Sexy Clara ...and Felix

Clara - wonderful gal.

She lived very much under the wing of her father, Friedrich Wieck - and grew up to be daddy's little pianist. She was very good, going on several tours of Europe, giving several performances, and doing the whole concert pianist thing, representing not only women, but the anti-Liszt brigade as well. If Liszt stood for everything oober flashy and over-the-top, Roberto and Clara stood for the opposite. Roberto being a member of the Davidsbundler, and founding the Die neue Zeitschrift für Musik, his magazine, which he would constantly call for less flash and pisazz, and more seriousness of Romantic music. Clara was the piano-playing version of Roberto, touring the world, essentially competting with Franz, but also repressenting the serious side of Romantic music (and performance of Romantic music)

Felix - silly guy.

In my opinion he repressents the melding of Classicalism and Romanticism. He was born a prodogy - at the same starting poing at Mozart, but would never develop nearly as much as Mozart, and never really evolved too much with the evolving Romantic stuff all around him. His music can very Romantic at times, but for the most part, sounds like Classical music on steroids. However, his Songs Without Words, all 8 books of them, do come across as being quite Romantic, and isn't it funny that that is what he is most remembered for?... It is worth noting that he was also a member of the Davidsbundler, and stood for many of the same things that Roberto did. yada yada yada - Felix was a cool cat.

It is also worth noting that my first cat's name was Felix, and every time I think of Felix Mendelssohn, I picture a huge fat fluffy black cat....

This was the closest I could find to a cat similar to Felix - I do think he was a little fatter though...

Schumann's Fantasy

Fantasy, Op. 17

This is my newly discovered favorite work by Schumann. This "Fantasy" is more of a Sonata than anything. It is in three movements, the middle be in a contrasting key, returning to the original key for the final movement.

The reason I have found such recent interest is after I discovered the story behind the music. Isn't that interesting - I was previously neutral towards this piece, and once I discovered the story behind it I was suddenly fascinated. (that's a good transfer). Anyway, here's the story. So Schumann wrote this while he was separated from Clara for a good deal of time, before they were married. Thought the piece there are a significant number of references to Beethoven. In fact, the piece was written for a Beethoven memorial statue celebration or something of the sort. Many of the Beethoven references are in relation to his Sonatas, which I can tell Schumann enjoyed. He writes very much at times along the lines of both the 'moonlight' sonata, as well as the last Beethoven sonata, Op. 111. Listening to the Fantasy is almost like listening to a Beethoven sonata - only one with crazy-strange dotted rhythms and syncopations all the time.. Schumann also quotes a beautiful song by Beethoven which is about distant lovers (how perfect). Throughout the piece, there are several 5-note themes which are either ascending or descending, which are references to Clara (there are 5 letters in the word CLARA), which usually occur whenever there is a beautiful spot in the music. Personally, I think it's very cool. To top it off, Schumann includes a very brief poem at the top of the score, translated is:

Among all the sounds
In the bright dream of earthly life
There is emitted a soft tone
For him who listens in secret.

How cool is that?! It's like secret-decoder pin -- Schumann Fantasy style!
It was Schumann's way of say: "look stupid, there's more to the music than you think if you look hard enough..."


but isn't that what all Romantic music is about? ...

Schumann's Piano Symphony

Etudes Symphoniques, Op. 13

Schumann's "Symphonic" Etudes are slightly confused. It seems like they cannot decide whether to be in variation form or etudes. Instead of deciding, Schumann just does both.. The Etudes are based on a theme, actually composed by the father of Ernestine von Fricken, the woman Schumann was engaged to, origionally for flute. The Etudes are more of character variations than etudes at times, but alternate with etudes like writing, for one or more technical difficulty exploited throughout the variation. Schumann labels them all variations, with finale.

Schumann's Etudes are very different than those of say Chopin or Liszt. Schumann's etudes usually explore some kind of Rhythmic oddity, much of the time underneath or over top of a lyrical melody, sometimes not, much of which is in thick texture and fat writing. Schumann's "etudes" don't have any kind of virtuosic scalar passages or flashiness to them at all. Schumann was firmly against the flashiness of other Romantic composers such as Liszt and Wagner.

The Symphonic Etudes were not meant to be played with orchestra or anything ridiculous. One can argue however, with Schumann's thick texture-style of wrting, that they could appear 'symphonic' in that sense. Or, labeling them "Symphonic" etudes is just a big fat label of attention..

Schumann's Portraits

Carnaval, Op. 9

Perhaps Schumann's most celebrated work, his Carnaval op. 9, appears to me as an expansion of his Papillons and earlier character pieces. Schumann takes the idea of building a short piece around a character or specific scene or mood, and applies it to real persons as well as ficticious ones.

Carnaval is much longer than Papillons, being 21 short pieces, Papillons only having 12. This time around, Schumann gives each of his pieces a title. Many of the titles are characters, some imaginary, some real, while others are kinds of dances, or some scene or setting. Once again, Schumann uses the ballroom scene in Jean Paul's Flegeljahre, however, this time is appears to be from a different perspective. Schumann no longer entirely follows the story of Walt and Vult, but each piece appears to be a different character attending the ball. Schumann uses several fictional characters, such as his famous Eusebious and Florestan, but also other made up characters such as Pierrot, the sad clown, and Arlequin, the lively jester. Schumann uses real characters as well, such as his immitations of both Chopin and Paganini. He also depicts Clara in his "Chiarina", and Ernestine von Fricken in "Estrella."

Schumann ties all of the very large work together with four notes: A-flat, E-flat, C, and B. Schumann randomly offers these notes as "Sphinxes" in one movement, but generally begins nearly all of the pieces with these four notes in different combination, even thought the pieces appear in different keys. In-fact, Schumann titles the entire work "Carnaval (Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes)" or "Small Scenes on Four Notes."

Throughout the work, Schumann does a number of notable Schumannesqe things, such as his obsurring of the beat. Schumann loved to play around with time, including several hemiloas, and melodies that lie almost entirely on upbeats and syncopations. Schumann also experimented with other rhythmic oddities, such as in Eusebius, he divides measures in 7's, half measues into 5's and 3's, while keeping the accompaniment in duple almost all the way throughout, something that hadn't been too explored yet in Romantic music, all of which was aimed at making the music sound un-measured and free.

And of course, Schumann reuses themes from Papillons in Carnaval, such as the main theme from the first piece in Papillons in "Florestan" of Carnaval. He also uses the "Grandfathers Dance" which appeared as the finale in Papillons, and uses it in "Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins," the last piece in Carnaval, as well as a number of snippets of previous pieces in Carnaval, to sum up the work and tie everything together.

Schumann's Butterflies

Papillons, Op. 2

Robert Schumann's Papillons, or "Butterflies" depicts a masquerade ballroom scene in Jean Paul Richter's novel Flegeljahre. All of the music directly relates to the text of the novel, and Schumann has done such a brilliant job of painting several pictures of the ballroom scene.

This particular scene in Jean Paul's novel follow the events of two brothers - Walt and Vult, as they hunt for dancing partners at the ballroom throughout the night. All of the 12 short "pieces" that make up Papillons are in triple meter, with the exception of No. 2 and a brief section of the Finale, obviously emphasizing, and maintaining the ballroom dance feel throughout the entire composition. The story mostly follows Walt's account of the evening, his search for Wina, and arguing and dealing with his brother Vult. Schumann beautifully sets the entire thing to music, depicting all kinds of emotions, scenes, characters, boots (randomly), and events that take place throughout the course of the night.

The entire work is quite remarkable, and it's no wonder why this work is such a favorite. I can really appreciate how Schumann can maintain the triple meter throughout while still providing enough interest to keep the whole thing from getting boring, whilst following the plot down to the detail. Wonderful.

It is important to note that Schumann uses several important themes here, which he reuses in his other works (Carnaval, op. 9) including the famous "Grandfather's Dance," which is based on a German folk song, which serves here as the Finale of Papillons. The other theme Schumann will reuse is the theme from No. 1, which in the finale overlaps with the "Grandfather's Dance" quite nicely. Schumann revisits both of these themes in the next work I will discuss - Carnaval Op. 9.