Robert Schumann

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4 Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856) Music for mixed choir a cappella and for women’s choir In the world of concerts and musical life generally Robert Schumann is known to this day primarily as a composer of piano music and Lieder, or as a symphonist. The fact that, especially during his later years, he regarded the composition of choral music as at least one of the principal elements his creative work is largely overlooked, although the composer himself often emphasized how important this genre was to him: “To develop one’s own melodic sense it is always best to write a great deal for voice, for independent [i.e. a cappella] choir”, he wrote in a letter to Carl Reinicke in January 1846. Schumann wrote about his many choral pieces of 1849, to his publisher Whistling, that he had composed them “with true passion.” The longstanding disdain of these compositions has undoubtedly been based on the scepticism with which all of Schumann’s late works have long been regarded. By comparison with the brilliant and original piano pieces of the 1830s, Schumann’s works written from 1849 onward were considered uninspired and even conventional. This opinion has proved to be largely unfounded (and it was influenced by Schumann’s tragic psychological collapse during his very last years). Other points of contrast between the early and the late works are, however, objective facts, but they do not document spiritual weariness in the composer, rather his decisive and conscious effort to find a way to create music in which the popular style is combined with artistic aspiration. Here it is as if a “new” Schumann is still waiting to be discovered. The works published by Carus comprise the entire oeuvre for mixed-voice a cappella choir, and selected works for female-voice choir with piano accompaniment (in some cases ad lib.); they demonstrate the entire range of Schumann’s love of experimentation, his sensitivity in his choice and musical treatment of texts, and not least his individual choral style (quite different from the styles revealed in comparable works by, e.g., Mendelssohn, Brahms and Schubert), which places special emphasis on fine details in the shaping of a homophonic setting. The Fünf Lieder op. 55 and the Fünf Gesänge op. 59 date from the early days of Schumann’s compositions in this genre and they were written in 1846 for Mendelssohn’s Liederkranz in Leipzig. Already in this collections there is a fascinating contrast between pieces of a simple, popular style and a more advanced, strongly expressive style (e.g. op. 55,2: Toothaches). Schumann composed the Romances and Ballads, collected in four volumes (op. 67, op. 75, op. 145 and op. 146), for his own use in Dresden. Conducting his choirs in Dresden was important and beneficial to Schumann’s life, following the years of crisis and ill-health between 1845 and 1847. Choral conducting restored his self-confidence and joy in creating. This is clear from the passion and enthusiasm with which he worked on these partsongs. Here the choral style which Schumann envisaged (he once wrote that the Ballads sounded “peculiar”) is realized in its purest form: Schumann unfolds the possibilities of choral form in its utmost diversity.
Zahnweh op. 55 Nr. 2 Robert Schumann 1810–1856 Text: Robert Burns © 1988 by Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart – Carus 40.277/20 5
Seite 1 und 2: Carus Robert Schumann zum Jubiläum
Seite 3: die Spannweite zwischen volkstümli
Seite 7 und 8: In Meeres Mitten op. 91 Nr. 6 Rober
Seite 9 und 10: An die Sterne op. 141 Nr. 1 Robert
Seite 11 und 12: Romanze vom Gänsebuben op. 145 Nr.

Robert Schumann

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