Famous composers and their works, Vol. 2

by Unknown

Notwithstanding Schumann's admiration for Berlioz, his firm belief in the close relation between poetry and music, and his programmatic tendencies in earlier pianoforte works, it is very significant that he has in all his orchestral writing closely followed the path of his great predecessors. Hereby he gave great encouragement to still cling to the classic tradition, and to believe in the possibility of a further development of the symphonic form.

Even the master's overtures may be regarded in this light of pure music, although they refer to certain distinct objects. They all were first intended as preludes for some drama or festival occasion, such as the one on the Rhine-wine song, in which after a long orchestral movement a tenor solo leads over to the popular chorus finale. The overtures to his dramatic works "Genoveva" and "Manfred" rank highest, and will be dwelt upon later; the others refer to Shakespeare's "Julius Cæsar," scenes of Gœthe's "Faust," Gœthe's "Hermann and Dorothea," and Schiller's "Bride of Messina"; the last named being particularly worthy of a deep interest and sympathy.

Omitting the many songs for children (some of which have a peculiar charm), Schumann has composed over two hundred works in this smallest form of vocal music, the majority of which were written in the happy year of his marriage. They made Schumann at once a peer of Franz Schubert, and placed him in the front rank of German song composers as the representative of an entirely new style, which has been quite successfully adopted by younger masters. His poetic nature enabled him, so to speak, to repeat the whole process of the poet in the conception and shaping of his work, but as a musician and in the richer and more delicate language of music, and thus to more clearly express the finest thoughts and feelings of the poem. The words are treated very melodiously, but with a fine sense for correct accentuation. Although the voice retains the melodic expression of the sentiment, the accompaniment, far from being a conventional support, is raised to such importance that it is absolutely essential to the vocal strain. Thus much that the poet could only suggest, found a wonderfully distinct musical expression, partly in fine preludes, interludes and postludes, and partly in the details of the strict accompaniment. Here again, one is surprised at the abundance of new harmonic and rhythmic combinations. These songs demand the most intimate harmony between singer and player and most of them lose greatly by a translation in any other language, as the music is often closely connected, not only with the thought and sentiment, but with the special poetic diction of the German text. Schumann has sometimes been accused of lacking a thorough comprehension of the human voice; in a certain sense this may be true, on the other hand one must admit that there are few public singers who are capable of giving a just rendering of his finest songs, many of which are besides hardly appropriate for the concert hall.

The master's high culture guided him in the selection of poems, and the great representatives of German lyric poetry, Heine, Rückert, Eichendorff, Chamisso, and Kerner, owe a great deal of their popularity to Schumann, as so many of their finest poems have become inseparably connected with his music. In his several cycles of songs (Heine's and Eichendorff's "Liederkreis," Heine's "Dichterliebe," Rückert's "Liebesfrühling," to which Clara Schumann has contributed some numbers, and Chamisso's "Frauen-Liebe und Leben"), the single numbers are not connected, but their coherence is often indicated by some other way. Intensity and purity of feeling, truth of expression for situations or moods of every kind, and a rare harmony between the poetic and musical senses secure to many of these songs the highest position in this kind of literature. Some have a simple, almost popular character (particularly those by Burns), others are very elaborate. In ballads ("Belsazar," "Soldier's Bride," "Two Grenadiers," "Die Rothe Hanne," "Der arme Peter," etc.), Schumann has a peculiar style of his own, differing much from that of the great master of German ballad music, Loewe, less popular, yet in many ways not less effective. Less happy perhaps are his later settings of the songs from Gœthe's "Wilhelm Meister" and of poems of Elise Kullmann, Queen Mary Stuart and others.

Much could be said of the many delightful vocal duets, varying so much in style and spirit, and interesting us so much both in the vocal and piano parts. Yet we can only mention them here, as well as the several important and larger works for solo voices and piano in a cyclic form, such as the "Minnespiel" from Rückert's "Liebesfrühling," the "Spanische Liederspiel" and "Spanische Liebeslieder," all of which should be favorite numbers for vocal chamber concerts.

Next in our review stand the part songs for mixed, female or male voices. Some of them deserve a place beside Mendelssohn's little masterpieces, others are almost forgotten or, like the great motet for double male chorus and organ, or the canons on Rückert's "Ritornelle," are beyond the sphere of male chorus societies. Few have won a greater popularity than the "Gipsy Life" with piano, triangle and tambourine. Of greater importance, however, are several works with orchestra, undeservedly neglected, Rückert's "Advent" and "New Year Songs," Hebbel's gloomy "Nachtlied," and especially the touching "Requiem for Mignon" from Gœthe's "Wilhelm Meister." Less distinction is attributed to the four great ballads for chorus, soli and orchestra, Uhland's "Glück von Edenhall," "des Sänger's Fluch," "der Königssohn," and Geibel's "Vom Pagen und der Königstochter." By having these ballads arranged in a more extended, dramatic form, Schumann impaired the work of the poet; moreover he succeeded only partially in his musical setting, weak portions predominating over the more effective and even fine passages, which are by no means wanting. The Requiem and the Mass, both for chorus and orchestra without solos, the latter acknowledged as decidedly superior, were composed in feverish haste, and give little proof of his ability to reveal his religious feelings by means of great choruses or to adapt his music to the Catholic service. In these late years he tried his powers in almost every field of composition, even applying the melodramatic form to poems, which are recited to a pianoforte accompaniment ("Schön Hedwig," "die Flüchtlinge," "der Haideknabe.")

CLARA SCHUMANN.

From a photograph by Hanfstängl, Munich.

There yet remain several great works which have helped to make Schumann's name immortal. In the poem of "Paradise and the Peri," forming a part of Thomas Moore's "Lalla Rookh," Schumann found a subject particularly suited to his individuality, a touching romantic fairy tale with rich Oriental scenery and pictures of strongly contrasted vivid colors. Schumann changed the poem in some places and made a few additions of his own, but did not in the least impair its beauty or coherency. The epic portions are attributed to different solo voices and sometimes even to the chorus. The orchestral accompaniment is very elaborate, demanding great care for an adequate performance. All these scenes in India, Africa and at the gates of Eden required a sensuous, yet refined instrumentation to portray them in their peculiar colors. Orchestra and the human voice were called upon to furnish the truest and most touching expression for the varied emotions of every number, which might be warlike and thrilling or tender and sweet, exuberant with joy or hopeless with despair, illustrating the charm of a blooming scenery or the gloom, suffering and death brought by the plague. The solos demand singers with beautiful, well-trained voices, and a thorough comprehension of all the musical and poetic beauties. A more brilliant and impressive soprano solo part than the Peri does not exist in all concert literature. There are also parts assigned to a second soprano, alto, tenor and two bass voices, the solos alternating with concerted numbers of extreme beauty. Of the chorus numbers the finales of parts one and three are on a large plan and have a jubilant and highly spirited character. Not less beautiful are the smaller numbers, each so wonderfully adapted to its particular situation and mood. Indeed one cannot speak too highly of all this music, and even one who does not sympathize with some monotonous portions in the third part, or an occasional deviation from correct declamation, will admit that this work is indeed the finest repository of the wealth, beauty and peculiarity of Robert Schumann's musical genius, in a field in which he has no superior and hardly a rival. It inaugurated indeed a new form of secular chorus music, more modern in spirit and freer in the whole arrangement than the oratorio proper, more dramatic than the cantata, and of greater refinement than the opera.