Finally, there is Silcher, who is to Germany exactly what Stephen Foster is to America. His songs are innumerable, and the number of great folk-songs among them is astonishing. The very heart of German music pulses in Silcher. The famous ‘Loreley’ melody is his, and also Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz and the wonderful Lebewohl. He is one of the three or four composers in the world who could with any considerable frequency equal the beauty and directness of folk-songs. He is a text for this chapter. Only the student who knows and loves Silcher can truly know and love Schubert.
FOOTNOTES:
[20] See Musical Examples (Vol. XIII).
[21] See Musical Examples (Vol. XIII).
[22] Vol. II, p. 230 ff.
CHAPTER IX
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Romantic music and romantic poetry—Schumann as a song-writer—The earlier songs—The ‘Woman’s Life’ cycle; the ‘Poet’s Love’ cycle; the later songs—Schumann’s contemporaries.
Schubert died just before the great artistic outburst which we know as the romantic period. We have seen elsewhere[23] how this force grew and achieved expression in Paris, and thanks partly to political conditions spread to all parts of Europe. Schumann, though not at all interested in politics, felt this force in its artistic aspect, as did all other sensitive men of the time. After Schubert, he was the one man preëminently to express the new feeling in terms of song.
Much had happened between 1828, when Schubert died, and 1840, when Schumann wrote his first songs. To put the case briefly, the romantic movement in music had got under way. People had begun to know Schubert’s songs and the later symphonies of Beethoven. The pianoforte had grown to perfection and had come to have a technique and literature of its own. The technique of harmony and polyphony had undergone (partly at Schumann’s own hands) striking changes in the direction of freedom and expressiveness. The short piece in free form had become a recognized part of musical literature. The national movement in Germany, with its extensive use of the folk-song, had been universally accepted. The travelling virtuoso had become a fixed part of musical life, and the musical centre of gravity had shifted from the nobles to the masses. In short, people had come to look for intimate emotional expression in music, and music had developed the means of supplying the demand.
Since Schubert’s time, the text of a song had become a factor of growing importance. Musicians began to recognize that it should be regarded as equal in value to the music. And along with this recognition arose a remarkable group of poets, as we have seen in the last chapter—a group which have supplied German poetry with one of its most brilliant periods. This group we have described as representing the period of disillusionment following the shattering of the dreams of German unity. For a time the hopes of the people had been directed toward the political and social field; what the best literature had expressed was the feelings and aspirations which were common to men. Now that all the fair dreams had been shattered by the selfishness of the courts and the bickerings of politicians, men asked, ‘What is the use?’ Turning inward to examine their own souls, they produced a delicate lyric poetry which contained just what the art-song of the time needed—the intimate and personal. No grand emotions ring in this period. In the whole list of Schumann’s songs there is hardly one whose words could be put into the mouth of a hero. By far the greater portion are pessimistic. What the poet remembers is a beguiling hour in the shade of a tree. What he looks forward to is a smile from his sweetheart. Every man tries to snatch his own small portion of happiness from this life—and generally makes a poor job of it. Nevertheless, a man usually tells more of the truth about himself when he is discouraged than when he is self-satisfied. And in the lyric poetry of the time we get charming and truthful analyses of human emotions and moods. The literary standard is perhaps higher than at any previous period (excepting, of course, the work of the giants like Goethe and Schiller). Versification is smoother, form is more pleasing, and words are used with more regard for their suggestive connotations. In short, men are looking at details in this romantic poetry, even as in romantic music.