I. Andante; allegro
II. Romanza
III. Scherzo
IV. Largo; finale
(Played without pause.)
Weingartner regards the D minor symphony of Schumann as inferior to the
first and second of the same composer. I fail to see why. Surely this
symphony does not fall behind its companions; it is the one of
Schumann’s four that can be heard with full enjoyment. The middle
movements breathe a romantic spirit that Schumann himself never
surpassed as expressions of gentle, dreamy melancholy. I know of few
more haunting pages in orchestral music than those of the trio in the
_scherzo_.
* * *
This symphony was composed in 1841, immediately after the Symphony in B
flat major, No. 1. According to the composer’s notes it was “sketched at
Leipsic in June, 1841, newly orchestrated at Düsseldorf in 1851. The
first performance of the original version was at the Gewandhaus,
Leipsic, under David’s direction. December 6, 1841.” Clara Schumann
wrote in her diary on May 31 of that year: “Robert began yesterday
another symphony, which will be in one movement, and yet contain an
_adagio_ and a _finale_. I have heard nothing about it, yet I see
Robert’s bustle, and I hear the D minor sounding wildly from a distance,
so that I know in advance that another work will be fashioned in the
depths of his soul. Heaven is kindly disposed toward us: Robert cannot
be happier in the composition than I am when he shows me such a work.” A
few days later she wrote: “Robert composes steadily; he has already
completed three movements, and I hope the symphony will be ready by his
birthday.”
Their first child, Marie, was born on September 1, 1841. On the
thirteenth of the month, his wife’s birthday, Marie was baptized and the
mother received from her husband the D minor symphony: “which I have
quietly finished,” he said.
Schumann was not satisfied with the symphony, and he did not publish it.
In December, 1851, he revised the manuscript. During the years between
1841 and 1853 Schumann had composed and published the Symphony in C (No.
2) and the Symphony in E flat (No. 3); the one in D minor was published
therefore as No. 4. In its first form the one in D minor was entitled
“_Symphonische Phantasie_.”
The symphony in the revised and present form was played for the first
time at the seventh concert of the Allgemeine Musikverein at Düsseldorf
on March 3, 1853, in Geisler Hall. Schumann conducted from manuscript.
At this concert selections from the Mass were performed for the first
time.
The concert master, Ruppert Becker, made these entries in his diary
concerning the rehearsals and the first performance of this symphony in
Düsseldorf:
“Tuesday, evening of March 1. Rehearsal for 7th Concert. Symphony by
Schumann for the first time; a somewhat short but thoroughly fresh and
vital piece of music. Wednesday, 2. 9 o’clock in the morning, 2
rehearsal for concert. Thursday, 3. 7th concert: Program.
“Of Schumann compositions these were new: Symphony D minor, which he had
already composed 12 years ago, but had left lying till now. 2 excerpts
from a Mass: both full of the most wonderful harmonies, only possible
with Schumann. I liked the symphony especially on account of its swing.”
The symphony was dedicated to Joseph Joachim. On the title-page of the
manuscript was this inscription: “When the first tones of this symphony
were awakened, Joseph Joachim was still a little fellow; since then the
symphony and still more the boy have grown bigger, wherefore I dedicate
it to him, although only in private. Düsseldorf, December 23, 1853.
Robert Schumann.”
The parts were published in November, 1853. The score was published the
next month.
It was stated for many years that the only changes made by Schumann in
this symphony were in the matter of instrumentation, especially in the
wood-wind. Some time after the death of Schumann the first manuscript
passed into the possession of Johannes Brahms, who finally allowed the
score to be published, edited by Franz Wüllner. It was then found that
the composer had made important alterations in thematic development. He
had cut out elaborate contrapuntal work to gain a broader, simpler, more
rhythmically effective treatment, especially in the last movement. He
had introduced the opening theme of the first movement “as a completion
of the melody begun by the three exclamatory chords which make the
fundamental rhythm at the beginning of the last movement.” And, on the
other hand, some thought the instrumentation of the first version
occasionally preferable on account of clearness to that of the second.
It was Schumann’s wish that the symphony should be played without pauses
between the movements. Mendelssohn expressed the same wish for the
performance of his “_Scotch_” symphony, which was produced nearly four
months after the first performance of this Symphony in D minor.
The first movement begins with an introduction, _ziemlich langsam_ (_un
poco lento_), D minor, 3-4. The first motive is used later in the
“Romanze.” The orchestra gives out an A which serves as background for
this motive in sixths in the second violins, violas, and bassoons. This
figure is worked up contrapuntally. A dominant organ-point appears in
the basses, over which the first violins play an ascending figure; the
time changes from 3-4 to 2-4.
The main body of this movement, _lebhaft_ (_vivace_), in D minor, 2-4,
begins _forte_ with the development of the violin figure just mentioned.
This theme prevails, so that in the first section there is no true
second theme. The characteristic trombone figure reminds one of a
passage in Schumann’s piano Quartet in E flat, Op. 47. There is a heroic
figure in the wood-wind instruments. After the repetition comes a long
free fantasia. The true second theme, sung in F major by first violins,
appears. The development is now perfectly free. There is no third part.
The “Romanze,” _ziemlich langsam_ (_un poco lento_), in D minor—or,
rather, A minor plagal—opens with a mournful melody said to be familiar
in Provence. Schumann intended originally to accompany the song of oboe
and first violoncellos with a guitar. This theme is followed by the
dreamy motive of the introduction. Then the first phrases of the
“Romanze” are sung again by oboe and violoncellos, and there is a second
return of the contrapuntal work—now in D major—with embroidery by a solo
violin. The chief theme brings the movement to a close on the chord of A
major.
The _scherzo, lebhaft_ (_vivace_), in D minor, 3-4, presents the
development of a rising and falling scale-passage of a few notes. The
trio, in B flat major, is of a peculiar and beautiful rhythmic
character. The first beat of the phrase falls constantly on a rest in
all the parts. The melody is almost always in the wood-wind, and the
first violins are used in embroidery. The _scherzo_ is repeated after
the trio, which returns once more as a sort of _coda_.
The _finale_ begins with a short introduction, _langsam_ (_lento_), in B
flat major, and it modulates to D minor, 4-4. The chief theme of the
first movement is worked up against a counter figure in the trombones to
a climax. The main body of the movement _lebhaft_ (_vivace_), in D
major, 4-4, begins with the brilliant first theme, which has the
character of a march, and it is not unlike the theme of the first
movement with its two members transposed. The figure of the trombones in
the introduction enters. The _cantabile_ second theme begins in B minor,
but it constantly modulates in the development. The free fantasia begins
in B minor, with a G (strings, bassoons, trombones), which is answered
by a curious ejaculation by the whole orchestra. There is an elaborate
contrapuntal working out of one of the figures in the first theme. The
third part of the movement begins irregularly with the return of the
second theme in F sharp minor. The second theme enters in the tonic. The
_coda_ begins in the manner of the free fantasia, but in E minor; but
the ejaculations are now followed by the exposition and development of a
passionate fourth theme. There is a free closing passage, _schneller_
(_più moto_), in D major, 2-2.