermorgen (In
the shining summer morning). It also looks back again at the first song, Im wunderschnen
Monat Mai (In the wonderful month of May), offering a contrast to the rising figures there and a
definitive return to tranquillity in its harmonically open ending.
Naise elu ja armastus
Schumann wrote his setting in 1840, a year in which he wrote so many lieder (including three
other song cycles: Liederkreis Op. 24 and Op. 39, Dichterliebe), that it is known as his "year of
song". There are eight poems in his cycle, together telling a story from the protagonist first
meeting her love, through their marriage, to his death. They are:
1. "Seit ich ihn gesehen" ("Since I Saw Him")
2. "Er, der Herrlichste von allen" ("He, the Noblest of All")
3. "Ich kann's nicht fassen, nicht glauben" ("I Cannot Grasp or Believe It")
4. "Du Ring an meinem Finger" ("You Ring Upon My Finger")
5. "Helft mir, ihr Schwestern" ("Help Me, Sisters")
6. "Ser Freund, du blickest mich verwundert an" ("Sweet Friend, You Gaze")
7. "An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust" ("At My Heart, At My Breast")
8. "Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan" ("Now You Have Caused Me Pain for the
First Time")
Schumann's choice of text was very probably inspired in part by events in his personal life. He
had been courting Clara Wieck, but had failed to get her father's permission to marry her. In
1840, after a legal battle to make such permission unnecessary, he finally married her.
The songs in this cycle are notable for the fact that the piano has a remarkable
independence from the voice. Breaking away from the Schubertian ideal, Schumann has the
piano contain the mood of the song in its totality. Another notable characteristic is the
cycle's cyclic structure, in which the last movement repeats the theme of the first.

Background and Overview
Hector Berlioz studied medicine at his fathers bidding in the early 1820s, but he was far more interested in music and
entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1826. At a performance of Hamlet in September 1827 Berlioz became besotted with the
Irish actress Harriet Smithson (1800-1854). This at first unrequited love for Smithson inspired the story of his new Fantasy
Symphony, first performed in December 1830. By now Berlioz was engaged to the pianist Camille Moke but his blossoming
reputation as a composer forced him to travel and he lost Moke to the piano-maker Pleyel. On his return to Paris in 1832, a
revised version of the Symphonie was performed, at which concert Harriet Smithson was present, and discovered that she
was the focus of the work. She and Berlioz met and were later married, though the marriage lasted barely ten years.
The Symphonie Fantastique is a remarkable work. It stands as a true representation of the Romantic spirit, influenced
strongly by Beethoven (whose Sixth Pastoral Symphony also has descriptive titles for its five movements) but stunningly
original in its treatment of an external story or programme, and particularly in its orchestration. Berlioz asked for an
ophicleide (usually a tuba in todays performances), two harps (positioned on either side of the orchestra) and, in some
editions of the second movement, a cornet. The third movement calls for an off-stage oboe, and the last movement requires
special effects such as off-stage bells and wind portamenti.
Berlioz revised the work on many occasions, and much of the thematic material was re-worked from a variety of his
compositions written in the 1820s. The programme was also revised frequently, and it is best to rely on Berliozs own words
to describe it:
A young musician of morbid sensitivity and ardent imagination poisons himself with opium in a moment of despair caused by
frustrated love. The dose of the drug.plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of dreams, in which
his experiences, feelings and memories are transformed in his feverish brain into musical thoughts and images. His beloved
appears to him as a melody, like an ide fixe which he hears everywhere.
The young musician is most likely Berlioz himself, and the ide fixe (see Ex. 1) appears in every movement, its form
changed each time. This cyclic approach to structure was extremely new and influential on composers such as Liszt and
Wagner (who developed the concept in his leitmotivs).
The first movement is built almost entirely around the ide fixe after a slow introduction and is in a loose sonata
form with a hint of a reprise of the introductory material at the end. The second movement is a waltz with a recurring
theme, and there is some brilliant orchestration. In the third movement both music and programme take a darker turn,
and there are clear influences from Beethoven in this pastoral movement. The fourth movement is an ominous
march, culminating in the death of the artist by beheading, and the final movement evokes the supernatural and
occult - both preoccupations with many composers of the Romantic period. A declamatory Dies irae combines with a
Witches Sabbath to provide a thrilling and astonishing climax to the work.
First movement: Largo - Molto allegro
Reveries, passions
He remembers first the sickness of spirit, the indefinable passion, the sorrows and joys he felt before seeing his
beloved; then the explosive love she suddenly inspired in him, his delirious raptures, his fits of jealous fury, his
returns of tenderness, his religious consolations.
This period of unrest is finally ended by the triumphant entry of the brass with the ide fixetheme in the tonic key at
10.38, its positive outlook emphasized through syncopation.
The music accelerates wildly before being cut off by the woodwind reprisal of the ide fixe, followed by a cadential
passage in C major and a final playing of the ide fixeby the unaccompanied violins. The movement ends with
church-like plagal cadences.
Second Movement: Waltz Allegro non troppo
A ball
He meets his beloved again in a ball during a glittering fte.
Third Movement: Adagio
Scene in the countryside
One summer evening in the countryside he hears two shepherds dialoguing with their Ranz des vaches [these are
melodies they play to each other on their shepherds pipes]; this pastoral duet, the setting, the gentle rustling of the
trees in the light wind, some causes for hope that he has recently conceived, all conspire to. give to his thoughts a
happier colouring; but she reappears.and painful thoughts disturb him: what if she betrayed him One of the
shepherds resumes his simple melody, the other one no longer answers. The sun sets distant sound of thunder
solitude silence
Fourth Movement: Allegretto non troppo
March to the scaffold
He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned to death and led to execution. The procession
advances to the sound of a march. in which a dull sound of heavy footsteps follows without transition the loudest
outbursts. At the end, the ide fixe reappears for a moment like a final memory of love interrupted by the fatal blow.
Fifth Movement: Larghetto Allegro Dies Irae Sabbath Round
Dream of a Sabbath Night
He sees himself at a witches sabbath, in the midst of a hideous gathering of shades, sorcerers and monsters of
every kind who have come together for his funeral. Strange sounds, groans, outbursts of laughter. The beloveds
melody appears once more, but it has now lost its noble and shy character; now no more than a vulgar dance-tune.
it is she who is coming to the sabbath Roars of delight at her arrival She joins the diabolical orgy The funeral
knell tolls, a burlesque parody of the Dies Irae. The dance of the witches combines with the Dies Irae.
It is carefully constructed but free of traditional sonata-type structures. A brief, atmospheric introduction, evoking
spirits in a graveyard, contains a catalogue of supernatural special effects such as diminished intervals, (the opening
cello and bass runs cover the span of a tritone), chromatic scales and never-heard-before slides (portamenti) in the
upper woodwind (0.34) and horn. The second half of this introduction is begun with the most staggering succession
of rising fourths in the strings and wind (0.42) and there is no sense of key until the music settles in C major at the
end of the introduction.
The allegro begins with a C clarinet presenting a vulgar, dance-like version of the ide fixe (1.26) which is rudely
interrupted by a burst from the whole orchestra before emerging again in the key of Eb, played on the Eb or piccolo
clarinet (1.45). This squeaky rendition of the once beautiful ide fixe becomes fuller as the whole wind section join in,
before the full orchestra again interrupt. We hear a short preview of the fugue subject (the Sabbath Theme - 2.36)
before a slow descending figure takes the music into the relative minor. We will not be hearing the ide fixe again.
The next surprise is the tolling of off-stage bells, tuned to C and G, which punctuate this next, dark section of the
movement (2.56). The Sabbath theme tries to get going again on two occasions, but the bassoons and tuba begin
a declamatory, slow-moving Dies Irae (3.20), devoid of rhythm and punctuated by the tolling bells. The cynical and
vulgar treatment of this plainchant would not have been lost on Berliozs Parisian audiences. Berlioz repeats the
theme in ever-quicker rhythms, first on horns and trombones and then with wonderfully scored wind and pizzicato
strings (3.50).
The second half of the Dies Irae is treated in the same way, as is a reprise of the first half (4.20), to which syncopated
cellos and basses give the music an uneven character. The Sabbath theme again tries to get going (4.54) and finally,
a modulation to C major heralds the start of the diabolic celebrations.
The cellos and basses begin the Sabbath Fugue (or Witches Round-Dance) at 5.12 with off-beat accents,
exacerbated by syncopated brass interjections at the end of each phrase. The fugue subject is decorated by counter-
melodies in both the violas and violins, and the latter begin the answer (starting on the dominant note G) at 5.20. We
hear another rendition of subject and answer, with fuller and more intricate scoring (5.27) before some extremely
chromatic development of this material takes over. Berlioz employs a number of traditional fugal devices such as
false starts (6.01), and the music becomes more and more manic as the giant orgy (Berliozs own description!) gets
out of control.
Loud brass calls at 6.17, followed by falling chromatic scales, take the music through some very uncertain tonality,
and we hear the Sabbath theme again, played as a diminished seventh arpeggio by cellos, basses and bassoons.
The Dies Irae reappears at 7.01 and a long and extremely exciting chromatic build-up begins. Each of the string parts
enters imitatively with the Sabbath theme, over drum rolls, and the theme rises in pitch and dynamic as more parts
enter. The music builds to a climax at 7.51, where the whole orchestra plays the off-beat chords that have been
breaking up the phrases of the fugue since it started.
The excitement is maintained with repeating woodwind chords that first suggest C minor but are forced into C major
by the return of the Sabbath theme, played by all the strings. Suddenly the full force of the wind and brass crash in
with the Dies Irae and we have both themes together, with swoops from the upper strings and wind adding to the
cacophony (8.06). A modulation to A minor sees the wind decorate an augmented version of the Sabbath
theme with trills to the accompaniment of strings played col legno (with the wood of the bow), and a
wonderfully arranged sequence of chromatic harmony from the wind.
Antiphonal blasts of sound (8.57) bring the movement towards its end; mad scales and vicious crescendos (the Dies
Irae theme again at 9.15) yield to a triumphant succession of chords and a declamatory C major ending.