Robert SchumannS y m p h o n i c E p i g r a m s

Zwickau

Born June 8, 1810

Literary family: father a bookseller and writer

Earliest unpublished compositions date from around 1822

Psalm settings for chorus & orchestra

Piano concertos (begun but not completed)

Heidelberg

Law student in 1829

But music was to be his great passion

Wrote some short piano pieces during this time.

Leipzig

Settled in Leipzig in 1830 to study with Friedrich Wieck, an outstanding piano teacher of the era.

Clara Wieck Schumann

Wieck’s daughter Clara would become both Schumann’s wife (after a long and bitter battle with Wieck), and one of the greatest pianists of the 19th century.

Opus 1

Began working on his Opus 1, the Abegg Variations for solo piano.

Abegg Variations

From the start, a cigar was never a cigar for Robert Schumann.

The “Abegg” refers to Pauline, Comtesse d’Abegg (probably fictional).

The main theme outlines the notes “A-B-flat-E-G-G”.

So it’s a kind of musical cipher.

Also typically, the ABEGG theme stops being less important as the piece progress, more powered by its internal logic then the theme itself.

Abegg Variations

Theme

Clara Haskil, piano

Journalism

By 1831 Schumann was well established as a musical journalist.

He was particularly good about identifying promising new compositional talent.

Journalist: Chopin

“Hats off, gentlemen! A genius”

Journalist: Brahms

“Destined to give ideal expression to the times”

No more Piano

Schumann ruined his piano-playing career via a gizmo called a chiroplast.

He wound up with a nearly useless left-hand middle finger.

Program CyclesWith Schumann’s Opus 2, Papillons, we enter the programmatic keyboard cycles that figure so prominently in his output.

Papillons

Carnaval

Kreisleriana

Davidsbundlertanze

Faschingsschwank aus Wien

The Cast

Eusebius

Florestan

Master Raro

Chiarina

Coquette

The Davidsbündler

The Style

One small idea is typically used in any given piece.

That small idea isn’t really developed: usually it is repeated, maybe with slight variation.

Not a technique conducive to larger development, but highly effective for shorter pieces.

sotto voce

Adagio

5

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œ œ œ œn œ œ œn œ œ œ œn œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ˙̇ œ̇ œn œ̇ œ ˙̇

œ œ œ œn œ œ œn œ œ œ œn œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ˙̇ œ̇ œn œ̇ œ ˙̇

Eusebius

The basic idea

sotto voce

Adagio

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œ œ œ œn œ œ œn œ œ œ œn œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ˙̇ œ̇ œn œ̇ œ ˙̇

Eusebius

Repeat a step higher

sotto voce

Adagio

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œ œ œ œn œ œ œn œ œ œ œn œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ˙̇ œ̇ œn œ̇ œ ˙̇

œ œ œ œn œ œ œn œ œ œ œn œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ˙̇ œ̇ œn œ̇ œ ˙̇

Eusebius

Repeat lower

sotto voce

Adagio

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œ œ œ œn œ œ œn œ œ œ œn œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ˙̇ œ̇ œn œ̇ œ ˙̇

Eusebius

Add a little finishing figure.

Eusebius

But if you just play it, nothing much happens.

sotto voce

Adagio

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œ œ œ œn œ œ œn œ œ œ œn œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ˙̇ œ̇ œn œ̇ œ ˙̇

Eusebius

The performer’s imagination & sensitivity are of paramount importance.

It’s all in the nuance, suggestion, and tone coloring.

Played it completely off the cuff, without any foreplanning or really thinking very much about what I’m going to do.

CarnavalA series of portraits of guests at a masked ball

Archetypes and real people combined

Harlequin

Columbine

Pierrot

Schumann himself

Chopin

Paganini

Carnaval

Three selections:

Eusebius

The dreamy, poetic side

Florestan

Impetuous and dynamic

Chiarina

A portait of teenaged Clara Wieck

Song Cycles

Given his literary interests, and his highly subjective approach to composition, it isn’t surprising that Schumann would be a superb composer of lieder, or art songs.

Typically he arranges his songs into cycles—i.e., songs sharing an idea, or telling a complete story.

Dichterliebe

Tells of a “poet’s love”, from initial infatuation to final disillusionment.

The opening song Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, sets the style for the whole—ambiguous, dreamy, ending without any clear resolution.

Symphonies

G Minor “Zwickau”

No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 38 “Spring”

No. 2 in C Major, Op. 61

No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97 “Rhenish”

No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 120

“Zwickau”

Written around 1832.

Definitely the work of a raw but nonetheless stupendously gifted composer.

Starts out with a bang, with an impetuous primary theme that leads well into a more subdued secondary theme, and a nicely-hued closing theme.

Symphony No. 1Written in a wave of euphoria (Clara was pregnant with their first child).

Written (typically) very quickly.

Inception: January 23, 1841

Tryout: March 26

Premiere: March 31

Sold for publication: April 8

But not until 1853 did the score reach its final version.

Symphony No. 1

The famous “goof” in the opening.

Schumann had written it for the (valveless) horns, but gave them notes they couldn’t play at the volume he requested.

Fortunately, Felix Mendelssohn (conductor) stepped in and had him move them up a third—and in that guise they became an important “motto” theme for the entire work.

Symphony No. 1

(More or less) the way Schumann originally wanted it.

Symphony No. 1

The way it wound up.

Symphony No. 1 “Spring”Wolfgang Sawallich

Staatskapelle DresdenFirst Movement Recapitulation & Coda

Symphony No. 2

Inspired by the premiere of the Schubert Ninth Symphony, on December 9, 1845.

Actually written after the first version of Symphony No. 4 in D Minor.

Schumann was recovering from a low end of his bipolar disorder.

I sketched it out while suffering severe physical pain; indeed, I may well call it the struggle of my mind, which influenced this, and by which I sought to beat off my disease. The first movement is full of this struggle, and is very peevish and perverse in character.

Symphony No. 2

The third movement is particularly worthwhile.

In standard A-B-A aria form, the two “A” sections contain phrases ‘a’ and ‘b’.

The ‘B’ section is a short quasi-fugue.

A

BQuasi-fugue. Mostly strings with wind support.

A

CodaVariations of phrase ‘a’, mostly violins

aC Minor

Violins

bE-flat Major

Horns

a1

F Minor

Winds

a2

C Minor

Violins

a3

C Minor

Flutes & Oboes

bC Major

Flute,Violin & Horn

a4

C Major

Clarinet, Oboe

a5

C Major

Violins

Symphony No. 2Wolfgang Sawallich

Staatskapelle DresdenIII: Adagio espressivo

Symphony No. 3

“Rhenish” in E-flat Major

Dates from December 1850, when the Schumanns had moved to Düsseldorf, where Schumann had accepted the conductor’s position of the orchestra.

He was never to be much of a conductor, but at first he was inspired and energized by his new position.

Symphony No. 3

Exactly how much the “Rhenish” has to do with the Rhineland, or to Cologne (apparently one of the inspirations), remains a matter of conjecture.

The fourth movement is a “solemn ceremony” apparently inspired by a processional at Cologne Cathedral.

Symphony No. 3 “Rhenish”Wolfgang Sawallich

Staatskapelle DresdenV: Lebhaft

The Orchestrator

Was Schumann as terrible an orchestrator as some commentators seem to think?

Most of the “improvements” conductors and arrangers make are in the matter of dynamics and thinning out some of the extra doublings, nothing more.

Even Gustav Mahler’s reworkings don’t change the originals all that much.

Conductor

However, there is no question but that he was a terrible conductor.

Some of the orchestration problems in the 4th symphony stem from his attempts to “fool-proof” the work so even his hamhanded conducting couldn’t ruin it.

Illness

Schumann’s bipolar disorder grew worse in the early 1850s.

He was admitted to a sanitorium in Endenich, on the outskirts of Bonn.

His mental condition slowly deteriorated and his physical state along with it.

Illness

The actual cause of his death remains uncertain.

Tertiary syphilis still remains a possibility.

The many medications may have played a part.

He stopped eating almost altogether during the last two months.

Illness

Schumann died in the sanitorium on July 29, 1856.

He was 46 years old.

The last of Robert and Clara’s children, Eugenie, died in 1938.

Symphony No. 4Wilhelm FürtwanglerBerlin Philharmonic

II: Romanze