Ruth Slenczynska•SCHUMANN Ruth Slenczynska ... - Ivory Classics

Robert Schumann
In the introduction to his critical writing, Robert Schumann bewailed the lack of good
contemporary music. “On the stage Rossini reigned; at the piano nothing was heard but
Herz and Hunten; and yet but a few years had passed since Beethoven, Schubert and Weber
had lived among us.” That was written about 1833, when Schumann founded the Neue
Zeitschrift für Musik, and was also well started on a noble series of piano works.
As editor of the Neue Zeitschrift it was Schumann’s fancy often to sign his reviews with
pen names, and people them with pen names that stood for his friends. Wherever Zilia or
Chiarina appears, Clara Wieck (later to become Schumann’s wife) is understood. Meritas
refers to Felix Mendelssohn; Florestan and Eusebius reflect the passionate or reflective sides
of Schumann’s nature. And so on.
While editing the Zeitschrift, Schumann also was doing his best to write piano music that
would be a corrective to Herz and Hünten. The Carnaval, Opus 9, which dates from 1834-
35, is subtitled “Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes.” But why “tiny scenes on four notes?”
Well, Schumann had fallen in love with a girl named Ernestine von Fricken, and she came
from a town named Asch. Each of the four letters in the name of that town has, a musical
equivalent in German. “S” is the same as “Es,” which is our E flat. The German “H” is our B
natural. These four letters — ASCH — also occur in Schumann’s name. Moreover, “As” in
German is A flat. Thus Schumann exuberantly went to work, devising a triple set of themes
— A, E flat, C, B; A flat, C, B; E flat, C, B, A. The first group of notes in nearly every piece
of the Carnaval is based on one of those three combinations.
“Let me make a few observations regarding this composition,” wrote Schumann, “which
owed its origin to pure chance. The name of a city in which a musical friend of mine lived
consisted of letters belonging to the scale which are also contained in my name, and this suggested
one of those musical games that are no longer new, since Bach provided the model.
One piece after the other was completed during the carnival season of 1835, in a serious
mood, by the way, and under peculiar circumstances. I afterwards gave titles to the numbers,
and named the entire collection Carnaval.”
The work opens with a spirited Préambule. After the trumpet-call opening, a brillante
section follows, ending in a kind of Gilbert and Sullivan summation. Then Pierrot, the stumbling
clown makes his pompous way across the stage, joined by Arlequin in the next number.
A Valse noble follows where right hand octaves introduce the expressive melody. Next the
– 4 –