Notwithstanding Schumann's admiration for Berlioz, his firm belief in the
close relation between poetry and music, and his programmatic tendencies
in earlier pianoforte works, it is very significant that he has in all his
orchestral writing closely followed the path of his great predecessors.
Hereby he gave great encouragement to still cling to the classic
tradition, and to believe in the possibility of a further development of
the symphonic form.
Even the master's overtures may be regarded in this light of pure music,
although they refer to certain distinct objects. They all were first
intended as preludes for some drama or festival occasion, such as the
one on the Rhine-wine song, in which after a long orchestral movement a
tenor solo leads over to the popular chorus finale. The overtures to his
dramatic works "Genoveva" and "Manfred" rank highest, and will be dwelt
upon later; the others refer to Shakespeare's "Julius Cæsar," scenes of
Gœthe's "Faust," Gœthe's "Hermann and Dorothea," and Schiller's "Bride of
Messina"; the last named being particularly worthy of a deep interest and
sympathy.
Omitting the many songs for children (some of which have a peculiar
charm), Schumann has composed over two hundred works in this smallest
form of vocal music, the majority of which were written in the happy year
of his marriage. They made Schumann at once a peer of Franz Schubert,
and placed him in the front rank of German song composers as the
representative of an entirely new style, which has been quite successfully
adopted by younger masters. His poetic nature enabled him, so to speak,
to repeat the whole process of the poet in the conception and shaping
of his work, but as a musician and in the richer and more delicate
language of music, and thus to more clearly express the finest thoughts
and feelings of the poem. The words are treated very melodiously, but
with a fine sense for correct accentuation. Although the voice retains
the melodic expression of the sentiment, the accompaniment, far from
being a conventional support, is raised to such importance that it is
absolutely essential to the vocal strain. Thus much that the poet could
only suggest, found a wonderfully distinct musical expression, partly in
fine preludes, interludes and postludes, and partly in the details of
the strict accompaniment. Here again, one is surprised at the abundance
of new harmonic and rhythmic combinations. These songs demand the most
intimate harmony between singer and player and most of them lose greatly
by a translation in any other language, as the music is often closely
connected, not only with the thought and sentiment, but with the special
poetic diction of the German text. Schumann has sometimes been accused of
lacking a thorough comprehension of the human voice; in a certain sense
this may be true, on the other hand one must admit that there are few
public singers who are capable of giving a just rendering of his finest
songs, many of which are besides hardly appropriate for the concert hall.
The master's high culture guided him in the selection of poems, and the
great representatives of German lyric poetry, Heine, Rückert, Eichendorff,
Chamisso, and Kerner, owe a great deal of their popularity to Schumann,
as so many of their finest poems have become inseparably connected with
his music. In his several cycles of songs (Heine's and Eichendorff's
"Liederkreis," Heine's "Dichterliebe," Rückert's "Liebesfrühling,"
to which Clara Schumann has contributed some numbers, and Chamisso's
"Frauen-Liebe und Leben"), the single numbers are not connected, but their
coherence is often indicated by some other way. Intensity and purity of
feeling, truth of expression for situations or moods of every kind, and a
rare harmony between the poetic and musical senses secure to many of these
songs the highest position in this kind of literature. Some have a simple,
almost popular character (particularly those by Burns), others are very
elaborate. In ballads ("Belsazar," "Soldier's Bride," "Two Grenadiers,"
"Die Rothe Hanne," "Der arme Peter," etc.), Schumann has a peculiar style
of his own, differing much from that of the great master of German ballad
music, Loewe, less popular, yet in many ways not less effective. Less
happy perhaps are his later settings of the songs from Gœthe's "Wilhelm
Meister" and of poems of Elise Kullmann, Queen Mary Stuart and others.
Much could be said of the many delightful vocal duets, varying so much in
style and spirit, and interesting us so much both in the vocal and piano
parts. Yet we can only mention them here, as well as the several important
and larger works for solo voices and piano in a cyclic form, such as the
"Minnespiel" from Rückert's "Liebesfrühling," the "Spanische Liederspiel"
and "Spanische Liebeslieder," all of which should be favorite numbers for
vocal chamber concerts.
Next in our review stand the part songs for mixed, female or male voices.
Some of them deserve a place beside Mendelssohn's little masterpieces,
others are almost forgotten or, like the great motet for double male
chorus and organ, or the canons on Rückert's "Ritornelle," are beyond
the sphere of male chorus societies. Few have won a greater popularity
than the "Gipsy Life" with piano, triangle and tambourine. Of greater
importance, however, are several works with orchestra, undeservedly
neglected, Rückert's "Advent" and "New Year Songs," Hebbel's gloomy
"Nachtlied," and especially the touching "Requiem for Mignon" from
Gœthe's "Wilhelm Meister." Less distinction is attributed to the four
great ballads for chorus, soli and orchestra, Uhland's "Glück von
Edenhall," "des Sänger's Fluch," "der Königssohn," and Geibel's "Vom
Pagen und der Königstochter." By having these ballads arranged in a
more extended, dramatic form, Schumann impaired the work of the poet;
moreover he succeeded only partially in his musical setting, weak portions
predominating over the more effective and even fine passages, which
are by no means wanting. The Requiem and the Mass, both for chorus and
orchestra without solos, the latter acknowledged as decidedly superior,
were composed in feverish haste, and give little proof of his ability to
reveal his religious feelings by means of great choruses or to adapt his
music to the Catholic service. In these late years he tried his powers in
almost every field of composition, even applying the melodramatic form to
poems, which are recited to a pianoforte accompaniment ("Schön Hedwig,"
"die Flüchtlinge," "der Haideknabe.")
[Illustration: CLARA SCHUMANN.