Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

374 SCHUMANN
out, and which are—as is also frequently the
case with his pianoforte works— as it were,
mere sketches, or germs, of melodies. This
style of treatment, which is quite peculiar to
Schumann, he was fond of using when he wished
to give the impression of a vague, dreamy, veiled
sentiment ; and by this means he penetrated
more deeply into the vital essence and sources
of feeling than any other song-writer. Such
songs as Der Nussbaum ' ' (op. 25, No. 3), or
'Im Walde' (op. 39, No. 11) are masterpieces
in this kind. Besides this, Schumann always
brought a true poet's instinct to bear on
the subtlest touches and most covert suggestions
in the poems which he chose for setting,
and selected the musical expression best fitted
to their purport. Schubert and Mendelssohn
set verses to tunes, Schumann wrote poems to
them in music. He was the first who ventured
to close on the dominant seventh when his text
ended with a query (as in op. 49, No. 3). "With
him also the vocal part often does not end on
the common chord, but the true close is left to
the accompaniment, so as to give an effect of
vague and undefined feeling. The part filled
by the pianoforte in Schumann's songs is a very
important one. With Schubert and Mendelssohn
we may very properly speak of the pianoforte
part as an ' accompaniment, however rich and
'
But with
independent it occasionally appears.
Schumann the word is no longer appropriate,
the pianoforte asserts its dignity and equality
with the voice ; to perform his songs satisfactorily
the player must enter fully into the singer's
part and the singer into the player's, and they
must constantly supplement and fulfil each
other. It was evidently of moment in the
that Schumann should have
history of his art
come to the work of writing songs aftei'ten years'
experience as a composer for the pianoforte,
and after instituting an entirely new style of
pianoforte music. This style supplied him with
an immense variety of delicate and poetic modes
and shades of expression, and it is owing to this
that he displays such constant novelty in his
treatment of the pianoforte part. The forms of
phrase which he adopts in his 'accompaniments
' are infinitely various, and always correspond
with perfect fitness and ingenuity to the
character of the verses. In some cases the
pianoforte part is an entirely independent
composition, which the voice merely follows
with a few declamatory phrases (op. 48, No. 9,
' Das ist ein Flbten und Geigen ') ; while in
others, in contrast to this, the voice stands
almost alone, and the pianoforte begins by
throwing in a few soft chords which nevertheless
have their due characteristic effect (op. 48, No.
13, 'Ich hab' im Traum'). In Schumann's
songs the proper function of the pianoforte is
to reveal some deep and secret meaning which
it is beyond the power of words,- even of sung
words, to express ; and he always disliked and
avoided those repetitions of the words of which
other composers have availed themselves in
order to fill' out in the music the feeling to which
the words give rise. When he does repeat he
always seems to have a special dramcUic end in
view rather than a musical one, and often makes
the piano supplement the sentiment aroused
by the text, while the voice is silent. He is
particularly strong in his final symphonies, to
which he gave a value and importance, as
an integral portion of the song, which no one
before him had ventured to do, often assigning
to it a new and independent musical thought
of its own. Sometimes he allows the general
feeling of the song to reappear in it under quite
a new light ; sometimes the musical phrase
suggests some final outcome of the words,
opening to the fancy a remote perspective in
which sight is lost (a beautiful example is op.
48, No. 16, 'Diealten bbsen Lieder '). Or he
continues the poem in music ; of which a
striking instance is the close of the Frauenliebe
'
und Leben ' (op. 42), where by repeating
'
the music of the first song he revives in the
fancy of the lonely widow the memory of her
early happiness. The realm of feeling revealed
to us in Schumann's songs is thoroughly youthful,
an unfailing mark of the true lyric ; the
sentiment he principally deals with is that of
love, which in his hands is especially tender
and pure, almost maidenly. The set of songs
called ' Frauenliebe und Leben ' gives us a deep
insight into the most subtle and secret emotions
of a pure woman's soul, deeper indeed than
could have been expected from any man, and
in fact no composer but Schumann would have
been capable of it.
Schumann also found musical equivalents and
shades of colour for EichendorfFs mystical views
of nature ;
his settings of Eichendorff's poems
may be called absolutely classical, and he is
equally at home in dealing with the bubbling
freshness or the chivalrous sentiment of the poet.
Many of Schumann's fresh and sparkling songs
have a touch of the student's joviality, but
without descending from their high distinction ;
never under any circumstances was he trivial.
Indeed he had no sympathy with the farcical,
though his talent for the humorous is amply
proved by his songs. A masterpiece of the
kind is the setting of Heine's poem ^n ' Jiingling
liebt ein Madohen' (op. 48, No. 11), with
its strange undercurrent of tragedy. It was
principally in dealing with Heine's words that
he betrays this sense of humour
' ; Wir sassen
am Fischerhause ' (op. 45, No. 3), is an example,
and still more 'I^ leuchtet meine Liebe' (op.
127, No. 3), where a resemblance to the scherzo
of the A minor String Quartet is very obvious.
A thing which may well excite astonishment as
apparently quite beside the nature of Schumann's
character, is that he could even find characteristic
music for Heine's bitterest irony (op. 24, No. 6)