Part 6 (1/2)

Polonaise in D major.

Songs.

”The Hat of Green.”

”The Wanderer's Song.”

Forest Scenes. Opus 82.

”Entrance to the Forest.”

”The Wayside Inn.”

”Prophetic Bird.”

”Farewell to the Forest.”

Songs.

”Moonlight.”

”He, the n.o.blest.”

Night-piece in F. Opus 23. No. 4.

Novelette in F. Opus 21. No. 1.

Songs.

”Thou Ring Upon My Finger.”

”The Spring Night.”

Fantasy Pieces. Opus 12.

”In the Evening.”

”Soaring.”

”Why?”

”Whims.”

”End of the Song.”

The foregoing selections, as will be noticed, are all for piano and voice; I have thought it better to confine them to these easily accessible sources than to attempt to cover more ground. In a later program more difficult piano selections will be given. All the instrumental selections in this list are in the volume of ”Selections from the Works of Robert Schumann,” edited by the present writer and published by the publishers of ”Music.” All the songs are in the collection of Schumann songs published by Boosey and Company.

I have written so many times upon the works and characteristics of Schumann that it would, perhaps, suffice to refer the student to a few of those places, such as ”A Popular History of Music,” pages 464 to 477. Also in the first volume of ”How to Understand Music” there is something to the point, and at various other places in the course of the work, as will be found by looking up the references to Schumann's music given in the index. At the beginning of the collection of Schumann pieces, above mentioned, is an essay upon Schumann and his works which will be found suggestive. One of the best single articles I have seen is Mr. W. H. Hadow's essay upon ”Schumann and the Romantic Movement in Germany,” which occupies pages 149 to 231 in the first volume of his ”Studies in Modern Music.” In spite of these I shall add a few observations in the present pages, since it is a peculiarity of the works of any great writer that they grow upon the appreciation, and while their shortcomings and limitations of whatever kind become more apparent as the student grows in years and clearness of thought, the beauties and originalities also press more and more upon our notice, and perhaps, in the case of creative artists of the first order, come out into even greater luxuriance than we at first realized. Such, at least, I find in my own case since my first introduction to the works of Schumann, which practically began with my acquaintance with Dr.

Mason at South Bend, Indiana, in the summer of 1870. Before that I had heard but very few of the Schumann works, and these had not been well done and so had failed of making an impression. I was much surprised when Dr. Mason told me that one could not properly understand Beethoven without knowing Schumann. And it was like opening a new world when I began with the Novelette in E, the Fantasy Pieces, opus 12, and the Romance in F-sharp, opus 28.

The most distinguis.h.i.+ng quality of the Schumann music, and the one which perhaps demarcates it from other music most strikingly, is its hearty quality, its spontaneity, its headlong driving speed. Another quality almost or quite equally notable is its conciseness. Schumann is above all the poet of the short, the clear, the well-defined. In parallel line with this is his habit of employing fanciful designations for his short pieces, generally poetical t.i.tles suggesting a mood or a scene. Examples of this latter peculiarity occur in the present program. The t.i.tles were perhaps always put on after the piece had been composed. It is not known with certainty whether Schumann had the idea of the t.i.tle in his mind in composing the piece. In most cases it serves merely as a suggestion to the player of a proper standpoint for conceiving the work.

Another peculiarity of Schumann's writing is the close unity of each little piece or movement. He develops his period or his two periods out of a single motive or a motive and a counter-theme, and the leading idea is repeated several times. When the first idea gives place to a second idea, this proves to be something totally unlike the idea which it follows, making with it a strong contrast. In the clearness of his moods and their contrast is one source of the vigor of impression which the Schumann music has made and is making upon the musical world.

The first number in the present program contains five pieces from the set called ”Scenes from Childhood,” written in 1837, when the composer was in the very thick of his somewhat diversified course of true love and had advanced seven years along the pathway of a composer.

Following the ”Traumerei” are two popular selections from the ”Alb.u.m for the Young,” written some ten years later--the ”Jolly Farmer” and the ”Little Romance.” This program number closes with the Polonaise in D, from the ”Papillons,” written in 1832. It is a very brilliant and original piece, full of delightful pianoforte effect.

In the second series of instrumental numbers are included four of the beautiful cycle, ”Forest Scenes.” Each of these is like a little sonnet--brief, picturesque, and individual. In the first we have the vague and shadowy effect of the entrance into the forest, the s.h.i.+mmering leaves, the sunlight and shade, and whatever fanciful explanation one likes of the imaginative tone-sonnet of the author. In the ”Wayside Inn” the thematic style of Schumann is well ill.u.s.trated, and also the variety of effect possible to be obtained from a very small amount of musical material. The reference to the t.i.tle is not very apparent, since the speed of the piece and its quick and forcible character deprive it of the reposeful ”Stimmung” one would antic.i.p.ate from the t.i.tle a.s.signed. I do not know the true explanation of the ”Prophetic Bird.” It is a most lovely little bit, and is now so well known in the concert-room as not to need further discussion.

The ”Farewell to the Forest” is one of the most delightful songs without words in the whole Schumann category. Its melody is musical and new, and the changing rhythms, the occasional coming out of a middle voice, and the general effect of the whole are alike interesting and absorbing.

In the next instrumental number we come upon another mood of Schumann, or rather upon two of them. The ”Night-piece” is of a lyric quality enjoyable by every one. Nearly all young players object to the speed which Schumann has marked, and many play it much more slowly; this, however, is not warranted, since in the nature of the case Schumann must have known what he intended, and when we have made an allowance for the undue slowness of his metronome at given tempi, we are still not warranted in making this slower than eighty for quarters. To take it still more slowly is to change the character of all the latter part of the piece. If well played it is sufficiently reposeful in the form in which we now have it. In the second part there is some delightful imitative work between the motive in the treble and its answer in the tenor.