The Masters and Their Music / A series of illustrative programs with biographical, / esthetical, and critical annotations

by W. S. B. Mathews

CHAPTER VII.

ROBERT SCHUMANN.

ROBERT SCHUMANN.

Born January 8, 1810, at Zwickau in Saxony.
Died July 29, 1856, at Endenich, near Bonn.

Schumann was the son of a bookseller and a confirmed music lover. The boy showed marked talent for music, playing to some extent upon the more usual instruments, and even getting together and conducting a small orchestra of the school-boys. For this orchestra he very early composed pieces. His father died when the boy was sixteen and had nearly completed his gymnasium course, and in 1828 Schumann entered at the University of Leipsic as a student of law. After a time he left Leipsic in favor of Heidelberg, where some very celebrated lectures were at that time being given; but at Heidelberg he practically wasted his time, so far as the law studies were concerned, and devoted himself entirely to music. As early as 1829 he made a short vacation journey into Italy, and at Milan heard the famous violin virtuoso Paganini, and then became wholly influenced for music. Schumann's mother was extremely averse to his fitting himself for the musical profession, and it was only with great difficulty that she was brought to consent. Accordingly, his serious musical studies began in 1830, when he came back again to Leipsic and became a music student with Frederick Wieck and Heinrich Dorn. It was Wieck's daughter Clara who afterward became Mme. Schumann.

Robert Schumann

Schumann had a great determination to become a piano virtuoso, not so much for the repetition of effects already standard as for the invention of new ones. In this direction he devoted himself to practice with such assiduity that he very soon reached a point where his fingers could not keep up with his imagination. In the effort to impart a greater individuality and strength to the fourth finger of the right hand, he made some experiments which resulted in disabling his finger for a while, and he never afterward regained the use of it to a complete degree. Thus his career as virtuoso was cut short, but the studies he made and the playing he was afterward able to do resulted in very singular and productive discoveries of musical effects possible to the piano, so that it is not too much to say that the piano playing of the present time is more indebted to Schumann than perhaps to any other master in the history of the instrument.

He began his creative career by the arrangement of a collection of Paganini's studies, in which he sought to reproduce upon the pianoforte some of the effects of the famous Paganini caprices for the violin. He made two collections of these, about four years apart, and prefaced the first book with many observations in regard to the methods of practice and innovations of technic. Almost simultaneously with this he began seriously as a composer upon his own account, and, quite characteristically, as a composer of short pieces. The Papillons, opus 2, or "Scenes at a Ball," consist of short pieces of from two to six lines in length, and among them are many of great beauty. Another of these early works is the so-called "Dances of the Davidsbündler against the Philistines." These consist of eighteen short pieces without individual titles. Already, by the time when the composition of this work was undertaken in 1835, Schumann had commenced to write as a musical literary man under two pseudonyms—Florestan and Eusebius, the one representing the sentimental and tender side, and the other the impassioned and vigorously moved. The different numbers in the "Davidsbündler Dances" are signed with one or the other of these initials, and sometimes with both. The name "Davidsbündler Dances" was in allusion to the term Philistine, which, in the German university towns, signified the old fogies, the conservative element, who take things as they find them and want nothing changed. Schumann belonged to the new party, who wanted about everything changed.

Two or three years later a second work of very similar import, called the "Carnaval," was produced, consisting of thirty-one short pieces, each bearing a characteristic title. This work is of a very extraordinary character. The moods of the pieces are extremely individual and marked, and the range of pianoforte expression covered by them is as great as can be found in the compositions of any master for the instrument. Another characteristic set of pieces at this time was the "Fantasy Pieces," opus 12, each of which had its own title; also the "Kreisleriana," a series of queer sayings after the manner of one Kreisler, an eccentric old musician in a novel popular at that time. There are also what he called "Novelettes," a series of eight somewhat elaborate pianoforte pieces.

In 1834 Schumann, in connection with two other young men, founded the "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik" as an organ of musical progress. He remained editor of this for ten years, writing there a great variety of articles, and in 1844 resigned the editor's chair to Brendel and removed to Düsseldorf. It was from Düsseldorf that he wrote his famous article about the newly-risen star of Johannes Brahms.

In 1840 he succeeded in overcoming Wieck's objections to a marriage with the young Clara, who was then a very distinguished piano virtuoso, and in the same year he received a doctorate from the University of Jena. In 1839 and 1840 he composed a very large number of songs—viz., one hundred in all. In 1841 his first symphony was played at the Gewandhaus in Leipsic, and in 1843, upon the founding of the Leipsic Conservatory by Mendelssohn, Schumann was appointed teacher of playing from score. As he was practically no teacher at all, and found the duties irksome, he soon resigned this position and lived for a while at Dresden, and made a number of concert tours to various foreign countries with his wife, his own works forming generally a part of the program. It is told of one of these journeys that at some court or other where they were graciously received, the amiable prince, after complimenting the brilliant young pianist upon the solidity of her work, continued, "And is your husband also musical?" At that time Mr. Schumann was the husband of Clara Wieck, rather than Clara Wieck the wife of Robert Schumann.

Early in 1851 Schumann's mind began to show signs of giving way, and in 1853 he was removed to a retreat for the insane, where he died in 1856.

Schumann's compositions comprise four rather large volumes of piano works, four symphonies for grand orchestra, and a number of chamber works of different kinds, of which the quintet for piano and strings is perhaps the most successful; about 100 songs, one opera, several cantatas, a series of music pieces for "Faust," to be played in connection with the drama, etc.

In his lifetime his piano music had very slight recognition from any quarter, its novelties both in the subject-matter of the music and in the manner of treating the piano making it practically impossible for piano players at that day, and it was only about the time of Schumann's death that his piano music began to attract attention upon a considerable scale. Schumann's Symphony in B-flat had a great success under Mendelssohn's direction in Leipsic in 1841, but it was played in very few other places for a number of years, although it was an extremely bright and interesting production. When William Mason was in Leipsic in 1850 he sent home a score and parts to the orchestra in Boston. They held two rehearsals of this symphony and then laid it upon the shelf in the belief that the composer must have been crazy, and it was only five or six years later that they mustered up nerve to produce the work and were astonished to find that it pleased the hearers.

The universal currency of Schumann's piano music can not be said to have made much progress until the appearance of Rubinstein. In the early days of Schumann's productivity he composed his enormously difficult and beautiful "Fantasie," opus 17, and dedicated it to Liszt. Accordingly, not to be outdone in politeness, Liszt introduced some of Schumann's pieces in his programs once or twice, but the effect of them upon the audience was so much less than that of his own music or of the Chopin pieces which at that time he was very fond of playing, that he discontinued further efforts to aid Schumann's cause, although he wrote him very polite and encouraging letters. The first real Schumann player was Rubinstein, who had the qualities of tone and of emotionality which Schumann's music imperatively required; and since Rubinstein, Schumann's music has entered more and more into the world-current of piano music, until at the present time it occupies a position inferior to none other.

Of a composer so varied in his capacities, so original, so influential upon the later course of development in his art, and so interesting in every way, it is not possible from a single program—no matter how carefully selected the works may be—to gain a complete idea. The most that can be done is to give a glimpse of the man, to bring out a few of his moods, and to observe the more salient features of his style. The following list of selections has been influenced by the same idea as that underlying all the previous programs of this series—namely: A preference for selections of moderate difficulty, both for performer and hearer; and a representation of what might be called the more elementary characteristics of his art.

PROGRAM.
Kinderscenen. Opus 15.
"From Strange Lands and People."
"A Curious Story."
"Playing Tag."
"Happy Enough."
"Traumerei."
Album for the Young. Opus 68.
"The Jolly Farmer."
"A Little Romance."
Papillons. Opus 2.
Polonaise in D major.
Songs.
"The Hat of Green."
"The Wanderer's Song."
Forest Scenes. Opus 82.
"Entrance to the Forest."
"The Wayside Inn."
"Prophetic Bird."
"Farewell to the Forest."
Songs.
"Moonlight."
"He, the Noblest."
Night-piece in F. Opus 23. No. 4.
Novelette in F. Opus 21. No. 1.
Songs.
"Thou Ring Upon My Finger."
"The Spring Night."
Fantasy Pieces. Opus 12.
"In the Evening."
"Soaring."
"Why?"
"Whims."
"End of the Song."

The foregoing selections, as will be noticed, are all for piano and voice; I have thought it better to confine them to these easily accessible sources than to attempt to cover more ground. In a later program more difficult piano selections will be given. All the instrumental selections in this list are in the volume of "Selections from the Works of Robert Schumann," edited by the present writer and published by the publishers of "Music." All the songs are in the collection of Schumann songs published by Boosey and Company.

I have written so many times upon the works and characteristics of Schumann that it would, perhaps, suffice to refer the student to a few of those places, such as "A Popular History of Music," pages 464 to 477. Also in the first volume of "How to Understand Music" there is something to the point, and at various other places in the course of the work, as will be found by looking up the references to Schumann's music given in the index. At the beginning of the collection of Schumann pieces, above mentioned, is an essay upon Schumann and his works which will be found suggestive. One of the best single articles I have seen is Mr. W. H. Hadow's essay upon "Schumann and the Romantic Movement in Germany," which occupies pages 149 to 231 in the first volume of his "Studies in Modern Music." In spite of these I shall add a few observations in the present pages, since it is a peculiarity of the works of any great writer that they grow upon the appreciation, and while their shortcomings and limitations of whatever kind become more apparent as the student grows in years and clearness of thought, the beauties and originalities also press more and more upon our notice, and perhaps, in the case of creative artists of the first order, come out into even greater luxuriance than we at first realized. Such, at least, I find in my own case since my first introduction to the works of Schumann, which practically began with my acquaintance with Dr. Mason at South Bend, Indiana, in the summer of 1870. Before that I had heard but very few of the Schumann works, and these had not been well done and so had failed of making an impression. I was much surprised when Dr. Mason told me that one could not properly understand Beethoven without knowing Schumann. And it was like opening a new world when I began with the Novelette in E, the Fantasy Pieces, opus 12, and the Romance in F-sharp, opus 28.

The most distinguishing quality of the Schumann music, and the one which perhaps demarcates it from other music most strikingly, is its hearty quality, its spontaneity, its headlong driving speed. Another quality almost or quite equally notable is its conciseness. Schumann is above all the poet of the short, the clear, the well-defined. In parallel line with this is his habit of employing fanciful designations for his short pieces, generally poetical titles suggesting a mood or a scene. Examples of this latter peculiarity occur in the present program. The titles were perhaps always put on after the piece had been composed. It is not known with certainty whether Schumann had the idea of the title in his mind in composing the piece. In most cases it serves merely as a suggestion to the player of a proper standpoint for conceiving the work.

Another peculiarity of Schumann's writing is the close unity of each little piece or movement. He develops his period or his two periods out of a single motive or a motive and a counter-theme, and the leading idea is repeated several times. When the first idea gives place to a second idea, this proves to be something totally unlike the idea which it follows, making with it a strong contrast. In the clearness of his moods and their contrast is one source of the vigor of impression which the Schumann music has made and is making upon the musical world.

The first number in the present program contains five pieces from the set called "Scenes from Childhood," written in 1837, when the composer was in the very thick of his somewhat diversified course of true love and had advanced seven years along the pathway of a composer.

Following the "Träumerei" are two popular selections from the "Album for the Young," written some ten years later—the "Jolly Farmer" and the "Little Romance." This program number closes with the Polonaise in D, from the "Papillons," written in 1832. It is a very brilliant and original piece, full of delightful pianoforte effect.

In the second series of instrumental numbers are included four of the beautiful cycle, "Forest Scenes." Each of these is like a little sonnet—brief, picturesque, and individual. In the first we have the vague and shadowy effect of the entrance into the forest, the shimmering leaves, the sunlight and shade, and whatever fanciful explanation one likes of the imaginative tone-sonnet of the author. In the "Wayside Inn" the thematic style of Schumann is well illustrated, and also the variety of effect possible to be obtained from a very small amount of musical material. The reference to the title is not very apparent, since the speed of the piece and its quick and forcible character deprive it of the reposeful "Stimmung" one would anticipate from the title assigned. I do not know the true explanation of the "Prophetic Bird." It is a most lovely little bit, and is now so well known in the concert-room as not to need further discussion.

The "Farewell to the Forest" is one of the most delightful songs without words in the whole Schumann category. Its melody is musical and new, and the changing rhythms, the occasional coming out of a middle voice, and the general effect of the whole are alike interesting and absorbing.

In the next instrumental number we come upon another mood of Schumann, or rather upon two of them. The "Night-piece" is of a lyric quality enjoyable by every one. Nearly all young players object to the speed which Schumann has marked, and many play it much more slowly; this, however, is not warranted, since in the nature of the case Schumann must have known what he intended, and when we have made an allowance for the undue slowness of his metronome at given tempi, we are still not warranted in making this slower than eighty for quarters. To take it still more slowly is to change the character of all the latter part of the piece. If well played it is sufficiently reposeful in the form in which we now have it. In the second part there is some delightful imitative work between the motive in the treble and its answer in the tenor.

With the Novelette in F, opus 21, we come into the domain of what we might call the higher Schumann, for in these works and in those which follow upon this list greater demands are made upon the player, and the music itself is deeper, stronger, more original, and therein more satisfactory. The novelette consists of two main parts. First comes a march-like movement, in which certain very strong chords with occasional triplet octaves in the bass impart a singularly driving and forceful character to the music. After the double bar at the beginning of the fifth measure a new motive appears, which sets in operation a series of sequences, and this period ends in D-flat.

The next period begins in the same manner, but the modulation is differently conducted, and the period now ends in the key of A. Now comes in what he calls the trio, a lovely lyric melody in the key of F. This is developed to quite a length, after which the main theme of the novelette returns, and the period ends in the key of F. Now ensues a curious sort of intermezzo, in the key of D-flat, where one voice starts out with a little melodic subject and another takes it up and imitates it, and this in turn is followed by another, quite in the manner of fugue, only that here the motive itself is very short and the imitations follow so fast, one after another, that only the beginning of each is to be made out. For the rest, it is a question of mystery. When he has carried this as far as he cares, the first subject returns; and after this again the trio, but now in the key of A major. At the end of this, again the original subject, and so finally the end. The most notable features of this novelette are its vigor, the different forms in which the subjects return, and the persistence of the two main ideas—the march and the lyric trio—which form the substance of it. The mystic and fugue-like interlude is merely an interlude. It perhaps represents one of those moments when the mind is too full for clear utterance—a condition more celebrated in fiction than desirable in reality.

The Fantasy Pieces, opus 12, are among the most happy of the smaller works of this composer. Their general character is sufficiently indicated by their titles. "In the Evening" represents one of those mystic moods suitable to twilight. "Soaring" has also been translated "Excelsior," which perhaps more truly represents its spirit. "Why?" is a question, just like the word; nevertheless this has become the greatest favorite of all the smaller Schumann pieces. "Whims" also is well named, since in this quickly moving little piece one mood follows another irrepressibly; among them are some which are highly poetic. Last of all, "The End of the Song"—a very vigorous and strongly marked movement which appeals to every one.

The Schumann songs are so remarkable as to demand separate treatment. Those upon the present list are so placed because they represent in a general way the more noticeable moods of Schumann in this form of art. They can be sung high or low, as the singer's voice requires, but they are more satisfactory if sung by a soprano voice, I think.

The first upon the list is the merry and arch little "Hat of Green," which with folk-tone sweetness and simplicity brings out a situation as old as the world and as new as the morning. The musical treatment is very clever and interesting.

The "Wanderer's Song" is characteristically German, representing the song of the young student as he sets out upon his student career as traveler, for seeing strange lands; or the emigrant who leaves his land to find a better home, but never one so well loved as his own native country. It is full of heart and courage until the middle part, where the intermezzo in the key of E major tells of softer feelings—of longing and homesickness.

"Moonlight," again, represents the peculiarly mystic and dreamy side of the Schumann nature, and there are few songs in the whole world so sweet and so beautiful as this; but it needs a pure, clear, and very true soprano voice, controlled with musical feeling. Thus interpreted it is indeed a dream.

The next two songs upon the list are out of the famous cycle called "Woman's Love and Life"—the poems of no great depth, but the subjects of lasting and universal application and interest. "He, the Noblest" gives a very spirited and sensitive musical setting to the woman's opinion of the loved one; words and music bring to expression one of the most ideal moments of woman's life. The next, "Thou Ring Upon My Finger," tells its own story, but here, again, the music is well worth while for its own sake. It is interesting as an instrumental piece without the aid of the voice. Few songs as musical have been written. The last upon the list, "Spring Night," while out of another cycle,—the so-called "Liederkreis,"—is nevertheless of quite similar excellence to the preceding.

All need to be sung with abandon, and above all with sentiment, poetry, and flexible rhythm, yet always with abounding musical life. To sing such songs well is to be an artist.