Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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364 1850— SCHUMANN -1852
was the Eb Symphony (op. 97), marked by the
composer as No. 3, although it is really the fourth
of the published ones, the D minor Symphony
preceding it in order of composition. If we call
the Overture, Scherzo, and Finale (op. 52) a symphony
too, then the Eb Symphony must rank as
the fifth. It would seem that Schumann had
begun to work at it before his change of residence.
As soon as he conceived the project of
leaving Saxony for the Rhine, he bethought
himself of the great musical festival which ever
since 1818 had been held in the lower Ehine*
districts, and was inspired by the idea of assisting
at one of these in the capacity of a composer.
He wrote down this great work with its five
movements between Nov. 2 and Deo. 9, 1850.
He has told us that it was intended to convey
the impressions which he received during a visit
to Cologne ; so that its ordinary name of the
'
Rhenish Symphony '
may be accepted as correct.
It was first performed at Diisseldorf on Feb. 6,
1851, and then at Cologne on Feb. 25, both
times under the direction of the composer, but
was coldly received on both occasions.'
Although Schumann had had no pleasant experiences
in connection with the opera 'Genoveva,'
he was not to be deterred from making
another essay in dramatic composition. In Oct.
1850 he received from Richard Pohl, at that time
a student in the Leipzig university, SchiUer's
Bride of Messina,' arranged as an opera libretto.
'
Schumann could not make up his mind to set it
to music ; but in Deo. 1850 and Jan. 1851 he
wrote an Overture to the Braut von Messina
'
(op. 100), which showed how much the material
of the play had interested him, in spite of his
refusal to set it. He inclined to a more cheerful,
or even a comic subject, and Goethe's Hermann
'
und Dorothea ' seemed to him appropriate for an
operetta. He consulted several poets concerning
the arrangement, and having made out a scheme
of treatment, wrote the Overture at Christmas
1851 (op. 136). The work, however, progressed
no farther. He subsequently turned his attention
to Auerbach's
' Dorfgeschichten,' but without
finding any good material, and no second opera
from his pen ever saw the light.
He completed, however, a number of vocal
compositions for the concert-room, in which his
taste for dramatic music had free play. A young
poet from Chemnitz, Moritz Horn, had sent him
a faery poem, which greatly interested him.
After many abbreviations and alterations made
by Horn himself at Schumann's suggestion, ' The
Pilgrimage of the Rose ' (Der Rose Pilgerfahrt,
op. 112) was really set to music between April
and July 1851. The work, which both in form
and substance resembles Paradise and the
'
Peri,' except that it is treated in a, manner at
once more detailed and more idyllic, had at first
a simple pianoforte accompaniment, but in
1 See this Dtotlonaiy, vol. ill. pp. XTI, 378.
^ Its ftvst performance in England was at a Concert of Signer
Anlitl'8, Dec. 4, ISB/i.
November Schumann arranged it for orchestra.
June 1851 is also the date of the composition
of Uhland's ballad Der Kbnigssohn ' ' (op. 1 1 6),
in a semi-dramatic form, to which indeed he
was almost driven by the poem itself. Schumann
was much pleased with his treatment of this
ballad, which he set for soli, chorus, and orchestra.
In the course of the next two years
he wrote three more works of the same kind :
'Des Sangers Fluch' (op. 139), a ballad of
'
Uhland's ; Vom Pagen und der Konigstochter
(op. 140), a ballad by Geibel ; and 'Das Glilck
von Edenhair (op. 143), a ballad by Uhland.
In the last two poems he made alterations of
more or less importance, to bring them into
shape for musical setting, but the 'Sangers
Fluch ' had to be entirely remodelled—a difficult
and ungrateful task, which Richard Pohl carried
out after Schumann's own suggestions.
At that time this young man, a thorough artenthusiast,
kept up a, lively intercourse with
Schumann, both personally and by letter. They
devised together the plan of a grand oratorio.
Schumann wavered between a biblical and an
historical subject, thinking at one time of the
Virgin Mary, at another of Ziska or Luther.
His final choice fell upon Luther. He pondered
deeply upon the treatment of his materials. It
was to be an oratorio suitable both for the
church and the concert room, and in its poetical
form as dramatic as possible. In point of musical
treatment he intended the chorus to predominate,
as in Handel's Israel in Egypt,' ' of
which he had given a performance in the
winter of 1850. Moreover, it wsts not to be
complicated and contrapuntal in style, but
simple and popular, so that ' peasant and citizen
alike should understand it.' The more he
pondered it the more was he inspired with
the grandeur of the subject, aHhough by no
'
means blind to its difficulties. It inspires
courage,' he says, 'and also humility.' He
could not, however, coincide with his poet's
opinion as to the extent of the work, the latter
having formed the idea of a sort of trilogy, in
oratorio form, while Schumann wished the work
to be within the limit of one evening's performance,
lasting about two hours and a half. In
this way the few years of creative activity that
were still granted to him slipped away, and the
oratorio remained unwritten. The impossibility
of satisfying, by the oratorio on Luther, the
inclination for grave and religious music which
became ever stronger with increasing years, is
partly the reason of his writing in 1852 a Mass
(op. 147), and a Requiem (op. 148). But to
these he was also incited by outward circumstances.
The inhabitants of Diisseldorf are
mostly Catholics, the organ-lofts in the principal
churches are too small to hold a large
choir and orchestra, and the regular churchmusic
was in a bad condition. The choral
society which Schumann conducted was ac-