Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

SYMPHONY 791
to the work in those respects, rather than
on the principle of sending the audience away
in a good humour. In the Bb Symphony
only does the last movement aim at gaiety and
lightness ; in the other three symphonies and
the Overture, Scherzo, and Finale the finales
are all of the same type, with broad and simple
subjects and strongly emphasised rhythms.
The rondo form is only obscurely hinted at in
one ;
in the others the development is very free,
but based on binary form ; and the style of
expression and development is purposely devoid
of elaboration.
Besides the points which have been already
mentioned in the development of the individual
movements, Schumann's work is conspicuous
for his attempts to bind the whole together in
various ways. Not only did he make the
movements run into each other, but in several
places he connects them by reproducing the
ideas of one movement in others, and even by
using the same important features in different
guises as the essential basis of different movements.
In the Symphony in C there are some
interesting examples of this ;
but the Symphony
in D minor is the most remarkable experiment
of the kind yet produced, and may be taken as
a. fit type of the highest order. In the first
place all the movements run into each other
except the fu-st and second ; and even there
the first movement is purposely so ended as to
give a sense of incompleteness unless the next
movement is proceeded with at once. The first
subject of the first movement and the first of
the last are connected by a strong characteristic
figure, which is common to both of them. The
persistent way in which this figure is used in
the first movement has already been described.
It is not maintained to the same extent in the
last movement ; but it makes a strong impression
in its place there, partly by its appearing
conspicuously in the accompaniment, and
partly by the way it is led up to in the sort of
intermezzo which connects the scherzo and the
last movement, where it seems to be introduced
at first as a sort of reminder of the beginning
of the work, and as if suggesting the clue to its
meaning and purpose ;
and is made to increase
in force with each repetition till the start is
made with the finale. In the same manner
the introduction is connected with the slow
movement or romanze, by the use of its musical
material for the second division of that movement
; and the figure which is most conspicuous
in the middle of the romanze runs all through
the trio of the succeeding movement. So that
the series of movements are as it were interlaced
by their subject-matter and the result is that
;
the whole gives the impression of a smgle and
consistent musical poem. The way in which
the subjects recur may suggest different explanations
to different people, and hence it is
dangerous to try and fix one in definite terms
describing particular circumstances. But the
important fact is that the work can be felt to
represent in its entirety the history of a series
of mental or emotional conditions such as may
be grouped round one centre ; in other words,
the group of impressions which go to make the
innermost core of a given story seems to be
faithfully expressed in musical terms and in
accordance with the laws which are indispensable
to a work of art. The conflict of impulses
and desires, the different phases of thought and
emotion, and the triumph or failure of the
different forces which seem to be represented,
all give the impression of belonging to one
personality, and of being perfectly consistent
in their relation to one another ; and by this
means a very high example of all that most
rightly belongs to programme music is presented.
Schumann, however, wisely gave no definite clue
to fix the story in terms. The original autograph
has the title ' Symphonisehe Fantaisie
fur grosses Orchester, skizzirt im Jahre 1841 ;
neu instrumentirt 1851.' In the published
score it is called Symphony, ' aiid numbered
'
as the fourth, though it really came second.
Schumann left several similar examples in
other departments of instrumental music, but
none so fully and carefully earned out. In
the department of Symphony he never again
made so elaborate an experiment. In his last,
however, that in Eb, he avowedly worked on
impressions which supplied him with something
of a poetical basis, though he does not make
use of characteristic figures and subjects to
connect the movements with one another. The
impressive fourth movement is one of the most
singular in the range of symphonic music, and
is meant to express the feelings produced in
him by the ceremonial at the enthronement of
a Cardinal in Cologne Cathedral. The last
movement has been said to embody the bustle
'
and flow of Khenish holiday life, on coming
out into the town after the conclusion of the
ceremony in the Cathedral.' ' Of the intention
of the scherzo nothing special is recorded, but
the principal subject has much of the 'local
colour ' of the German national dances.
As a whole, Schumann's contributions to the
department of Symphony are by far the most
important since Beethoven. As a master of
orchestration he is less certain than his fellows
of equal standing. There are passages which
rise to the highest points of beauty and effectiveness,
as in the slow movement of the C major
Symphony ; and his aim to balance his end
and his means was of the highest, and the way
in which he works it out is original ; but both
the bent of his mind and his ednca,tion inclined
him to be occasionally less pellucid than his
predecessors, and to give his instruments things
to do which are not perfectly adapted to their
1 For Schumann's intention see Waaielewalci, 3rd ed., pp. 269,
an.