Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
2013
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By
EMILY S. GERTSCH
Degree Awarded:
Summer Semester, 2013
Joseph Kraus
Professor Directing Dissertation
Douglass Seaton
University Representative
Michael Buchler
Committee Member
James Mathes
Committee Member
The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members,
and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university
requirements.
ii
iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This dissertation would not have been possible without the help of a number of
people. To my advisor, Joseph Kraus, I owe special thanks for his unending support,
guidance, encouragement, and patience. His doctoral seminar during my first year at
Florida State University exposed me to the world of music and meaning and this project
grew from a research paper begun in that special seminar. I have learned so much from
Professor Kraus, especially in the areas of music and meaning and Schenkerian analysis,
and I will be forever grateful for his guidance and friendship. I would also like to
express my sincere gratitude to the other members of my committeeMichael Buchler,
Jim Mathes, and Douglass Seatonfor their support, discerning editorial comments,
and insightful suggestions. It has truly been a pleasure to work with each member of
my committee and I look forward to continued professional relationships and
friendships with these great teachers and scholars.
The music theory faculty as a whole at Florida State University is special for
many reasons. But it is the wonderful example of a collegial environment and the
enormous amount of work and time that each faculty member personally invests in
their students that has made the most impact on me. I will always be grateful that I had
the opportunity to learn from and work with each music theory faculty member at
Florida State. The professional and personal relationships I developed while attending
Florida State are ones that will last a lifetime, and I will always cherish the times spent
with fellow students (especially Sarah Sarver, Greg Decker, Sara Nodine, and Judith
Ofcarcik).
The support my family has given me during my doctoral studies is
immeasurable. My parents, George and Mary Swift, have provided continuous
encouragement to pursue this dream, and have offered both the material and intangible
resources that have allowed me to achieve my musical and academic goals. The homecooked meals and endless hours of babysitting only scratch the surface of the many
ways they have helped me to complete this project. My gratitude for this and for their
love is inexpressible. My brother, Bill Swift, has also provided an enormous amount of
support and encouragement, and I am proud to call him not only my brother, but also
one of my closest friends. I would like to thank my mother-in-law and father-in-law,
Alida and Bruno Gertsch, for their love, encouragement, and for the weekends of
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. viii
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. ix
List of Examples .............................................................................................................................. x
Abstract........................................................................................................................................... xv
1.
1.3
2.
3.
3.5
4.
6.
7.
8.
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................196
8.1
8.2
Summary ..................................................................................................................196
Implications for Further Study..............................................................................199
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................200
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .....................................................................................................209
vii
LIST OF TABLES
1.1 The Four Narrative Archetypes ........................................................................................12
3.1 Order Imposing Hierarchy versus Transgression .........................................................46
3.2 Formal Diagram of the Exposition ..................................................................................46
3.3 The Second Theme Area ....................................................................................................62
4.1 Order-Imposing Hierarchy versus Transgression .........................................................80
4.2a Form Chart. Schumann, In Modo duna Marcia ...............................................................81
4.2b Form Chart. Beethoven, Rondo from the Pathtique Sonata .........................................81
4.3 Mapping the Time Aspect of Narrative onto Tonal Areas ...........................................84
4.4a Form Chart. Beethoven, Pathtique Rondo ......................................................................85
4.4b Form Chart. Schumann, In Modo duna Marcia ...............................................................85
5.1 Order Imposing Hierarchy vs. Transgression in Schumanns Scherzo .....................104
5.2 Form of the Menuetto from Beethovens First Symphony .........................................105
5.3 Form of the Scherzo from Schumanns Piano Quintet ................................................105
6.1 Order-Imposing Hierarchy versus Transgression .......................................................135
6.2 Sonata-Rondo Parallel Form of Finale ...........................................................................145
7.1 Order-Imposing Hierarchy versus Transgression .......................................................157
7.2 Order-Imposing Hierarchy versus Transgression .......................................................182
viii
LIST OF FIGURES
1.1 Reproduction of Hattens Figure 2.1 from Musical Meaning in Beethoven.....................4
1.2 Reproduction of Almns Figure 1 from Narrative Archetypes: A Critique,
Theory, and Method of Narrative Analysis ..................................................................11
6.1 Reproduction of Roesners Figure 2, Formal Diagram of the Piano Sonata in f,
op. 14, I ...............................................................................................................................129
6.2 Reproduction of Roesners Figure 3, op. 14, I. Depiction of the Symmetrical
Form Based on Tonal Mirror Images .........................................................................129
6.3 Reproduction of Browns Diagram of Parallel Form in a Sonata Movement ..........130
6.4 Reproduction of Browns Diagram of Parallel Form in a Rondo Movement ..........131
6.5 Reproduction of Browns Figure 13.3 and 13.5. A Formal Overview of the
Quintet Finale ....................................................................................................................133
7.1 Form Diagram of the Exposition, mm. 1120 ...............................................................167
ix
LIST OF EXAMPLES
3.1 P Theme (Heroic Topic), mm. 19 ................................................................................48
3.2 Voice-Leading Sketch of P, mm. 19 ................................................................................48
3.3 TR1, mm. 917 .....................................................................................................................50
3.4a Voice-Leading Sketch of TR1, mm. 917 .........................................................................51
3.4b Simplified Voice-Leading Sketch of TR1, mm. 917......................................................51
3.5 TR2, mm. 1726 ...................................................................................................................53
3.6 Voice-Leading Sketch of TR2, mm. 17-25 ........................................................................54
3.7 TR3, mm. 2750 ...................................................................................................................56
3.8a Voice-Leading Sketch of TR3, mm. 26-50 ........................................................................58
3.8b Deep Middleground Sketch of the Exposition, mm. 1108 ..........................................58
3.9 S1.1 and S1.2, mm. 5158 ...................................................................................................59
3.10 S1.2, mm. 5772 ...................................................................................................................61
3.11 Voice-Leading Sketch of S1.1 and S1.2, mm. 5179 .......................................................61
3.12 End of Second Theme Area, mm. 99108 ........................................................................63
3.13 Development, mm. 116190 ..............................................................................................65
3.14 Voice-Leading Sketch of the Development, mm. 116187............................................70
3.15 Retransition, mm. 185206 ................................................................................................72
3.16 K and Coda, mm. 314338 .................................................................................................74
3.17 Voice-Leading Sketch of the Coda, mm. 313332 ..........................................................75
4.1 Voice-Leading Sketch. Schumann, Refrain (Funeral March), mm. 110 ................82
4.2 Voice-Leading Sketch. Beethoven, Pathtique Rondo, Refrain, mm. 18 ....................82
4.3 Opening Phrase of the Funeral March, mm. 110 .....................................................86
4.4a Opening of Refrain, Framing Motive, mm. 12 .........................................................88
x
6.14 End of the Closing 1 Theme and Final Extension, mm. 396-404................................153
7.1 Hymn Topic of the Introduction, mm. 17 ...................................................................157
7.2 Heroic Topic of the Principal Theme, mm. 1118 ........................................................158
7.3 First Transgression, Heroic Topic in F Minor, mm. 2635..........................................159
7.4a Motive y, mm. 19-25 .........................................................................................................160
7.4b Second Transgression, Motive y Recast in G minor, mm. 4147 ...............................160
7.5 Second Transgression and Restatement of Principal Theme, mm. 4155 ................161
7.6 Transition, Agitato Topic, mm. 6477 .............................................................................162
7.7 Transition, mm. 86106 ....................................................................................................164
7.8 End of Transition, mm. 107120 .....................................................................................165
7.9 Development, Motive x in D minor and A minor .......................................................167
7.10 Development, Sequence, mm. 165180 .........................................................................168
7.11 Development, Motives x and y Juxtaposed, mm. 189203 .........................................169
7.12 Retransition, mm. 204212 ..............................................................................................170
7.13 Recapitulation, mm. 213226 ..........................................................................................171
7.14 Coda, mm. 309324...........................................................................................................173
7.15 End of Coda, mm. 334355 ..............................................................................................174
7.16 Voice-Leading Sketch of the Introduction, mm. 112 .................................................177
7.17 Voice-Leading Sketch of the First Theme, mm. 1335 ................................................177
7.18 Voice-Leading Sketch of the Development...................................................................178
7.19a Opposition Between Heroic and Arabesque Topics in Exposition .................180
7.19b Recapitulation, Arabesque topic removed, mm. 213220 .....................................180
7.20 The Cantabile Topic of the Main Theme (A), mm. 118 .............................................184
7.21 Voice-Leading Reduction of Main Theme, Cantabile Topic, mm. 318 ...................185
xiii
xiv
ABSTRACT
This dissertation explores the interaction between structure and narrative in
Schumanns 1842 chamber music for strings and piano. This repertoire, while somewhat
neglected in the current scholarly analytical literature, reveals Schumanns success at
creating an identity of his own in the chamber music genrean identity surely
influenced by his love of Romantic literature, which I find makes his music especially
suitable for narrative analysis. Using the narratological approach of Byron Almn as my
primary methodology, I also draw upon the semiotic approaches of Robert Hatten and
Kofi Agawu and the narratological approaches of Anthony Newcomb and Douglass
Seaton in order to enrich the discussion. My analyses use structural support to trace
musical oppositionsincluding oppositions in topic, style, markedness, motive, and
texturein order to support narrative readings. More importantly, I explore how
oppositions in foreground voice leading correlate with expressive oppositions, thus
enhancing narrative interpretations.
In the first chapter I discuss the relevant theoretical and analytical literature
associated with music and meaning, focusing on the current trends in semiotic and
narratological theory as applied to instrumental music. I provide critiques of the
theories discussed as well as insights into how each theory is useful for the current
study. In the last subsection of this chapter I recognize the problems that one-to-one
mappings between structure and meaning can create and discuss the benefits and
pitfalls of this type of analysis. Chapter 2 provides historical context for the year during
which Schumann wrote the pieces studied in this dissertation (1842) and explores
Schumanns chamber music modelsMozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn
and his compositional process.
Chapters 3 through 6 provide comprehensive analyses of the four movements
from Schumanns Piano Quintet, op. 44. Primarily using Byron Almns adaptation of
Northrop Fryes theoretical model of narrative archetypes, I show how the four
movements of the Piano Quintet move in clockwise motion around the circular model:
the first movement as a romance archetype at the top of the circle in the realm of
innocence, the second movement as a fall to the tragic archetype at the bottom of the
circle in the realm of experience and tragedy, the third movement as a move to the
xv
ironic archetype in the realm of experience, and the fourth movement as a move
upward to the comic archetype with a return to innocence and happiness.
Chapter 7 comprises two additional readings of romance narratives in
Schumanns Piano Quartet, op. 47 that reveal new features of this archetype. The first
movement not only presents a hero who is victorious over external transgressions, but a
hero who is also victorious over his own internal transgressions as his character grows
and matures throughout the movement, a process of Bildung. The third movement
illustrates a romance archetype in the form of a duet between two characters: a male
and a female that represent Robert and Clara Schumann.
In the final chapter of this dissertation I suggest implications for further study,
focusing on other chamber music repertoire by Robert Schumann. The research and
analysis undertaken in this dissertation provides both comprehensive structural and
narrative analyses of six movements from Schumanns Piano Quintet and Piano Quartet
and illustrates how the existing theories of music and meaning (both narrative and
semiotic) can be effectively correlated with oppositions in structural voice leading in
ways that provide analytical interpretations that have a greater depth than many that
currently exist.
xvi
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY
Anthony Newcomb, Schumann and Late Eighteenth-Century Narrative Strategies, 19th-Century Music
The three levels of semiotic analysis encompass the central pillar of Jean-Jacques Nattiezs theory of
musical semiotics. Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1990).
creation.3 The neutral level is a level of analysis at which one does not decide a priori
whether the results generated by a specific analytical proceeding are relevant from the
esthetic or poietic point of view neutral means both that the poetic and esthetic
dimensions of the object have been neutralized, and that one proceeds to the end of a
given procedure regardless of the results obtained.4 The neutral level does not refer to
neutral analysis; rather it is the end result of the poietic process of creationthe score or
the music itself. At the esthetic level receivers, when confronted by a symbolic form,
assign one or many meanings to the form.5 The esthetic level, which deals with the
consumption of music, allows us to construct meaning, in the course of an active
perceptual process.6
A semiotic musical analysis involves several stages. On the neutral level, analysis
consists of segmentation of the musical structure into formal units (the musics signs)
and an examination of the use of these units in relation to each other. On the poietic
level, the analyst can proceed either inductively or deductively. Analysts can also
proceed from analysis to the esthetic level, once again either inductively or deductively.
A semiotic musical analysis can be related to the poietic level, the esthetic level, or both
levels.
Semiotic scholars in the field of music theory include Jean-Jacques Nattiez,
Robert Hatten, Kofi Agawu, Raymond Monelle, Eero Tarasti, David Lidov, and Adam
Krims. In the following discussion, I will focus on the semiotic work of Robert Hatten
and Kofi Agawu because their approaches are the ones that most pertain to the work in
the current study.
The Semiotic Approach of Robert Hatten. Hattens work in the area of semiotics
in music began in 1982 (when the field of meaning in music still received a rather chilly
reception in theoretical circles) with his dissertation, Toward a Semiotic Model of Style
in Music: Epistemological and Methodological Bases.7 Hatten acknowledged that his
dissertation, while it provided groundwork for the study of expressive meaning, was
still unable to explain expressive meaning in a more complete sense, and he wanted to
provide a semiotic model of analysis that embraces both expressive and formal
3
Ibid., 12.
Ibid., 13.
5
Ibid.
6
Ibid., 12.
7
Robert S. Hatten, Toward a Semiotic Model of Style in Music: Epistemological and Methodological
Bases (Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1982).
4
meaning.8 This led to his 1994 book Musical Meaning in Beethoven, in which Hatten
integrates perspectives from semiotics, music theory, and music history to construct a
new mode of interpretation of Beethovens late style.9
Hattens semiotic theory in Musical Meaning in Beethoven combines structuralist
and hermeneutic approaches. Central to his theory are the concepts of correlation,
interpretation, and markedness of oppositions. To begin, Hatten defines two types of
competencies: stylistic competency, which is the understanding of the general
principles and constraints of a musical style; and strategic competency, which is the
understanding of the individual choices and exceptions illustrated by a particular
musical work. Stylistic correlations involve the general mapping of expressive
oppositions onto oppositions in musical structures; expressive states are mapped onto
stylistic types. Strategic interpretations also map expressive oppositions onto
oppositions in musical structures, but in a more specific way for a particular work of
music. The dialectic between the stylistic correlations and strategic interpretations is
best understood by an examination of Hattens Figure 2.1, taken from Chapter 2 of
Musical Meaning in Beethoven.
Figure 1.1. Reproduction of Hattens Figure 2.1 from Musical Meaning in Beethoven.10
The idea of markedness is central to Hattens theory, and he defines it as the
asymmetrical valuation of an opposition. 11 In musical meaning markedness of
structural oppositions correlates with markedness of expressive oppositionsmarked
entities are distinctive and represent the exceptional, while unmarked entities are more
8
Robert S. Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven: Markedness, Correlation, and Interpretation (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1994), xiii.
9
David Lidov, Foreword to Musical Meaning in Beethoven: Markedness, Correlation, and Interpretation by
Robert S. Hatten (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), ix.
10
Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven, 30.
11
Ibid., 291.
general and normative. Markedness values can grow over time in particular contexts,
creating a change in markedness values. The idea of types and tokens (taken from
Charles Sanders Peirce) provides another way to account for markedness in music. A
type, which is understood as unmarked (i.e., the tonic triad), is a generalized category
or concept. A token, which is understood as marked, is a physical manifestation of a
stylistic type (i.e., a particular spacing/voicing of a tonic triad in a particular key).
Another important concept in Hattens theory is that of topics. Topics, as
defined by Leonard Ratners work in the field of stylistic references in Classic music,12
are coded style types that carry features linked to affect, class, and social occasion.
Topics, Hatten observes, are a complex musical correlation originating in a kind of
music and they may acquire expressive correlations in the Classical style, and they
may be further interpreted expressively.13 His concept of expressive genres stems from
the idea of topics, and expressive genres are characterized or distinguished by
oppositions in the style.14 In Hattens words an expressive genre is a category of
musical works based on their implementation of a change-of-state schema (tragic-totriumphant, tragic-to-transcendent) or their organization of expressive states in terms of
an overarching topical field (pastoral, tragic).15 Expressive genres, on the level of a
piece or movement, result from the change of state from one topical field to another or
from the use of a single topical field to the exclusion of others.
Also at the heart of Hattens theory is the idea of musical troping. Troping
occurs when two different, formally unrelated types are brought together in the same
functional location so as to spark an interpretation based on their interaction.16 The
idea of a trope stems from literary theory, and in music the musical event must produce
an emergent meaning that crosses the established correlational field.
In summary, Hattens meanings emerge from a correlation of stylistic types with
expressive content. His complex semiotic theory considers how oppositions of musical
elements give rise to expressive oppositions and how the juxtaposition of expressive
types brings about new expressive interpretations. In Musical Meaning in Beethoven
Hatten applies his semiotic theory specifically to the late music of Beethoven. However,
12
Leonard G. Ratner, Music: Expression, Form, and Style (New York: Schirmer Books, 1980).
Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven, 295.
14
Ibid., 70.
15
Ibid., 290.
16
Ibid., 295.
13
the basic structure of his theory, which is built on correlation, interpretation, and
markedness of oppositions, is easily applied to other instrumental music from the
nineteenth century. In fact, Hatten provides an interesting comparison of his own ideas
of expressive meaning with those of Robert Schumann. Schumann suggests that a
program or suggestive title acts like a poetic description of creative criticism; so the
music does not portray the program, rather the program suggests the music.17 Much
like Hatten, Schumann believed that music could communicate feelings or
psychological states.18 However, Hatten, unlike Schumann, uses detailed analysis to
correlate each cultural unit with an opposition in the style of the work, which ties an
otherwise subjective discourse to a theoretical framework.19 Accordingly, Hattens
theory is particularly suitable for the current analytical study of Schumanns chamber
music for piano and strings.
The Semiotic Approach of Kofi Agawu. Kofi Agawu takes a very different
semiotic approach to the analysis of Classic music with his 1991 book Playing with Signs:
A Semiotic Interpretation of Classic Music.20 Agawus theory relies on the synthesis of
topical signs and structural signs. His goal is to point out features of works by Haydn,
Mozart, and Beethoven that might enhance an understanding and appreciation of
Classic repertoire. He seeks to study works from the Classic repertoire by examining
their structural and expressive attributes in order to determine meaning.
Agawus theoretical notion of playing with signs is based on a semiotic
framework that insists on mutual interaction between structure and expression.
According to Agawu, it is the dialectical interplay between manifest surface and
structural background that should guide the analysis, and it is only within such a
framework that we can appropriately acknowledge the rich and subtle meanings that
underlie the deceptively simple and familiar music of the Classic era.21 This semiotic
theory depends on a dialectic between what Agawu calls extroversive semiosis and
introversive semiosis.
Extroversive semiosis represents the domain of expression with topical signs and
deals with surface-level phenomena. Agawu discusses Ratners idea of topics in Classic
17
Leon Plantinga, Schumann as Critic (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967), 120.
Ibid., 121.
19
Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven, 231.
20
Kofi Agawu, Playing with Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation of Classic Music (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1991).
21
Ibid., 25.
18
music, which are forms of associative signification.22 Agawu stresses two crucial
facets of a topical analysis: the listener must possess stylistic competence; and natural
and historical associations of topic should point to an irreducible conventional
specificity.23 He also emphasizes the idea that topics are a point of departure but are not
total identities, as they help to shape our responses as listeners; they are suggestive
but not exhaustive.24 While analysis of topics is strictly identification (the first step in
Agawus method of analysis), a topic assumes its identity by the force of contextual
factors, and it is by identifying the interplay of topics that one sets up the possibility of a
topical discourse. Topical analysis must be combined with structural analysis in order
to provide a rich interpretation of the music.
Agawu next discusses introversive semiosis, which deals with the pure signs
of musical structure. These pure signs provide clues to musical organization and he
claims that the most powerful framework for analyzing pure signs analyzes the
dynamic quality of Classic music, which Schenkers theory most clearly conveys.
Agawu discusses the local dynamism within the framework of the Schenkerian Ursatz
while proposing a rhetorical strategy for the Ursatz. By the rhetorical strategy of the
Ursatz, Agawu is referring to the framing of Schenkers theory in terms of a works
beginning-middle-ending paradigm.25 Essentially a beginning is a stable point of
departure that establishes the generic identity and structural unit and contains a
period that provides, in miniature, the structural process of the piece as a whole.26 A
middle is engaged with a process (as opposed to an exposition) that is open-ended and
transitionalit is often unclear and structurally unimportant where a middle begins
and ends. An ending has two goals: syntactic and rhetorical closure. This paradigm is
clearly reflected in Schenkers basic Ursatz (I-V-I harmonic motion supported by 321
melodic motion).
The crux of Agawus theoretical idea is a combination of extroversive and
introversive semiosis: by making explicit the functioning of both topical signs
(extroversive semiosis) and pure signs (introversive semiosis) we can provide a richer
expressive interpretation of the music. Agawu states, It is in the interaction between
22
Ibid., 32.
Ibid., 33.
24
Ibid., 34.
25
Ibid., 51.
26
Ibid., 58.
23
topical signs and structural signs, an interaction that might be described in terms of
play, that the essence of my theory lies.27 He proposes approaching analysis in three
stages. First, one must produce a (Schenkerian) voice-leading reduction to show the
inner workings of the music and then reinterpret it in reference to the beginningmiddle-ending paradigm. Second, one must provide a topical analysis that yields a
discourse or plot. Third, one must examine the points of contact between them, as it is
the dialectic between the two types of signs that offers the richest interpretation. Agawu
uses a short excerpt from the opening movement of Mozarts D-Major String Quintet, k.
593 to demonstrate his theory. The remaining chapters of the book provide further
sample analyses to support his theory.
The final chapter of Playing with Signs provides a short Epilogue on how this
theory might apply to Romantic music. Agawu addresses the issues brought up in this
chapter in his 2009 book Music as Discourse: Semiotic Adventures in Romantic Music, in
which he extends his semiotic theory to the Romantic repertoire.28 In this more recent
book, Agawu draws upon the theoretical work of Schenker, Ratner, Adorno, and the
field of musical semiotics. At the heart of his book is the study of music as discourse,
and Agawu discusses the similarities and differences between music and language. He
goes on to provide six criteria for the analysis of Romantic music: topics; the beginningmiddle-ending paradigm; high points and the dynamic curve; periodicity,
discontinuity, and parentheses; three modes of enunciation (speech, song, and dance);
and the narrative thread. Agawu then explores Schenkers idea that links strict
counterpoint to free composition, explaining that the notion that a work is understood
as a layered structure, where the journey from background to foreground is one of
increasing concretization of musical content.29
Agawu concludes the theoretical portion of his book with an exploration of a
paradigmatic approach to analysis. In this approach, a piece of music is understood as a
succession of events that are repeated (sometimes exactly, other times inexactly) and it
is the associations between events and the nature of their succession that guides the
27
Ibid., 23.
Kofi Agawu, Music as Discourse: Semiotic Adventures in Romantic Music (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2009).
29
Ibid., 11.
28
30
Ibid., 163.
Byron Almn, Narrative Archetypes: A Critique, Theory, and Method of Narrative Analysis, Journal
of Music Theory 47, no. 1 (2003): 139.
32
Byron Almn, A Theory of Musical Narrative (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008), ix.
33
Ibid., 65.
34
Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univeresity Press, 1957),
161.
10
the wheel of fortune falling from innocence toward hamartia, and from hamartia
to catastrophe. The upward movement is the comic movement, from threatening
complications to a happy ending and a general assumption of post-dated
innocence in which everyone lives happily ever after.35
Ibid., 162.
Almn, Narrative Archetypes: A Critique, Theory, and Method of Narrative Analysis, 14.
37
Almn, A Theory of Musical Narrative, 65.
36
11
Tragedy:
Irony:
Comedy:
In his 2003 article, Almn suggested that the way that the opposition between victory and defeat was
cued musically was through reference to a listeners sympathy for either the order-imposing hierarchy or
transgression. Almn explains in his more recent 2008 book that he finds this approach to be problematic,
and revises his theory to allow the opposition between victory and defeat to be interpreted through
emphasis rather than listener sympathy (235).
39
Almn, A Theory of Musical Narrative, 66.
40
Ibid., 40.
41
Ibid., 51.
12
opposition, with marked entities representing the exceptional and having a greater
specificity of meaning than the normative, unmarked entities.42 The idea of markedness
characterizes the valuative weighting of musical units on the paradigmatic level, while
the idea of rank characterizes the valuative weighting of musical units on the
syntagmatic level. Rank assigns relative value to the distinctive features in a cultural
unit; that is to say, each feature of a cultural unit exists in a particular hierarchical
position with respect to the other features in that unit.43 Almn asserts that the musical
unit is characterized by the paradigmatic use (markedness) of certain features rather
than others by their syntagmatic arrangement (rank) in a particular sequence or order.44
He goes on to argue that determining markedness in the context of narrative
interpretation is equivalent to determining what the narrative transgression is, and
determining rank is equivalent to determining the value of a musical event in relation
to other events.45 Therefore, it is the transvaluation, or rising and falling tension caused
by the markedness and rank relations, in a piece of music that articulates its narrative
trajectory.
I will now briefly summarize the typical profiles of transvaluation in each
narrative archetype. In a romance narrative, a rough high-low-high profile of the rank
of the valued elements exists, in which the low rank represents the impact of the
various transgression elements.46 Unlike a romance, where declines in rank value are
ultimately reversed, a tragic archetype contains a rough high-low profile of the rank
value, ending with the defeat of the valued elements.47 The trajectory of the profile of
the valued elements in an ironic archetype varies depending on the emphasis (and the
narrative phase): a trajectory of an ironic narrative can expose the limitations of a
hierarchy, sharply indict it, show it to be ineffectual or meaningless, or completely
demolish it.48 Because a comic archetype involves a transvaluation in which
transgressive elements successfully challenge and overturn an initial hierarchy, a rough
low-high temporal profile is imparted on the rank value of those elementsin a
42
43
13
comedy the initial hierarchy is normally flawed or overly rigid, which allows the
transgressive element to adapt and achieve its higher status.49
Almn discusses Liszkas levels of narrative analysis and how they might apply
to his theory of musical narrative. The agential level is where the musical-semantic units
are identified and are categorized as either marked or unmarked. The actantial level is
where the dynamic relationships between the musical units are defined. Taken together,
the agential and actantial levels describe the details of a narrative transvaluation in
which two binary oppositions (order/transgression and victory/defeat) express a
conflict that traces the tensions between an order-imposing hierarchy and a
transgression of that hierarchy, ultimately producing one of Fryes four narrative
archetypes.50
Additionally, Almn emphasizes the importance of topical analysis in musical
narrative, citing the work of Ratner and Hatten. He suggests that the expressive genres
of Hattens semiotic approach can be successfully integrated with a theory of musical
narrative because they form a subclass of possible narrative schemes in which topic
plays a primary role in either articulating the overall narrative frame or the conflict that
embodies the primary narrative level.51 Almn acknowledges that the relationship
between narrative and topic is complex (he brings up five issues in the integration of
topic and narrative) but he concludes that topical considerations have a significant
influence on narrative interpretations.52
In sum, Almns theory of narrative in music provides a synthesis of approaches
from literary theory, semiotics, musicology, and music theory. At the heart of this
theory is the Liszkian idea of transvaluationhow the shifts of tension between rank
and markedness relations produce one of the four narrative archetypesbut he also
remains adamant in his belief that methodological eclecticism is the most productive
direction for analytical and interpretive explorations of narratives to take.53 It is the
methodological eclecticism and flexibility of Almns theory that is most beneficial for
the present study.
49
Ibid., 18889.
Ibid., 74.
51
Ibid., 73.
52
Ibid., 92.
53
Ibid., 222.
50
14
54
Anthony Newcomb, Once More Between Absolute and Program Music: Schumanns Second
Symphony, 19th-Century Music 7 (1984): 23350.
55
Ibid., 233.
56
Ibid., 234.
57
Ibid.
58
Ibid., 237.
59
Ibid.
15
being able to better understand made objects.60 His approach also depends on the
intuition, education, and talent of the interpreter. After a lengthy discussion of narrative
in literature versus narrative in music, Newcomb moves on to the crux of his article,
which focuses on narrative in the music of Robert Schumann.
Schumann, who immersed himself in the novels of German Romantics
(especially E.T.A. Hoffman and Jean Paul), studied how the authors told a story and
was intrigued by their poetics. He also tended to describe the music he liked in terms of
novels. Newcomb says Schumann, like Jean Paul, avoids clear linear narrative through
a stress on interruption, embedding, digression, and willful reinterpretation of the
apparent function of an event (what one might call functional punning).61 He notes
that some narratives from late eighteenth-century fiction like to question paradigmatic
plots by standing conventional situations on their heads and Schumann often delights
in doing the same thing.62
After a lengthy discussion of narrative devices found in literary works and in the
music of Schumann (such as Witz), Newcomb provides a sample analysis of the final
movement of Schumanns String Quartet in A Major, op. 41, no. 3. The narrative is
based on the idea that the movement depends entirely on a transformation of functions
of events in a paradigmatic plot. In other words, the functions of successive events turn
out to be not what they seemed when first encountered, as there is a gradual realization
on the part of the listener of a reversal of formal function in the movement. The paradox
of the movement is that, although the movement is indisputably a rondo, the refrain is
additive in structure and tonally open, which alters the normal relation between
function and succession of events in a rondo.63 Newcomb concludes that Schumann has
defamiliarized narrative conventions and has forced the listener to move beyond
static recognition of formal schemata to dynamic questioning of formal procedures.64
In brief, Newcombs approach to narrative in Schumanns music specifically is
built on the idea that music for Schumann was an expressive enterprise and a form of
communication, reflecting in some way the experience of its creator.65 Thematic
60
16
17
work must possess narrativity in the same way as a work of literature, and therefore
must contain both a plot and a narrative voice.
Seatons idea of uniting plot and voice in musical narrative is clearly seen in his
2008 article Back from B-A-C-H: Schumanns Symphony No. 2 in C major.74 Seatons
plot for the symphony is generally the same as Newcombs: an end-accented or
heroic symphony in which the course of the music suggests a struggle leading to
victory or suffering leading to healing or redemption.75 While Newcomb suggests that
the protagonist in the plot is Schumann himself, Seaton asserts that we should be
reluctant to fall into this biographical fallacywhich should more correctly be called
the autobiographical fallacyin this way.76 He goes on to consider the use of
allusions and citations in the work and what they suggest about the narrative voicean
aspect that pertains directly to this dissertation. Seaton asserts that the persona is not
Schumann, but a more general voice with an experience related to struggle and
recovery, the symphony as a genre, and German musical culture and tradition.77 He
concludes that the self-identification and self-realization in the Symphony in C Major
amount to Schumanns claim for incorporation into the community that the narratorsymphonist understood by the 1840s as the canon of great German composers.78
Seatons approach to narratology in music holds firm the idea that for music to
have narrative it must have both plot and voice. Seaton says,
Narratology guides an examination of passages with an eye to the ways in which
every detailrhythm, melody, harmony, dynamics, articulation, register, and
texturecontributes to character. It demands insightful attention to harmonic
and formal designs, including every nuance of structural implication,
completion, and frustration. It requires multilayered understanding of the inside
of plotted musical action and the outer frame that gives the music a voice. And it
requires thorough study of historical contexts, including biography and
74
Douglass Seaton, Back from B-A-C-H: Schumanns Symphony No. 2 in C major, in About
Bach, ed. Gregory G. Butler, George B. Stauffer, and Mary Dalton Greer (Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 2008), 191206.
75
Ibid., 193.
76
Ibid., 195.
77
Ibid., 202.
78
Ibid., 20203.
18
1.2.3 Conclusion
The semiotic and narratological approaches to musical meaning discussed above
illustrate a small sampling of current trends in the field of music and meaning. Many of
the difficulties in discussing meaning in textless instrumental music can be overcome
with the semiotic theories of Robert Hatten and Kofi Agawu and in the narratological
theories of Byron Almn, Anthony Newcomb, and Douglass Seaton. While each theory
contains many strengths, there are also some weaknesses.
For example, Hatten is reluctant to use Schenkerian analysis and claims that it
would be difficult to correlate and map oppositions in voice leading onto expressive
oppositions. Yet the use of Schenkerian analysis, when appropriate, allows us to pursue
a more in-depth interaction between structuralist and hermeneutic approaches. Arnold
Whittall, in his review of Hattens book, brings up the same question, saying, Hattens
lack of Schenkerian fire-power leaves him unable to pursue a fuller interaction between
structuralist and hermeneutic approaches.80 Agawus theoretical idea of playing with
signs is a good one, but he does not go as far as he might in making connections
between the topical signs and the structural analysis. The play never seems to contain
any real expressive meaning. Agawu claims that topics reinforce structure, contradict
structure, or are indifferent to structure, which is not particularly helpful for the
construction of semantic meaning, as it doesnt address how structure might actually
contribute to the meaning.
Regarding the narratological approach of Almn, a flaw in his work is found in
his failure to consistently provide strong structural support for his narrative
79
80
19
interpretations. Another problem with the approach of Almn is the thorny issue of the
presence of a narrator, and he concludes that, while the issue of a narrator is
problematic in musical narrative, the presence of a narrator is not a prerequisite for
narrative with respect to music. In addition, the issue of topic is discussed by Agawu in
his review of A Theory of Musical Narrative. Agawu asserts that Almns statement that
topic is static while narrative is dynamic is problematic due to the complex temporal
dispositions of different topics.81
Newcomb, who tends to use more aesthetic and emotional analysis than Almn,
relies heavily on historical matters of style and topic. While Newcombs analysis of
Schumanns Second Symphony provides an exhaustive summary of critical reception to
the work in the 19th and 20th centuries and a well-supported musical plot, he does not
effectively address the issue of the narrative voice or provide sufficient structural
support for his claims.
Seaton addresses the difficult issue of the narrator, which is somewhat neglected
by both Almn and Newcomb, by defining musical narrative as having two essential
features: plot and voice. Seatons article on Schumanns Second Symphony provides a
narratological approach that unites plot and voice, providing a more compelling
interpretation of Schumanns Second Symphony than that of Newcomb.
81
Kofi Agawu, Review: A Theory of Musical Narrative, Notes 66/2 (2009): 277.
20
theory, for it can produce analyses that are deeper and more penetrating than many that
exist in the current literature.
It is important to recognize the problems that one-to-one mappings between
structureespecially Schenkerian voice leadingand meaning can create. One pitfall of
combining Schenkerian analysis (or any linear analysis that engages with the
Schenkerian concepts of voice leading, prolongation, and composing out) is the
perceived epistemological priority of the background. This raises a couple of questions.
Just how musical are the deeper Schenkerian levels and how much meaning can one
perceive from a background or even a deep middleground analysis? Lawrence Kramer
addresses these questions in his article Haydns Chaos, Schenkers Order; or
Hermeneutics and Musical Analysis: Can They Mix? Kramer states, The fundamental
structure supplies the underlying unity on which the expressivity of the foreground
ultimately depends.82 Schenkers own study of Haydns Representation of Chaos
from Creation generates meaning from the bottom up by constructing a parallel in
which interpretative unfolding follows compositional unfolding.83 Schenkers graphic
analyses show how he first selects deep structural elements as nodes of meaning and
then scans the foreground realizations for qualitative values, which he then projects
onto an image of chaos.
Michael Klein discusses the pitfalls of relying on structure to bolster semantic
claims in Chapter 2 of his 2005 book, Intertextuality in Western Art Music. Klein claims
that In music analysis, as in myth, the structure is the meaning.84 He acknowledges
that the music theorists preoccupation with structure often comes at the expense of
meaning and culture and suggests that part of a solution to this problem may come
from more open acknowledgment of the intertextual nature of analysis.85
Any credible narrative or expressive analysis must be grounded in the structural
aspects of the music. So the question is not whether there are benefits to combining the
approaches, rather it is how most effectively to use purely musical analysis to support
meaning and vice versa. I agree with Robert Hatten, who says, musical meaning is
82
Lawrence Kramer, Haydns Chaos, Schenkers Order; or Hermeneutics and Musical Analysis: Can
They Mix? 19th-Century Music 16, no. 1 (1992): 6.
83
Ibid., 8.
84
Michael Klein, Intertextuality in Western Art Music (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005), 28.
85
Ibid., 29.
21
86
22
CHAPTER 2
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Frederick Niecks, Robert Schumann (London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1925), 205.
Ibid., 221.
89
Ibid.
90
Schumann continued his exclusive composition of chamber music into early 1843, completing the
Andante and Variations for two pianos, French horn, and two cellos (op. 46) in January and February.
91
Julie Ann Hedges Brown, A Higher Echo of the Past: Schumanns 1842 Chamber Music and the
Rethinking of Classical Form (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 2000), 1.
88
23
Schuberts death on November 19, 1828. John Daverio suggests that the C-Minor Piano
Quartet reflects a fascination with Schuberts Piano Trio in E-flat, D. 929 and further
links the C-Minor Piano Quartet to Schubert with a statement from Schumanns diary
entry on November 31, My quartetSchubert is deaddismay.92 Schumanns own
chamber group performed the C-Minor Piano Quartet in early 1829, as is noted in his
March 13th diary entry.93 This early attempt at chamber music, although not published
during his lifetime, was an important step in Schumanns compositional development,
especially for someone who had not yet had formal training in composition.
Schumann made other attempts at chamber music in 1828-1829, but none were
completed. Sketches exist for piano quartets in B major and in A major, both from the
same time period as the C-Minor Piano Quartet.94 His interest in chamber music did not
fade, and in an 1838 letter to Clara he writes: Im playing with formsIll write three
violin quartets next.95 While sketches of those quartets never surfaced, Schumann did
sketch two string quartets (D major and E-flat major) a year later. Thus, it is evident that
Schumanns turn to chamber music in 1842 was far from abrupt, as he had made quite a
few efforts to compose chamber pieces prior to that year.
The compositions of 1842 were not the first in the genre of chamber music for
Schumann, nor were they the last. The chamber works that came later further
complicate the problem of calling 1842 Schumanns chamber music year. He
composed many more chamber works after 1842, including the Piano Trio in D Minor
(1847), op. 63; the Piano Trio in F Major, op. 80 (1847); the Violin Sonata in A Minor, op.
105 (1851); the Piano Trio in G Minor, op. 110 (1851); the Violin Sonata in D minor, op.
121 (1851); and a number of works composed as sets of miniatures.
Schumann did not compose all of his chamber works in 1842, but Brown notes
that the works from that year hold a special place because a new and serious intent
underlay their composition.96 Schumanns earlier efforts produced mostly unfinished
sketches, whereas the 1842 works show his desire not only to complete the works but
92
John Daverio, Robert Schumann: Herald of a New Poetic Age (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997),
5051.
93
John Worthen, Robert Schumann: Life and Death of a Musician (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007),
31.
94
Daverio, Robert Schumann, 246.
95
Robert Schumann, Letter of 11 February 1838, in The Complete Correspondence of Clara and Robert
Schumann, Critical Edition, ed. Eva Weissweiler, trans. Hildegard Fritsch and Ronald L. Crawford, vol. 1
(New York: Peter Lang, 1994), 102.
96
Brown, A Higher Echo of the Past, 2.
24
also to have them published, performed, and even reviewed.97 In his symphony year,
in which Schumann composed his First Symphony (op. 38), the Ouverture, Scherzo und
Finale (op. 52), the Phantasie in A Minor for piano and orchestra (later the first
movement of his Piano Concerto, op. 54), and the first version of the D-Minor
Symphony (op. 120), Schumann revealed an attempt to cultivate a reputation for
himself as a serious composer by writing in the large-scale forms of his predecessors.
In 1842 Schumann seems to have attempted to further cultivate that reputation by
writing serious chamber music.
1842 is the year in which Schumanns chamber music aspirations were realized,
but it came with some difficulties in his marriage. In February, while on a concert tour
of German cities intended to showcase Claras virtuoso talent as a pianist, Robert
became depressed after being insulted by court officials following a concert given by
Clara in Oldenberg.98 He returned to Leipzig alone, while Clara finished her concert
tour, and he wrote in their marriage diary, This separation has once again made clear
to me our particularly difficult situation. Should I neglect my talent in order to serve as
your travelling companion? And conversely, should you let your talent go to waste
simply because I happen to be chained to the journal and the piano?99
During the weeks spent in Leipzig apart from Clara, Schumann studied the
string quartets of Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn, as well as separate studies in
counterpoint.100 This led to his three op. 41 string quartets, composed in the summer of
1842. Schumann wrote the quartets in record time, finishing the first in A minor during
his birthday week (June 411), then writing the second in F major between June 11 and
July 5, and the third in A major between July 18 and July 22.101 Within six short weeks
he completed three quartets, and Claras birthday (September 13) was celebrated by the
first performance of the three works, which took place in their home with Ferdinand
Davidconcertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig and friend of Robert
and Claraleading the quartet.102 Schumann thought of the quartets as among his finest
97
Ibid.
Daverio, Robert Schumann, 243.
99
Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and Gerd Nauhaus, The Marriage Diaries of Robert & Clara
Schumann: From Their Wedding Day Through the Russia Trip, ed. Gerd Nauhaus, trans. Peter Ostwald
(Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1993), 206.
100
Eric Frederick Jensen, Schumann (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 210.
101
Worthen, Robert Schumann, 220.
102
Ibid., 221.
98
25
achievements, and he dedicated them all to Mendelssohn.103 The public response to the
string quartets was also favorable, and Moritz Hauptmanna music theorist at the
newly founded conservatoire in Leipzigpraised their artistic moderation with fresh,
exuberant fancy.104 The A-Minor Quartet was first publicly performed in January of
1843, and the score of all three works was published in February (as a birthday gift to
Mendelssohn) of the same year.105
Schumann next turned to the keyboard, writing the Piano Quintet in E-flat, op.
44, between September and October. Even before it was completed, Clara was excited
about the new work, commenting in their marriage diary, but thus my Robert
worked more with his mind! He has almost finished a quintet which, according to what
I have overheard, again seems to me magnificenta work filled with energy and
freshness! I hope very much to play it here in public yet this winter.106 Schumann
dedicated the quintet to Clara, and she made it a staple on her concert tour in later
years.107
The Piano Quintet was first played privately in December in Leipzig at the home
of his friends the Voigts and remains one of Schumanns most performed and popular
compositions. Mendelssohn, who sight-read the piano part, filled in for Clara, who was
pregnant and not feeling well.108 The Schumanns faced financial difficulties late in 1842,
and in the same month as the premiere of the Piano Quintet, Robert accepted
Mendelssohns request that he come and teach composition, score-reading, and piano at
the new Leipzig Conservatory.109
The public premiere of the Quintet, which received positive reviews, took place
on January 8, 1843 on a program with the op. 41 string quartets. Franz Brendel (who
bought Schumanns journal in 1844) comments, the most successful of his
103
Ibid.
Niecks, Robert Schumann, 222.
105
Brown, A Higher Echo of the Past, 12.
106
Schumann, Marriage Diaries, 177.
107
Brown, A Higher Echo of the Past, 17.
108
John Gardner, The Chamber Music, in Robert Schumann: The Man and His Music, ed. Alan Walker
(London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1972), 222.
109
Worthen, Robert Schumann, 226.
104
26
[Schumanns] later works are, in my opinion, the more significant songs, the Peri, and
the Piano Quintet.110
The Piano Quartet, op. 47, also in E-flat, was completed as a companion piece to
the Quintet in November of 1842. Schumann first mentions the Piano Quartet in a diary
entry in October 1842, writing, Ive also been industrious again; a quintet in E-flat
major is at the copyist, and Ive finished something else, at least in my mind, which I
may not reveal to you as yet however.111 Schumann later revealed that the Piano
Quartet, along with the trio later published as the Phantasiestcke, op. 88, was intended
as a Christmas present for Clara.112 While the trio wasnt finished by Christmas, the
Piano Quartet was completed November 26th.113 The Piano Quartet was performed
privately on programs with the Piano Quintet in early December of 1842, but a public
premiere did not occur until December 8, 1844.114 Despite its delay, the premiere was a
memorable program, as it was the farewell concert of Robert and Clara Schumann at the
Leipzig Gewandhaus before their move to Dresden.115
The last work composed during Schumanns chamber music year was a piano
trio, later published as the Phantasiestcke, op. 88. Schumann began work on this piece
in early December of 1842, and Daverio speculates that the trio may have been
motivated by Mendelssohns D-Minor Trio.116 Schumann commented on the difference
in nature of the piano trio and the other chamber works completed in that year, calling
attention to its much more delicate nature.117 Instead of using the sonata-style forms
of the String Quartets, Piano Quintet, and Piano Quartet, Schumann turned back to the
more intimate forms of the piano miniatures. For this reason the Phantasiestcke is often
not included in discussions of Schumanns chamber music year.
The early years of the 1840s led to Schumanns finally establishing a reputation
as a composer of consequence, with works such as his D-Minor Symphony and the
Piano Quintet. These years also reveal a marked change in Schumanns compositional
110
Franz Brendel, Robert Schumann with Reference to Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and the Development of
Modern Music in General (1845), in Schumann and His World, ed. R. Larry Todd, trans. Jrgen Thym
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 331.
111
Schumann, Marriage Diaries, 17879.
112
Brown, A Higher Echo of the Past, 18.
113
Ibid.
114
Ibid., 19.
115
Ibid.
116
Daverio, Robert Schumann, 261.
117
Ibid.
27
style. His turn from the freer styles and forms of his piano miniatures to the more
serious forms of his predecessors (namely Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven) with his
symphonies and chamber music of 184142 expose Schumanns desire to achieve a
reputation as a serious composer. In the years following 1842, Schumann explored the
genre of the oratorio, with his secular oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri (1843); after the
Schumanns Russian tour of 1844, he experienced a crisis during which he composed
very little. Following their move to Dresden in 1844, Schumann became interested in
musical dramas. Mostly, though, Schumanns compositional output in the years
following 1843 is a mixture of all of the major genres, including musical dramas,
miniatures, piano cycles, sonatas, chamber music, symphonies, concerti, and lieder.
Daverio remarks that Schumanns creativity in the final phase of his career was shaped
by a re-enactment and completion of the march through the genres begun years
before.118
118
Ibid., 459.
Brown, A Higher Echo of the Past, 37.
120
Leon B. Plantinga, Schumann as Critic (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967), 100.
121
Brown, A Higher Echo of the Past, 38.
119
28
Ibid.
Plantinga, Schumann as Critic, 18788.
124
Carl Dahlhaus, Nineteenth-Century Music, trans. J. Bradford Robinson (Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 1989), 78.
125
Ibid.
126
Konrad Wolff, ed., On Music and Musicians, trans. Paul Rosenfeld (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1946), 68.
127
Daverio, Robert Schumann, 249.
123
29
general is seen in his 1841 statement in the Neue Zeitschrift fr Musik that Mozarts music
becomes ever fresher with repeated hearings.128 Haydn, widely known as the father
of the string quartet, did not hold as high a place in Schumanns mind, as he goes on to
say nothing new is to be found in the music of Haydn.129 No matter how highly
Schumann regarded the quartets of Mozart and Haydn, it is evident that he was
familiar with their works from the many rehearsals of Davids quartet group he
attended. In addition, Daverio notes that after Clara returned to Leipzig she and Robert
read through many of the scores of Haydn and Mozarts quartets at the piano.130
Daverio goes on to discuss a built-in affinity between Haydns and Schumanns styles,
especially as regards their respective approaches to sonata form and Schumanns less
obvious debt to Mozart which involves the handling of sonata form.131
I love Mozart dearly, Schumann wrote in a November 1842 diary entry, but
Beethoven I worship like a god who remains forever apart, who will never become one
with us.132 The works of Beethoven seem to play an influential role in Schumanns turn
to chamber music. Of Beethovens sixteen string quartets, the last five held the greatest
attraction for Schumann. Schumann wrote, they [the late string quartets] seem to me to
be on the extreme boundaries of human art and imagination thus far attained.133 In
1842 Schumann said, In Beethovens later quartetstreasures may be found which the
world scarcely yet knows, and amid which we may mine for years to come.134 Jensen
observes the influence of Beethovens late quartets on Schumanns quartets in several
general features: the unusual and unexpected tonal relationships, extreme
chromaticism, disruptive rhythmic configurations, emphasis on fugato and imitation;
and adaptations of conventional structures.135 Beyond these broad similarities, Jensen
asserts that there is a specific association between Schumanns first quartet and
Beethovens op. 132, which bear strong structural and thematic similarities in their
respective slow movements.
128
30
When it came to his contemporaries, Schumann held the highest regard for the
works of his good friend Mendelssohn. While Schumann admired the chamber works
of Schubert as well (recall the earlier discussion of the influence of Schuberts death on
Schumanns C-Minor Piano Quartet in 1828-29), most of Schuberts quartets (except for
the Death and the Maiden Quartet, which Schumann praised) would not have yet
been available to him in published form in 1842.136 Schumann dedicated his op. 41
quartets to Mendelssohn, and he seems to have been most concerned about
Mendelssohns opinion of his work. In October 1842 Schumann, after a performance of
his quartets by Davids string quartet, revealed his pleasure at Mendelssohns reaction
to the music, Mendelssohn told me later while leaving that he cannot really explain to
me how much he likes my music. That made me very happy; since I consider
Mendelssohn the best critic; of all living musicians he has the clearest vision.137
The three string quartets of op. 41 are the only string quartets in Schumanns
output. The majority of his chamber music includes the piano, and Daverio remarks
that Schumann was exposed to works for piano and strings from a young age.138
Daverio goes on to say that in the Bltter und Blmchen aus der goldenen Aue, a book
assembled during his early teenage years in Zwickau, Schumann mentions his first
exposure to chamber music for piano and strings, including Mozarts Piano Quartets in
G Minor (k. 478) and E-flat Major (k. 493) and the Piano Quintet (op. 1) of Prince Louis
Ferdinand.139
Near the end of 1828 Schumann formed his own piano quartet with himself as
pianist, Johann Friedrich Tglichsbeck as violinist, Christoph Srgel as violist, and
Christian Glock as cellist.140 Although there is no documentation to prove it, it is likely
that Schumanns piano quartet from the late 1820s read through the two piano quartets
of Mozart just mentioned and perhaps even the piano quartets of Beethoven (WoO 36,
no. 1 in E-flat major; WoO 36, no. 2 in D major; and WoO 36, no. 3 in C major). It is also
highly likely that Schumann became familiar with the piano quartets of his friend
Mendelssohn: op. 1 in C minor, op. 2 in F minor, and op. 3 in B minor (all composed
between 18221825), although probably not until much later.
136
31
Regarding piano quintets, neither Haydn, Mozart, nor Beethoven wrote for a
piano and string quartet, although Mozart wrote a famous piano quintet for piano and
winds. Whether Schumann was aware of Schuberts well-known Trout Quintet (D.
667) is uncertain (the Trout Quintet is scored for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double
bass and was composed in 1819 and published in 1829). Despite the lack of clarity on
Schumanns specific models for his piano quartet and quintet, he is definitely not the
first, or last, to have composed in the genre.
The role of the piano in both the Quartet and Quintet of Schumann alternates
between musical substance and virtuosity; the Quintet, especially, is a play of quasisymphonic and more properly chamber-like elements.141 Critics have faulted the
Quintet for what some consider an overly prominent piano part, and according to one
explanation, offered by Homer Ulrich, Schumann conceived the piano as a
counterbalance to the four strings and not as one part among five equals.142
In summary, the primary models for Schumanns chamber music are Haydn,
Mozart, and, especially, Beethoven. Mendelssohns work, especially his Piano Trio in D
minor (op. 49) and piano quartets (op. 1, op. 2, and op. 3), also had an influence on
Schumann. Despite his familiarity with and knowledge of the works of these great
composers, Schumann valued those who came before him but also wanted to forge an
identity of his own. He understood that, to be a worthy successor of Beethovens
innovations, one could not imitate them, but rather transform them into something
new.143
142
32
144
33
private nature of chamber performance.149 Adorno mentions the same idea in his
analysis of the changing social function of chamber music in the nineteenth century.150
Daverio remarks that Schumanns [string] quartets, in short, may number among the
last representatives of the true chamber idiom where players and listeners are one.151
The audience for chamber music continued to grow larger, and during the
Schumanns 1844 tour of Russia a private performance of the Piano Quintet drew
close to forty listeners.152 One might speculate that the more orchestral textures of both
the Piano Quartet and Piano Quintet (although much more so in the Quintet) deserves,
and in fact requires, a move from private venues to the public sphere. The virtuoso
piano part of the Piano Quintet, Daverio notes, will only receive its due from an artist
at home on the concert stage.153 Schumanns chamber works for piano were intended
for professional pianistsClara and Mendelssohnrather than amateurs.
149
Ibid., 54142.
Theodor W. Adorno. Introduction to the Sociology of Music (New York: Seabury Press, 1976), 8586.
151
Daverio, Robert Schumann, 255.
152
Ibid., 254.
153
Ibid., 255.
154
Linda Roesner, Studies in Schumann Manuscripts with Particular Reference to Sources Transmitting
Instrumental Works in the Large Forms (Ph.D. diss., NYU, 1983), iv.
150
34
compositional process again.155 Almost all the manuscripts for Schumanns early piano
music (including the sonatas) are either fragmentary preliminary sketches or more
finished sources ready to give to copyists.156 There are few, if any, manuscripts that
indicate middle stages of continuity drafts in his early works.
Since there are no continuity drafts for early works, we can conclude that
Schumann wrote his early works from the preliminary sketches at the piano and the fair
copies were then subjected to numerous revisions.157 Or, it might be that continuity
drafts existed but were discarded, unlike sketches (which show the moment of
inspiration) or fair copies (which one needs). One exception is the Fandango of 1832
(later the first movement of the Piano Sonata in F-sharp Minor, op. 11), which reflects an
intermediate stage of composition.158 The op. 11 Fandango sketches reveal how the
composer improvised diverse ideas without any consideration of how they would be
fitted together.159
The Piano Sonata in G Minor, op. 22, manuscript (183338) sheds additional light
on Schumanns early compositional procedures. He made changes by extracting,
moving about, omitting, and substituting large blocks of finished material, while
leaving intact the surrounding musical text, indicating a piecemeal approach to
composition.160 In addition, the idea sketch was constructed by writing down an
open-ended improvisation on a basic melodic or rhythmic pattern.161 Schumanns early
approach to composition was mosaic-like, as different ideas can easily be changed
around, added, abridged, or omitted with minimal effect on the overall form.162
Ibid., 112.
Ibid., 280.
157
Ibid., 301.
158
Ibid., 280.
159
Ibid., 401-2.
160
Ibid., 326.
161
Ibid., 327.
162
Ibid., 342.
156
35
manuscripts of his later large-scale works indicates that his approach changed, as he
worked out structural changes in the sketches, as opposed to earlier works, where he
made major structural changes at the fair-copy stage.163
The sequence for the sketches of the op. 41 string quartets was predominantly
regularthey reflected fairly accurately the compositional order of the music, while
the sketches for the later Violin Sonata, op. 105, and E-flat-Major Symphony are more
complicated and difficult to follow.164 Schumanns revisions in the op. 41 quartets
reflect his growing concern with structural balancefor example, shortening
previously excessive transitional passagesbut continued his earlier practice of
repeating large blocks of material in development sections.165 While Schumann was
increasingly thinking about solutions to problems of large forms with op. 41, the
revisions and music reveal that his approach was still largely rooted in the additive
techniques of his early style.166
By the early 1840s Schumanns improvisational approach to large-scale
composition had been brought under controleven though he still composed at the
pianoas seen in sketches of op. 38 and op. 41.167 In a letter of 1838 Schumann
cautioned Clara against the pitfalls of improvisation.168 Continuity drafts that appeared
in the early 1840s provide a complete sketch outline of the works, which indicates that
long-term planning had replaced the moment-to-moment evolution of the earlier
works; most of the structural revisions took place in the sketch or continuity draft and
not in the fair copy, as it did in his earlier works.169
Less reliance on improvisation in the early 1840s led to a change in how
Schumann handled thematic materialthe works contain fewer thematic ideas than
the early worksand these ideas are more thoroughly worked out.170 However, the
mosaic-like fitting together of ideas in the early works does carry over to the later
works, in that he constructed many of his themes by adding together four-bar phrases
on common or related ideas. Large-scale orchestral and chamber works of his later
163
Ibid., 342.
Ibid., 83.
165
Ibid., 386.
166
Ibid., 387.
167
Ibid., 401-2.
168
Ibid., 402.
169
Ibid., 403.
170
Ibid.
164
36
years (the D-Minor Trio, op. 63, the E-flat-Major Symphony, op. 97, and the violin
sonatas) show a complete break with additive methods in favor of ongoing thematic
processes and continuity in the larger structural sense, the result of his study of
counterpoint of Bach and his involvement with large forms in general.171
2.5 Conclusions
Both practical and personal reasons influenced Schumanns changes in
compositional interests and style in the early 1840s. Claras father was reluctant to let
his daughter marry Schumann and one of the concerns he expressed was how Robert
would support his wife. After their marriage in 1840 Schumanns journal continued to
do well, but he had definitely not met with commercial success as a composer. In
addition, the immensely personal piano works that dominated Schumanns output
prior to 1840 separated him, at least somewhat, from the concert-going public. In a letter
to Clara from the late 1830s, Schumann acknowledges this by writing, You were wise
not to play my piecesthey arent suited for the publicand it would be pitiful if I
were to complain later that the audience hadnt understood something which wasnt
intended for public acceptance; it wasnt intended for anything at all and exists only for
its own sake.172 By turning to the genres of the symphony in 1841 and chamber music
in 1842, Schumann sought to provide works for the public that are both more accessible
and more comprehensible than the immensely personal and complex piano works.
171
172
Ibid., 404.
Brown, A Higher Echo of the Past, 2223. From a letter of March 19, 1838.
37
CHAPTER 3
A ROMANCE NARRATIVE:
JEAN PAUL AND THE PERSONA
IN THE FIRST MOVEMENT OF THE PIANO QUINTET
Northrop Fryes 1957 book Anatomy of Criticism posits a set of four narrative
archetypes (romance, tragedy, irony, and comedy) that use a circular model: the
narratives are conceived as moving around a circle, representing a move from a state of
innocence and happiness at the top (romance), down to a state of experience or
catastrophe (tragedy), moves to a different state of experience with irony, and back up
to the narrative of renewal and recovered happiness (comedy). The analyses that follow
in Chapters 3 through 6 will use Byron Almns adaptation of this circular model,
which maps Liszkas binary oppositions (order-imposing hierarchy/transgression and
victory/defeat) onto Fryes circular model, to provide readings of each of the four
movements of Schumanns Piano Quintet, op. 44. The movements of the Piano Quintet
move around the entire circular model of narrative archetypes, from a state of
innocence or happiness (first movement), falling to the world of experience with
tragedy (second movement), to more experience with irony (third movement) and
finally upward from experience to recovered happiness with comedy (fourth
movement). We begin with the first movement, a heroic romance narrative that is
enriched by the influence of Jean Paul on Schumann as a composer, by the idea of two
characters (Florestan and Eusebius) in the movement, and by the idea of a persona who
is an aspiring Romantic artist seeking a place among the great figures in the world of
art.
of a community.173 The romance archetype produces a narrative in which the orderimposing hierarchy is victorious over its transgression, and a rough high-low-high
profile is applied to the rank of the valued elements. This high-low-high rank profile
is the result of the implication of a potentially endless series of confrontations with the
elements that threaten the dominant hierarchy; the low rank represents the impact of
the various elements of transgression.174
In literature, romance frequently employs idealized, mythical, and imaginary
elements that have more to do with the imagination than with current cultural
conditions. This is true in musical romances as well, where extra-musical or topical
references are often pastoral, mythic, transcendent, or divine.175 A romance narrative,
though, does not just embody the romantic topics listed above; rather it must involve
the victory of an order-imposing hierarchy over its transgression. Emphasizing the
victory of the order-imposing hierarchy is crucial with a romance narrative, which means
that the analyst must view the hierarchy in a positive light.
According to Almn, the romance archetype occupies uneasy ground within our
current interpretative landscape, because society of the twenty-first century is the child
of a demythologizing and ironic age. He goes on to say,
While the other three archetypes find productive service in the modern
worldtragedy as a reminder of the necessary limits of human desire
and achievement, irony in its awareness of the insufficiency of any
system, and comedy in its subversive call to hope and redemption in
the face of inequalitythe romance seems at the very least irrelevant, if
not dangerously fatalGiven societys current trend toward
iconoclasm and the dangers of fundamentalisms of all kinds, what
purposes are served by narratives that defend the faith or project the
ideals of a community?176
One answer to this question of purpose is Almns idea that romance narratives
point to the necessity and importance of determining a hierarchy of values through
173
Byron Almn, A Theory of Musical Narrative (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2008), 97.
Ibid.
175
Ibid.
176
Ibid., 97.
174
39
which to negotiate the world.177 In addition, while romance narratives may not provide
a specific productive service in the modern world, they do, according to Almn,
provide a path between nostalgia for an imaginary past and the potential for
engendering a new future.178
In the following analysis of the opening movement to Schumanns Piano Quintet,
the romance narrative contains not only romantic topics such as the pastoral, it also
traces the path of a heroic protagonist who attempts and ultimately succeeds in
navigating through a world full of uncertain hierarchical values and transgressions
against those values. Through his journey, the hero manages to overcome these
uncertainties and successfully navigate this path between nostalgia and a new future.
But, the journey of the heroic protagonist is not one of a conventional succession of
functional events. It is instead one that avoids clear linear narrative, much like the
novels of Jean Paul, which Schumann loved and admired. A brief examination of the
influence of Jean Paul on Schumann is necessary before beginning the analysis of
Schumanns movement.
177
Ibid., 98.
Ibid., 98.
179
Erika Reiman, Schumanns Piano Cycles and the Novels of Jean Paul (New York: University of Rochester
Press, 2004), 3.
178
40
Ibid., 9-10.
Ibid., 11.
182
Ibid., 191.
181
41
says knowledge of Schumanns love of the early German Romantics, especially Jean
Paul, is well known and notes that
One can in fact make a documentary case that Schumann recognized as
applicable to music certain narrative strategies in novels of his time, for
he constantly described the music he liked best in terms of novels, and
he explicitly acknowledged the inspiration that he took for his own
compositions from the technique of his favorite novelists.183
In relation to Schumanns own compositional output, Newcomb asserts
Schumann, like Jean Paul, avoids clear linear narrative through a stress on
interruption, embedding, digression, and willful reinterpretation of the apparent
function of an event (what one might call functional punning). He does so in such a way
as to stress the process of narrative interpretation (the listeners part in what Ricoeur
calls following a story).184 Newcomb acknowledges that literary critics have
recognized another ideal of narrative in some late eighteenth-century fiction that is
different from the linear or teleological, and such narratives delight in questioning
paradigmatic plots by standing conventional situations on their heads. He argues that
Schumann often takes pleasure in doing the same thing.185
Newcomb and Reiman are not the only authors to acknowledge the significant
influence of Jean Paul on the music of Schumann. The basic concept inherent in Jean
Pauls style of prose is that of Witz (wit), discussed at length by John Daviero in
Robert Schumann: Herald of a New Poetic Age. According to Daverio, Witz is that
element which can transform a series of disconnected fragments into a constellation of
mysteriously related terms.186 Reiman discusses Witz in terms of Jean Paul, saying that
Witz brings the most far-fetched comparisons to life, discovering the unknown
similarities underlying immense superficial difference. . . . uncovering the deeper
183
42
affinities between all things.187 Newcomb notes that the narrative device of Witz, so
beloved by Jean Paul, is the faculty by which subtle underlying connections are
discovered (or revealed) in a surface of apparent incoherence and extreme
discontinuity.188 Schumanns musical equivalence of Witz is found in Newcombs
analysis of the A-Major String Quartet rondo in the way the composer interconnected
seemingly disparate fragments, which is the musical equivalent of Witz.189
In his discussion of the influence of Jean Paul on Schumann, John Daverio notes
that Jean Paul remained the writer to whom Schumann returned most often, and he
indicates that Schumann made his own attempt at a Bildungsroman with his novel
Selene, which is dated from late 1828.190 In Schumanns novel the heroic character,
Gustav, is described by Schumann as a hoher Mensch (high human being). Daverio
observes that Schumann departs from Jean Pauls notion of a hoher Mensch as an
individual sublimely indifferent to earthly cares.191 Instead, Schumann associates the
hoher Mensch with the ability to temper Promethean energy through Olympian
restraint.192 He writes, Gustav must pass through all the schools of life; he must learn
both to hate and to love; his youthful demeanor must be tender and mild in order to
show that the higher being can submit to the fetters of calm, but that his Promethean
sparks remain unextinguished nonetheless.193 It is this idea of a hoher Mensch that
provoked Schumann, a few years later, to split the dual personality of the superior
being into the dynamic (Florestan) and contemplative (Eusebius) characters that
occupy so much of Schumanns critical writings and his own music.194 Daverio notes
that the hoher Mensch emerges in retrospect as a cipher for the author-composers
idealized attempt to neutralize the conflicts in his own being, to rise above his human
limitations.195 This idea of two opposing characters, Florestan and Eusebius, will
play an important role in the following narrative analysis of the opening movement of
Schumanns Piano Quintet. I will map the Florestan personality onto Almns concept
of order as the heroic protagonist, and the Eusebius personality onto Almns concept
187
Reiman, Schumanns Piano Cycles and the Novels of Jean Paul, 16.
Newcomb, Schumann and Late-Eighteenth Century Narrative Strategies, 169.
189
Ibid.
190
Daverio, Robert Schumann: Herald of a "New Poetic Age," 40.
191
Ibid., 41.
192
Ibid.
193
Ibid.
194
Ibid., 41.
195
Ibid.
188
43
of transgression. The eventual victory of order over transgression will represent the
victory of the Florestanian character over the Eusebian oneat least in this movement.
This discussion of Jean Paul and Schumann barely scratches the surface of the
enormous influence that Jean Paul brought to bear on Schumann in both his literary and
musical works. Nevertheless, it helps to put into perspective the following analysis,
both in terms of the composers use of the literary technique of Witz and in terms of the
presence of the Florestan and Eusebius characters. But before beginning the analysis, a
brief discussion of persona in music is necessary.
Edward T. Cone, The Composers Voice (Berkley: University of California Press, 1974), 5.
Ibid., 94.
198
Jenefer Robinson and Robert S. Hatten, Emotions in Music, Music Theory Spectrum 34 (2012): 71.
199
Ibid., 72.
200
Ibid. 79.
197
44
voice, or persona, is deeply rooted in Cones theory and is supported, in some senses,
by Hatten and Robinsons more recent article. Seaton is careful to point out that while
plot is commonly found in music, especially in Romantic music, not every piece of
music contains a narrative persona. In my analysis of the opening movement from
Schumanns Piano Quintet, I will show, using the ideas of Cone, Robinson and Hatten,
and Seaton, that this movements persona can be identified as a Romantic artist who is
trying to achieve some sort of personal success, which can be mapped onto a composer
who aspires to write works in large forms and his desire to rise to the compositional
level of Beethoven.
45
Transgression:
Metrical Consonance
Metrical Dissonance
Heroic Topic
(Representing Florestan)
TR1
Eb
Eb
Measure #:
Topic:
Heroic
Key:
Character:
Flor.
TR2
TR3
S1.1
S1.2
S1.1
S1.2
S1.1
S2
bIII
Bb
Bb
Gb
Bb
Bb
Bb
Bb
Bb
Bb
Bb
17
27
51
57
73
79
95
99
108
Lyrical
Heroic
Lyrical
Sensibility
Hints at
Euseb.
Hints
Flor.
at
Euseb.
Euseb.
Pastoral/
heroic
Sensibility
Attempt
to gather
energy
46
Pastoral/
heroic
Sensibility
to gather
energy
fuoco
Heroic
Last
Attempt
Foiled
Con
Foiled
attempt
Flor.
to gather
(success)
energy
202
Peter Smith discusses Schumanns tonal pairing of Eb and eb/Gb at length in his chapter, "Associative
Harmony, Tonal Pairing, and Middleground Structure in Schumanns Sonata Expositions" in Rethinking
Schumann (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 238.
47
48
While Florestan seems generally invincible in the opening eight measures, there
is a slight hint of transgression with the use of b6 (Cb) as a member of a fully diminished
seventh chord in m. 2. While the viio7 is the result of a passing motion in the voice
leading, this harmony is strikingly dissonant due to the tonic pedal. The mode mixture
b6 returns in m. 5, this time supported by a supertonic half-diminished seventh chord in
third inversion. The fleeting sounds of the minor mode through the use of b6 merely
hint at a transgression, as they occur only briefly in inner voices and are immediately
corrected both times to n6 in the following measures. Despite the references to b6, the
rank value of order is high at the end of P due to the heroic nature of the theme and the
strong rhythmic drive to the cadence.
49
51
203
James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the
Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). The medial caesura is defined
by Hepokoski and Darcy as the brief, rhetorically reinforced break or gap that serves to divide an
exposition into two parts, tonic and dominant (or tonic and mediant in most minor-key sonatas); it
separates TR from S (24).
52
Eb:
V7/V
V7/V
53
54
Eb: bIII6
bIII6
i6
bIII
It+6
55
V/V
It+6
V/V
V/V
Peter Smith, in "Associative Harmony, Tonal Pairing, and Middleground Structure in Schumanns
Sonata Expositions," discusses the tonicizations of Gb in the transition as participating in an overarching
shift from Eb major to Eb minor, which allows an "abrupt shift from the darkness of a six-flat Eb/Gb tonal
pairing to the tense sharp-side world of Bb" (238).
56
previous Gb triad in m. 42 has become an augmented sixth through the addition of En).
This chromatic predominant ushers in the dominant of B-flat major, and the half
cadence in m. 50 emerges as the true medial caesura.
A deep middleground sketch of the exposition (Example 3.8b) shows that the Gb
introduced in the soprano in m. 27 is actually only an apparent neighbor tone to F (2).
The Gb, through a voice exchange (mm. 2743), eventually takes its proper place in the
bass as b3 in a large-scale chromatic voice exchange that encompasses mm. 143. This
sketch further reveals that the F in m. 17 (TR1 and TR2) is ultimately a consonant
passing tone on its way to En in m. 43; the F at m. 50 is the actual scale degree 2 in the
voice-leading structure. This interpretation of the deep middleground voice leading
supports the narrative: 3 (G) is now chromaticized to b3 (Gb) through modal mixture,
which transforms the consonant tonic triad to the highly dissonant nI+6, thus
weakening the rank value of order associated with major-mode 3 over tonic. The
introduction of the augmented sixth chord in m. 43 prepares for the real medial caesura,
after it was declined at m. 25. From a narrative perspective, since Gb is b6 of the
dominant key, the Gb major functions as a retreat into a strange fantasy world, which is
Eusebian.205 The lowering of the rank value of order by this Eusebian Gb (b3 in Eb/b6
in Bb) prepares for the ascendancy of transgressive Eusebius in the second theme area.
As can be seen in the simplified voice-leading sketch (Example 3.8b), structural b3
(Gb) is, on the surface, a discontinuity (Witz); however the Gb ultimately moves where it
is supposed to go, which is to F (2)although it gets there in a roundabout way by
moving into the bassfor the medial caesura. TR3 thus presents the first significant
transgression against the established order. The digression from the apparent dominant
(Bb) to the marked chromatic mediant (Gb), combined with the more hesitant,
introspective nature of the lyrical topic presents the first substantial obstacle for the
order-imposing hierarchy to overcome in the movement.
205
Michael Klein discusses the use of the lowered submediant as a retreat into the realm of fantasy in his
article Chopins Fourth Ballade as Musical Narrative, Music Theory Spectrum 26/1 (2004): 23-56.
57
206
Peter Smith, in "Associative Harmony, Tonal Pairing, and Middleground Structure in Schumanns
Sonata Expositions," calls the material from mm. 5156 "caesura fill" that prolongs the dominant of Bb
(243).
58
topic due to the intimate and personal nature of the music, S1.1 begins with a dynamic
collapse and dolce markings.
The immobile S1.1 theme (Example 3.9) is marked for several reasons. First, its V7
chord delays the resolution to tonic (Bb) until m. 57, delaying a sense of forward
progress. Second, this prolonged V7 contains a dissonant ninth that is introduced in m.
51 and does not resolve to an octave until m. 56. Indeed the rising chromatic lines F-FsG in the piano (mm. 5253 and 5455) twice prevent this resolution, resulting in a
marked emphasis on G5 on strong hypermetrical beats in mm. 53 and 55. Finally, the
phrase structure of this theme is marked because it features an eight-bar grouping in
which the tonic resolution in the seventh and eighth measures overlaps the first and
second measures of S1.2 through a phrase elision.
The unexpected nature of this passage in mm. 5157its tentative expansion of a
very dissonant V7 chord with added ninth and the somewhat jarring two-bar overlap in
mm. 5758all support a reading of this passage as being transgressive against the
established order. The music seems to get bogged down with the sensibility topic in this
passage, as it directly opposes the heroic forward-moving trajectory of the first theme.
In most of the recorded performances of this movement the musicians take time at the
end of m. 56 to lead into the more proper S1.2 theme. The Eusebian character is without
doubt in control in S1.1, supported by the introspective, pleading nature of this
introduction to the second theme. Having finally reached an intermediary goal in m. 50
with the medial caesura, a relaxation occurs in mm. 5156 that opens the way to
Eusebian introspection.
S1.1
S1.2
V98
S1.1
S1.2
S1.1
61
S1.2
S1.2
S1.1
S1.2
S1.1
S2
Bb
Bb
Bb
Bb
Bb
Bb
51
57
73
79
95
99
Sensibility
Pastoral/heroic
Sensibility
Pastoral/heroic
Sensibility
Con fuoco
Eusebius
Attempt to gather
Foiled by
Attempt to gather
Foiled by
Last attempt to
energy
Eusebius
energy
Eusebius
gather energy-successful
The second thematic area contains three attempts to regain the heroic directness
and energy required to break through the Eusebian obstacle in a quest for the essential
expositional closure (EEC).207 As Table 3.3 shows, each attempt contains a Eusebian start
(the unsure, questioning sensibility topic of S1.1) and then a quest to refocus with the
pastoral/heroic topic of S1.2, which has a forward drive due to its ascending voice
leading. It takes three full starts of the pastoral/heroic topic to reach the breakthrough
of the con fuoco topic (S2) in m. 99 that brings the EEC in m. 108 and completes a
structural descent from 5 to 1 in the local key of B-flat major. The sense of circling
created by the return of the introduction material and the stubborn refusal of the
voice leading to move forward inspire a metaphor of a protagonist being pulled away
from his desired goal two times by his encounter with the Eusebian character.
When the con fuoco topic is reached in mm. 99108 (Example 3.12), there is a
marked moment with the bell-like sforzando chords that recall mm. 2526 but this time
arpeggiate Bb-Db-Gb. The German augmented sixth in m. 102 moves to a V9 in first
inversion in m. 103, yet another marked feature as the bass Gb is pushed upward
through G to A. This harmonic move signals a reversal: in order to break the surreal,
sugary Eusebian dream in S1.1, the protagonist rejects Eusebiuss dream-like state by
the willed hoisting of the bass upward to initiate a drive to the cadence. The hero
overcomes the obstacles encountered in the second thematic area, as evidenced by the
207
Hepokoski and Darcy define the essential expositional closure (EEC) as the second main moment of
structural punctuation in an exposition after S-space has begun, as the first satisfactory perfect authentic
cadence that proceeds onward to differing material (120).
62
rapid resolution of the dominant ninth and descending fifth-progression that leads to
the goal of the EEC in m. 108 (Example 3.12).
The closing material (K) presents the heroic topic in the dominant key, B-flat
major, creating a rounding effect as the listener prepares for the return of P and the
repetition of the exposition. The use of the heroic topic as closing material also solidifies
the strength of order at this point in the narrative, as the exposition ends with the rank
value of order at its highest level yet due to the struggle encountered in the dream-like
S1.1 theme and overcome in the final iteration of the increasingly heroic S1.2 theme.
Bb: I
n6
V7 y g 6
b6
(n6)
i5b 6
Gr+6 V4 e
4
V7/vi
(3)
(2)
vi V4 w ii6 P6 r ii
V8 y f
-[ 7td
3.4.8. Development
The development section in this romance narrative brings the conflict between
order and transgression to a head. The tension heard in the development represents a
full-blown assault on the heroic protagonist as he experiences the most intense
challenge yet. A brief introduction to the development introduces a new theme (mm.
11627) that ominously foreshadows the struggle that is ahead for the hero (Example
3.13). In E-flat minor, the falling gesture of this theme and the syncopated whole-note
rhythmic values create a metrical displacement dissonance of D 2-1 (1= half note).208
208
Metrical dissonance, a term defined by Harald Krebs in Chapter 2 of his book Fantasy Pieces, exists
when different metrical interpretive layers are not in alignment. Metrical displacement dissonance is
formed by the association of layers of equivalent cardinality that do not align. They are labeled Dx+a,
64
This metrical dissonance is combined with a harmonic one, viio7, whose accented Cb (b6)
in m. 120 recalls the Cbs that foreshadowed transgression in the opening eight measures
of the movement. An even more dissonant Eb7 with minor ninth at m. 124 leads to the
minor subdominant (ab), creating an ominous feeling that predicts the dark and serious
conflict ahead.
The threat felt in the introduction to the development is realized with a statement
of the P theme in m. 129 in the minor subdominant (ab) that lowers the rank value of the
heroic theme. P does not return in the development until 40 bars later, in m. 167, and
when it does return it is in the supertonic key, F minor. The ominous Cbs found in the
opening of the movement (mm. 2 and 5) return as the third scale degree in A-flat minor
in m. 129. Motive y from P is then fragmented and distorted in mm. 13233 with
staccato eighth notes in imitation between the right and left hand of the piano. The
hocket effect in these measures (broken with rests) and the open harmonic progression
ending on V drastically lowers the rank value of this topic, and prepares for a dysphoric
transformation of P in m. 134.
Example 3.13. Development, mm. 116190.
where D means displacement, x means the cardinality of both layers, and a is the amount of
displacement measured in pulse-layer attacks. A displacement dissonance of D 4+1, 1=quarter note
means that a four-pulse stream is displaced to the right by one quarter-note pulse. Harald Krebs, Fantasy
Pieces: Metrical Dissonance in the Music of Robert Schumann (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 22
61.
65
eb
bb
66
67
V6 i
Gb
gb
db
ab
68
eb: V7
The principal theme is further lowered from its position of strength in the
exposition due to the entrance of a very unstable, unsettled Sturm und Drang topic in m.
134 (Example 3.13). This topic is based on a distorted version of Ps motive y in
rhythmic diminution. Its non legato eighth notes in the piano articulate a series of fourbar groups that gradually crescendo through a sequence by ascending fifth (abebbbf
c). As the conflict intensifies, a more agitated dotted-rhythm accompaniment appears in
mm. 14247. When the topic reaches C minor in m. 154, it is pushed back down to F
minor four bars later, suggesting that the hero is unable to advance further. Now in F
minor, a Neapolitan sixth in m. 162 leads to V, and the full P theme returns in F minor
in m. 167.
The return of the P theme in m. 167 creates a sense of dj vu, since it appears
that the P theme is going to be treated in the same way as it was earlier in the
development, with a distorted and fragmented statement of Ps motive y (mm. 17172).
But this time motive y is pushed up a half step to Gb major (mm. 17374). The major
mode suggests a potential breakthrough for the protagonist, but the half-step shift
upward merely intensifies the conflict, and the major mode does not hold for long. In
m. 175 Gb major is reversed by Gb minora strongly marked key because of its distance
from the E-flat tonic through double mixtureand an ascending fifths sequence begins
anew: gbdbabeb. At this point in the narrative it seems that the hero will never break
free from the constraints of the struggle communicated by the sequential blocks. Just
69
when we think there is no chance for success, A-flat minor is pushed up to a B-flat
dominant ninth chord in m. 187 for the beginning of the retransition.
A deep middleground voice-leading sketch of the development provides further
support for my reading of the development as the central conflict of the movement
(Example 3.14). The two ascending third-progressions (supported by the ascending fifth
sequences) in mm. 13454 and mm. 17587 show a voice-leading structure that is
permeated by rising gestures, which creates rising tension. Schumanns use of mode
mixture in both sequences (seen in the ascending melodic lines) creates dysphoric
ascents that support the conflict experienced in the development. (Notice particularly
the transformation of the more normative BbCD in mm. 17587 to BbbCbD.) In
addition, the ascending line from Cb5 (b6) to F5 (2) reveals a deeper meaning for the Cb
(b6). Recall from the exposition that Cb (b6) in mm. 2 and 5 of the P theme was the first
hint of transgression in the movement. The Cb (b6) was immediately suppressed each
time by a resolution to Bb (5), signaling order in the exposition. But in the development
the transgressive Cb in m. 134 is pulled up to Db in m. 142; the Cb in m. 183 is pulled up
further to Dn in m. 187, creating a dramatic rupture in the voice leading. The rank value
of the transgressive b6 is thus raised in the development, as it pulls upwardaway
from its desired resolution to Bb (5). As seen in m. 204 of Example 3.15, it is only at the
end of the retransition that the Cb resolves normally to Bb; since this resolution occurs
over the structural dominant that ends the development and prepares for the return of
Eb major, the order-imposing hierarchy is regaining control as the stage is set for the
recapitulation.
Several details of the retransition (Example 3.15) signify that the conflict between
transgression and order has reached its climax. First, the prolonged presence of V7
chords with added minor ninths, which are highly dissonant, was foreshadowed in the
S1.1 theme and indicates extreme tension. Second, the dysphoric eight-pitch fragments
of the P theme are used obsessively in the retransition, and the string interjections (mm.
196, 198, 200, and 202) communicate the expenditure of great effort as the protagonist
struggles to regain control. The piano finally recovers in mm. 2026 with the falling
octave-progression from Ab5 down to Ab4 (circled on Example 3.15) as the seventh of
V7. It is only in these last four bars of the development that a resolution to the conflict is
at hand; the delayed arrival of the recapitulation indicates that it has, indeed, been a
close call for the elements of order in this romance narrative.
V b9
71
end of the recapitulation, when the closing theme returns with a final statement of P in
m. 314, it is obvious that the heroic topic and the major tonic key associated with the
order-imposing hierarchy have indeed been victorious. The extroverted Florestan
figure, with his outgoing personality, has succeeded in superseding his Eusebian
counterpart.
While there is not much to note in the recapitulation other than the success of the
heroic Florestan character, the coda presents some fascinating aspects that reveal more
about the impassioned personality of the hero. The coda of this movement is elided
with the closing material of the recapitulation (Example 3.16). The heroic P theme enters
in m. 314, as mentioned above, but instead of cadencing in m. 322, as one would expect,
the P theme moves to the minor submediant (c) via an ascending fifth sequence. The
sequence of motive y in mm. 32023 is intensified, in contrast to its appearance in the
original P theme: two additional copies of the model take the sequence upward by two
extra fifths (Eb-Bb-f-c rather than Eb-Bb) to reveal Florestans inability to let the sequence
go. (One might even regard the hero as obsessive-compulsive at this point because
of the effusion of these extra copies of the model.) This sequence sets up what follows, a
last triumphant utterance in the final measures of the movement.
The dysphoric version of motive y from the development returns in mm. 32327,
but with an entirely different expressive effect. Although the motive articulates the
same metrical displacement dissonance found in the development (D 4-1, 1=quarter
note), its harmonic setting is now quite different. The omnibus-style progression in
these measures sets up a chromatic voice exchange (An to Gb in the bass and Fs to An in
the upper part) that transforms viio7/V in C minor (the fully diminished seventh
chorda possibly menacing harmonic agency since it suggests movement away from
the stable tonic) to a viio4/2/V in E-flat major, bringing the music back to the dominant
in m. 327. Notice that the treble F# (m. 323) is enharmonically reinterpreted as bass Gb
(m. 326) to redirect the bass line to F and V4/3 in m. 327. Hence, motive y from the
development loses its power to transgress, because it is diverted from its initial
harmonic trajectory (as viio7/iii or common tone diminished seventh) in order to return
to the tonic triad for the final gesture (the last exclamation) at the very end of the piece
(mm. 32738). Motive y, mired in conflict in the development, now becomes part of the
agency that leads to the final note of triumph in the movement. As the metrical
73
dissonance is corrected in the final seven measures, a new eight-pitch figure replaces
the diminution of y; as its neighbor motions around 1 and 4 ascend into the highest
register of the piano, it is as if a jubilant Florestan is, in a sense, laughing at
transgression, which has been rendered powerless by its harmonic redirection.
Sequence to C minor: I
vi
1
1
V4e
viio7/V
V7
3
1
(V
1
4
74
ii)
The middleground voice leading of the coda reinforces the triumphant nature of
the outcome (Example 3.17). Note that the ascending 105 sequence in mm. 32023
(involving the motive y, not shown) is redirected by the chromatic voice exchange (mm.
32427) to form the rising progression 34n45 in mm. 32027a line that builds energy
and momentum for the final cadence. The coda thus projects the extroverted quality of
Florestan through a later-middleground linein addition to the surface features cited
above. Even the final exuberant ascent in mm. 33238 reinforces the high rank value of
the hero, with its nested 14-3 patterns that refer to the impassioned reachings-over
from the opening P theme, now literally overwhelming all available registers of the
piano (see mm. 33235 in Example 3.16).
209
Douglass Seaton, Narrativity and the Performance of Beethovens Tempest Sonata, in Beethovens
Tempest Sonata: Perspectives of Analysis and Performance, ed. Pieter Berg, William E. Caplin and Jeroen
DHoe (Walpole, MA: Peeters, 2009), 276.
75
that might be used to indicate the persona of the voice, some of which pertain to the
opening movement of Schumanns piano quartet.
The first device found within the music involves the idea that music cast in a
particular idiom or distinctive rhetorical style suggests a certain speaker. In this case,
the narrative voice seems to be in a dialogue with the conventions of sonata form, but
he plays with the form, making it his own. This can be heard with the unexpected turns
found in the movement, namely the move to bIII in the transition section of exposition,
where a strong arrival on the dominant is postponed until the last possible moment. In
addition, the abrupt shift in discourse that occurs when the con fuoco topic arrives in
TR3 (m. 64) provides a rhetorical gesture of interruption that indicates a sense of
voice.210
Voice can also be indicated through extra-musical conditions. Seatons idea that
voice may be implied by an identification of the persona with the composer, however,
does not come into play in the Piano Quintet because there is no strong documented
evidencesuch as a direct quotation of or allusion to the composers own music or style
or reception historyto pin the narrative persona to Schumann. Instead, the persona in
this movement is one of an artist who is trying to achieve some sort of personal success,
which can be mapped onto a composer who aspires to write works in large forms and
his desire to rise to the compositional level of Beethoven.
3.5. Conclusions
As an example of a romance archetype, this movement is notable for the intense
transformation of the heroic P theme through the course of the movement. P first
represents the order-imposing hierarchy and has a high rank value in the exposition,
but it is subjected to distortion of its motive y in the development section. When it
returns in the recapitulation, the P theme (and its y motive) appears to have been
returned to its heroic and orderly state; in the coda its dysphoric transformation from
the development is emptied of its negative connotations to underscore the triumph of
order over transgression.
210
Vera Micznik applies this principle to Mahlers music when she points out that his music contains a
higher degree of narrativity than does music from the Classical style, due to its individuality the
essential feature of Romanticism in general. According to Micznik, the more unexpected the music is, the
greater its ability to contain narrative. Vera Micznik, Music and Narrative Revisited: Degrees of
Narrativity in Beethoven and Mahler, Journal of the Royal Musical Association 126 (2001): 193-249.
76
77
CHAPTER 4
A FAILED TRAGIC-TO-TRANSCENDENT NARRATIVE:
THE SECOND MOVEMENT OF THE PIANO QUINTET
The following discussion is based on Byron Almn, A Theory of Musical Narrative (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 2008), 13940.
213
Ibid., 139.
78
that there is, of course, a correlation between tragic narrative and tragic topics. Tragic
narrative is reinforced by the presence of tragic topics, and tragic topics are
strengthened when combined with a tragic narrative design.
Almn asserts that, while one can easily recognize the presence of tragedy in the
mood-establishing elements of setting and design, these factors are separate
conceptually from the narrative structure of tragedythe catastrophic fall of the hero,
whose desires and wishes are frustrated by opposing forces and enabled by the heros
weakness, ignorance, overreach, or flaw.214 He stresses that tragic topics in music, as in
literature, are powerful clues that suggest the presence of tragedy and they enable a
certain perspective on it, but they are ancillary to the structural core of the tragic
narrative, the defeat of a transgression by an order-imposing hierarchy.215
Ibid., 140.
Ibid.
79
metrical consonance, and the sense of restraint and sorrow created by the funeral-march
topic. Transgression, on the other hand, is characterized by musical events that go
against the key of C minor, irregular hypermeter, metrical dissonance, and topics that
oppose the funeral march, as the transgression attempts to break free of the restraints of
order. The protagonist of this movement is associated with transgression, since a tragic
narrative involves the defeat of transgression by an order-imposing hierarchy, and the
analyst must view the transgression in a positive light.
Table 4.1. Order-Imposing Hierarchy versus Transgression
Order-Imposing Hierarchy
Transgression
Regular Hypermeter
Irregular Hypermeter
Metrical Consonance
Metrical Dissonance
80
Episode 1
Refrain
Episode 2
Refrain
Episode 3
Refrain
A'
B'
A''
Order
Transgression
Order
Transgression
Order
Transgression
Order
Funeral
March
Singing Style
Funeral
March
Agitato
Funeral
March
Singing Style
Funeral
March
i
(c)
I
(C)
i
(c)
iv
(f)
i
(c)
IV
(F)
iv i
(fc)
Table 4.2b. Form Chart. Beethoven, Rondo from the Pathtique Sonata.
Refrain
Episode 1
Refrain
Episode 2
Refrain
Episode 3
Refrain
A'
B'
A''
i
(c)
III
(Eb)
i
(c)
VI
(Ab)
i
(c)
I
(C)
i
(c)
Schumann, who idolized Beethoven, was surely familiar with his rondos,
including the finale from the Pathtique Piano Sonata (also in C minor). Beethovens use
of the mediant for episode 1 and the major tonic for episode 3 follows a more typical
key scheme (Table 4.2b). Schumanns reversal of the ordering of tonic and non-tonic
keys subverts the Beethovenian model of a minor-key rondo and prevents the
protagonist from achieving transcendence: when the singing style theme returns in
episode 3, the attempt at transcendence fails, because, while it is now in a more
appropriate location near the conclusion of the rondo form, it is in the wrong keythe
major subdominant instead of the expected major tonic.
musical features that support order and communicate a sense of resignation regarding
the tragic fate of the protagonist: a distinct emphasis on closure (order), as seen with the
two 321 descents in mm. 56 and 910; and the pianto-related b6-5-1 gestures
(resignation), bracketed in mm. 34 and 78. A foreground sketch of the opening of
Beethovens Pathtique rondo (Example 4.2) shows the same fatalistic gestures, but in
reverse order: the closural gesture in mm. 12 is followed by the pianto gesture in mm.
56.
Example 4.1. Voice-Leading Sketch. Schumann, Refrain (Funeral March), mm. 110.
Example 4.2. Voice-Leading Sketch. Beethoven, Pathtique Rondo, Refrain, mm. 18.
Schumanns reversal of Beethovens tonal scheme and motivic succession led me
to speculate that Schumanns funeral march may in fact be a willful (but subtle)
82
216
Harold Bloom, The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973),
30.
217
Ibid., 14.
218
Robert Schumann, Neue Zeitschrift fr Musik 10 (1839), 74.
83
Active
Subdominant
Passive
Subdominant
Mapping 3:
Tonic
Present (Reality)
Subdominant
Mapping this opposition onto the key areas of the Beethoven movement reveals
a conventional forward-moving narrative trajectory that leads to the desired and
219
Michael Klein, Chopins Fourth Ballade as Musical Narrative, Music Theory Spectrum 26, no. 1 (2004):
3940.
220
Charles Rosen, The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (New York: W.W. Norton, 1971), 383.
221
Michael Klein, on pages 3940 of his 2004 article, supports the idea of the subdominant as looking back
to the past by citing Rosens characterization of the subdominant in the early Romanic period as
representing a diminishing tension and a less complex state of feeling, and not the greater tension and
imperative need for resolution implied by all of Beethovens secondary tonalities. (Rosen, 383)
84
ultimately accomplished state of reality (Table 4.4a). Mapping this opposition onto the
key areas of Schumanns movement, on the other hand, reveals a backward-moving
narrative trajectory that undercuts the idea of success: the narrative moves from the
present state of reality to the past, nostalgic state (Table 4.4b). Anthony Newcomb wrote
that Schumann often likes to play with conventional linear narrative: Schumann, like
Jean Paul, avoids clear linear narrative through a stress on interruption, embedding,
digression, and willful reinterpretation of the apparent function of an event.222 He
noted that some narratives from late eighteenth-century fiction like to question
paradigmatic plots by standing conventional situations on their heads, and Schumann
often delights in doing the same thing, and the slow movement from his Piano
Quintet is a good example of him playing with conventional linear narrative.223
Table 4.4a. Form Chart. Beethoven, Pathtique Rondo.
Present
(Reality)
Refrain
Episode 1
Refrain
Episode 2
Refrain
Episode 3
Refrain
A'
B'
A''
i
(c)
III
(Eb)
i
(c)
VI
(Ab)
i
(c)
I
(C)
i
(c)
Past
(Reality)
(Nostalgia)
Refrain
Episode 1
Refrain
Episode 2
Refrain
Episode 3
Refrain
A'
B'
A''
i
(c)
I
(C)
i
(c)
iv
(f)
i
(c)
IV
(F)
iv i
(fc)
222
85
Robert Schumann, On Music and Musicians, ed. Konrad Wolff, trans. Paul Rosenfeld (New York:
Pantheon, 1946), 257. Schumanns comment is not a condemnation of the funeral march per se, but rather
a critique of following one minor-mode movement with another that is still more gloomy.
86
uses a funeral march as the slow movement, was composed in 1837, just five years
before Schumann wrote the Piano Quintet. Schumann regularly provided commentary
on Chopin in the Neue Zeitschrift fr Musik, and commented specifically on the funeral
march from Chopins Sonata in B-flat Minor: There follows a still more gloomy Marcia
funebre which is repellent; in its place an adagio, perhaps in D-flat, would certainly have
been more effective.225
The piano provides a short introduction in mm. 12 (Example 4.4a), which
creates a framing effect that establishes the role of the piano as the narrator. The piano
enters quietly with an arpeggiated minor tonic triadthis descent suggests a closing
gesture that functions as an opening, since it initiates the tonic triad. The introduction
serves as a two-measure hypermetrical upbeat and sets the somber stage for the funeral
march that follows.226 The octave leap from Eb4/Eb3 up to Eb5/Eb4 and the immediate
collapse back to Eb4/Eb3 and on to C4/C3, along with the dotted rhythm of the motive,
foreshadows the impending funeral march and implies a metaphor for a narrator
saying I will now tell a sad story. This framing motive returns at the end of the
refrain in the codetta (Example 4.4b), only now it is extended and the gesture of the
motive takes on its appropriate closural function. Whereas the framing motive provides
a hypermetrical upbeat in the introduction, it now sets up a surface quadruple
hypermeter in the codetta. This new hypermetrical context adds to its fatalistic effect,
since complete hypermeasures sound more definitive than upbeats. The falling gesture
of the motive sounds, at this point in the narrative, unquestionably fatalistic.
A defining mark of narration is a sense of the speakers detachment, and
Schumann achieves this sense of detachment with the framing effect of the pianos
opening motive. In the refrain this establishes narrative distance, and while musical
narrative cannot have a past tense in the same way as literary narrativemusic is
inherently experienced in the presentthe framing effect created by the piano
introduction and codetta allows the listener to construct a musical counterpart for a
narrative voice that is speaking in the past tense.227
225
Ibid., 142.
The listener expects a tonic chord rather than a subdominant chord on the hypermetrical downbeat at
m. 3 to harmonize the C4. Instead, Schumann provides the opening tonic in two hypermetrical upbeats
(mm. 12).
227
In Unsung Voices, Carolyn Abbate cites Ricoeurs argument that much narrative discourse is set off
from other discourse in part through its ways of manipulating time, of using tense to achieve a kind of
226
87
88
Example 4.1 provided a reduction of the opening of the funeral march, which
exposed two important musical features that support order and communicate a sense of
resignation regarding the tragic fate of the protagonist: a distinct emphasis on closure
seen with the 321 gestures (order) in mm. 56 and 910 (order), and the pianto-related
gestures (resignation) bracketed in mm. 34 and 78. When the first episode enters in C
major (Example 4.5) a powerful transgression reveals a vision of transcendence that
drastically reverses the mood created by the funeral march.
In the singing style, this major-mode episode presents all five instruments in a
higher register, and the new, much fuller texture created by the marked polyrhythms
between instruments creates a shimmering effect that further supports the idea of
transcendencethe textural plenitude of the first episode opposes the sparseness of the
funeral march. A voice-leading sketch (Example 4.6) reveals that the emphasis on the
more pessimistic closural gestures in the funeral march is reversed in the first episode
with a marked emphasis on the more forward-leading, open progression from 3 to 2.
The transgressive nature of the first episode is reinforced by its irregular internal
phrase structure. While the refrain contains a strict 4-bar phrase structure, episode 1 has
an irregular internal phrase organization, which, when combined with the
polyrhythms, results in a somewhat jarring effect. Schumann begins with a twomeasure basic idea, and the listener might expect a repetition and continuation, creating
a sentence structure, 2+2+4 (Example 4.7a). Instead the repetition of the basic idea is left
out and the continuation is extended by harmonic elongation of the cadential dominant,
creating a 2+4(+1+1) grouping (Example 4.7b). The rank value of transgression is raised
in this first episode, but its valiant attempt at transcendence comes too early in the
movementhence, it is unearned, since there are no musical markers that prepare for it
in the previous refrain, and a move to the parallel major in a conventional rondo
structure usually occurs in the second or third episode rather than the first.
After the first return of the refrain, the second episode (Example 4.8) erupts with
an F-minor agitato that transforms transgression into a blatant resistance against order
that elevates its rank value. The transgressive agitato contains the typical characteristics
of Sturm und Drang, such as louder dynamics, diminished seventh chords used in
sequence, and sforzando markings.
91
Example 4.9a. Main Motive from the Refrain, Funeral March, mm. 34.
92
93
94
this section. Allusions to the opposition of voice-leading aspects of the refrains order
and episode 1s transgression, when combined with the registral discontinuities created
by the agitato topic, can be mapped onto the central conflict of the movement. The rank
value of transgression is raised at this point in the narrative, and episode 2s agitato
topic presents the intense struggle that the protagonist needed to have gone through in
order to earn the transcendence presented prematurely in episode 1.
After the second return of the refrain, the third episode reverses the F minor key
of the agitato to F major for a second attempt at transcendence (Example 4.13). The
singing-style theme returns, but transcendence once again fails because, while it is now
earnedafter the intense struggle of the agitatoand is in a more appropriate location
near the conclusion of the rondo form, it is in the wrong keythe major subdominant
instead of the expected major tonic.
doesnt seem to want to abandon the b65 motion. Schumann adamantly continues to
avoid a strong authentic cadence at the end of the movement. There is no sense of a
dominant harmony until beat 2 of m. 188, one beat after the final tonic arrival in the
cello. This misalignment causes the perfect authentic cadence to fail and undercuts the
sense that a goal has been achieved.
Transgression, which fought so courageously in episode 2s agitato, makes its last
feeble attempt at victory with repeated efforts to move toward transcendence in the
final phrase. A hint of transcendence occurs with the major tonic arrival in m. 188, but
the En in the second violin is immediately dragged down to a strikingly dissonant
Bn/Dn against a tonic pedal in the cello, and then moves from C4 down to Ab3 and G3,
to confirm the nagging pianto gestures in the piano.
heavenly vision of a longed-for grace that is not immediately within the grasp of the
protagonist, but is still desired as the movement comes to a close. The attempts of C
major to move toward transcendence in the final refrain are unsuccessful because they
are once again unearnedthere is no hint of C major earlier in the final refrain and the
juxtaposition of the tragic pianto gestures against the C-major harmony indicates that it
is too little too late in this failed tragic-to-transcendent narrative.228
228
There are different ways that the ending of this piece can be perceived. An alternate reading of this
ending could reveal a miracle plot, where transcendence is not won but granted. The miracle could be
heard in the unearned arrival of C major at the end of a piece.
99
CHAPTER 5
COMIC IRONY IN SCHUMANNS DIALOGUE WITH
BEETHOVENS FIRST SYMPHONY: THE THIRD
MOVEMENT OF THE PIANO QUINTET
100
in a spiritual union, continually changing ideas succeed one another.229 In the same
survey Schumann complains that scherzos following Beethoven have nothing of the
scherzo about them save the name.230
Schumanns own writings that discuss the Beethovenian scherzo tend to focus on
the famous scherzi from Beethovens Fifth and Ninth Symphonies, but there is no doubt
that Schumann was familiar with the scherzi in the other symphonies as well. The
following narrative analysis of the scherzo from Schumanns Piano Quintet will relate
Schumanns scherzo to the one from Beethovens First Symphony, focusing on allusions
to the Beethoven movement as well as the ways that Schumann plays with the scherzo
as a genre. Before analyzing Schumanns movement, a brief discussion of the
Beethovenian tradition of the scherzo is necessary.
While many scherzi were written before the year 1800, Beethovens First
Symphony is noted as having dealt the death-blow to the minuet.231 The perception
that Beethoven transformed the minuet into the scherzo is well known, despite the fact
that each of Haydns op. 33 quartets (1781) contains a movement that is specifically
given the title Scherzo. Michael Luxner speculates that Haydn is denied the honorary
title of father of the scherzo because of a prejudice in favor of the symphony as a
genre; since Haydns scherzi tend to be found in his chamber music, he is not credited
with the establishment of the scherzo.232 In any case, while the scherzo developed from
the minuetit retains the composite ternary form of the minuet as well as the typical
triple meter time signaturethe tempo of a scherzo is considerably quicker than that of
the more stately minuet, and its character is quite different: the Beethovenian scherzo
introduced into the music the element of banter, mischief, and whimsy.233
Beethoven is credited with establishing the scherzo as a regular alternative to the
minuet in four-movement works, and he often took the term scherzo literally by giving
his scherzo movements light and even humorous tones. His first true scherzo is found
in the wind octet of 1792 (published posthumously as op. 103) and scherzo movements
can be found in his op. 1 piano trios as well as in string quartets (op. 18 no. 2, for
229
Robert Schumann, On Music and Musicians, ed. Konrad Wolff, trans. Paul Rosenfeld, (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1946), 62.
230
Ibid.
231
Michael D. Luxner, The Evolution of the Minuet/Scherzo in the Music of Beethoven (PhD diss., The
University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music, 1978), 117.
232
Ibid.
233
Daniel Gregory Mason, Beethoven and His Forerunners (New York: Macmillan, 1904), 302.
101
example) and sonatas. But the most far-reaching effect is found with Beethovens
introduction of the scherzo into the symphony.
In his symphonic scherzos Beethoven produced forward momentum with a
combination of pace and quickly alternating textures, while still maintaining the
Classical tradition of giving a different speed or character, or both, in his trio section.234
Beethoven retained simple triple meter in all of his symphonic scherzos except for one
(the central section of the Ninth) and he preserved the overall ternary form, through he
sometimes expanded the form to A-B-A-B-A-coda by repeating the first two sections as
a pair. It is noteworthy that Beethovens symphonies contain no scherzi that have two
contrasting trios. The third movement of Beethovens first symphony is actually labeled
Menuetto, but the tempo is marked Allegro molto e vivace, making it essentially a
scherzo. The remaining symphonies all contain a scherzo, with the one exception of the
Eighth, which is marked Tempo di menuetto. While only the Second and Third contain
the title Scherzo, all the fast inner movements (except for the Eighth) have the
characteristics of a scherzo.
234
Hugh Macdonald, Scherzo (Oxford Music Online, accessed March 21, 2012).
It is my idea to relate Schumanns scherzo to that from Beethovens First Symphony. Schumann did
not refer to the scherzo from Beethovens First Symphony in any of his writings regarding the Piano
Quintet.
235
102
236
103
Transgression:
Schumanns Take on the Beethovenian Scherzo
Metrical Consonance
Metrical Dissonance
Heroic Topic
Hyper-Heroic Topic
movement. Schumanns expansion of the form and his use of bIII and iv as key areas in
the trios is transgressive in naturehe is going against the Beethovenian norm of a
scherzo form.239
Table 5.2. Form of the Menuetto from Beethovens First Symphony.
Menuetto
Trio
Menuetto
mm. 179
mm. 80137
Men. D.C.
I
(C)
I
(C)
I
(C)
Trio I
Scherzo
Trio II
Scherzo
Coda
mm. 144
mm. 4476
mm. 76122
mm. 12396
mm. 196240
mm. 24065
I
(Eb)
bIII
(Gb)
I
(Eb)
iv
(ab)
I
(Eb)
I
(Eb)
239
The only scherzo movement from Beethovens symphonies that does not maintain tonic throughout is
the one found in the Seventh Symphony which contains a chromatic submediant relationshipthe
scherzo is in F major and the trio is in D major.
240
William Kinderman, Beethoven (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 63.
105
from 5 to 5 (mm. 14) is extended into the next octave but is cut off mid-statement as the
gesture falls back to 5 (Example 5.1).
Example 5.1. Beethoven, Menuetto from Symphony No. 1, III, mm. 18.
The theme of the Schumann scherzo reveals an opening gesture similar to that of
the Beethoven: a surge of energy upward in the form of a rising scale that begins on
scale degree 5. While Beethovens opening gesture encompasses the interval of a rising
octave, Schumanns opening gesture encompasses a rising octave plus a fourth and the
gesture is repeated three timesa fourth higher each timebefore falling back to scale
degree 5 at the end of the first section in m. 16 (Example 5.2). It is almost as if Schumann
is trying to outdo Beethoven by taking the opening heroic motive (a rising octave) and
making it hyper-heroic by expanding it to an eleventh and sequencing the motive
upward by fourth several times. The transgressive character of the protagonist in the
Schumann movement can be described as extrovertedin terms of Schumanns alter
egos, it is Florestan-likewith the hyper-heroic topic, the texture of unison scales, and
the marcato and forte expressive markings.
A comparison of voice-leading structures of the openings of each movement
leads me once again to apply Blooms theory of the anxiety of influence to the
Schumann scherzo. This movement falls into Blooms second revisionary ratio, tessera,
which is one of completion and antithesis: A poet antithetically completes his
precursor, by so reading the parent poem as to retain its terms but to mean them in
another sense, as though the precursor had failed to go far enough.241
241
Harold Bloom, The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973),
14.
106
107
Carl Schachter, Playing What the Composer Didnt Write: Analysis and Rhythmic Aspects of
Performance, in Pianist, Scholar, Connoisseur: Essays in Honor of Jacob Lateiner, ed. Bruce Brubaker and
Jane Gottlieb (New York: Pendragon, 2000), 64.
243
Schumanns use of the mediant to delay the structural dominant is found in the first movements of
both his Piano Quartet and Piano Quintet, and is one way that Schumann establishes his own voice. Peter
H. Smith comments on this feature in Associative Harmony, Tonal Pairing, and Middleground Structure
in Schumanns Sonata Expositions: The Role of the Mediant in the First Movements of the Piano Quintet,
Piano Quartet, and Rhenish Symphony in Rethinking Schumann, ed. by Roe-Min Kok and Laura
Tunbridge (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 23564.
108
5.4b) resist the protagonists overly eager character, balancing it so that, despite the
exaggeration of the opening gesture and the diversion through the mediant, the music
does ultimately achieve scale degree 5 (Bb3) in m. 16, although the Bb (scale degree 5) is
sublimated by scale degree 2 in the overall structure.
Ibid.
The G5 in m. 34 of Example 5.4b creates a complete neighbor motion (G-Ab-G) that reestablishes the
Kopfton at the restatement of A. This is the result of the G5 in the first violin marked tenuto.
245
109
110
D 41 (1 = dotted quarter)
Schumanns scherzo also contains a conflict between the notated meter and the
perceived meter that further supports transgression. Beginning with the large
hypermetrical downbeat on beat 2 of m. 2, it is possible to perceive the meter as either
compound duple/quadruple (with the dotted quarter as the perceived beat) or simple
triple (with the half note as the perceived beat) depending on how the listener hears the
grouping of the eighth notes in mm. 116 (Example 5.8). It is not until m. 18 that the
perceived meter is unequivocally established as compound duple/quadruple. The
conflict between the notated and perceived meter is transgressive due to the way that
Schumanns movement presents confusion between a perception of simple triple and
compound duple/quadruple meter.
112
;:
1
2 1
2 1
cv vvv vvv vvv c
D: 1
2 3
4 1
cv vvv vvv vvv c
: 1
2
3
1
c vv vvvv vvvv c
;:
1
2 1
2 1
cv cvcv cvc
D:
1
2 3
4 1
cv cvcv cvc
Example5.8.
3. 7:Notated
Notatedvs.
vs.Perceived
PerceivedMeter
Meterin
inthe
theOpening
Openingof
ofSchumanns
Schumanns Scherzo.
Scherzo
Example
The B section of the Scherzo opens with a tonicization of IV, which is then
sequenced upward by step to tonicize V. The dominant harmony is then expanded from
root position V (m. 24) to V6 (m. 32) through a circle of fifths progression (refer to
Example 5.4b). The descending fifths sequence in mm. 2432 has a temporary calming
effect after the exaggeration of the hyper-heroic topic within the A section. But this brief
respite is immediately reversed in m. 34b, with an even greater expression of the
idiosyncratic transgression when A' returns.
As the first statement of the Scherzo comes to a close in m. 44, the rank value of
transgression is raised at this point in the narrative trajectory. The hyper-heroic
character of the protagonist, represented by the overly eager ascending eleventh
113
gestures and the brief detour through iii (g), resists the constraints of order by its
continuous metrical dissonance and by the excessive and uncontrolled energy
represented by the rising eleventh motive.
Cb: I
or
Gb: IV
V
V7
Robert Bailey discusses this type of tonal ambiguity as reciprocal function, which is a way of
defining ambiguity between fifth-related elements. Robert Bailey, An Analytical Study of the Sketches
and Drafts in Prelude and Transfiguration from Tristan und Isolde (New York: Norton, 1985), 11920.
114
115
116
While Beethoven used a second trio in the same scherzo movements of his symphonies or chamber
music, his String Quintet in E-flat Major, op. 4 is the only work with two contrasting trios in the minuet.
117
The use of the minor subdominant for the second trio creates a sense of
retrenchmentof holding back, or recedingthat negates the linear discourse of the
movement. The plagal domain is static, and Schumann goes further into the flat side (as
can be seen in the middleground reductions in Example 5.13) with a move to F-flat
minor (mm. 13034) and D-flat minor (mm. 13438). The plagal motion is further
emphasized at the end of the trio (A-flat minor in mm. 17478 to D-flat minor in mm.
17881 back to A-flat minor in mm. 18190). In addition, the ascending 5ths sequence in
mm. 15482 (Cb-Gb-Db-Ab) is antithetic to forward progress, as it culminates in a plagal
progression (ivi) in mm. 18182. The soprano structure of Trio II as a whole is
controlled by a middleground falling fourth-progression (Ab-Gb-Fb-Eb in mm. 12382).
Its descent through the Phrygian tetrachord and its harmonization (iiiiivi) are quite
dysphoric in terms of its effect on the listener; the shift from A-flat minor to C-flat minor
in mm. 15054 is particularly striking and transgressive, especially in terms of what
would be normative for Beethoven. Schumann stretches the tonal system here in a
harmonic transgression that goes farther that his predecessor, Beethovenagain
invoking Blooms concept of tessera.
Conflict between transgression and order is also present on the surface level of
the second trio. Four-bar compositional blocks are repeated and sequenced throughout
this passage (Example 5.14). These four-bar blocks in isolation may be heard as
supporting the order-imposing hierarchy, due to their hypermetrical clarity, but
Schumanns consistent metrical displacement throughout the second trio produces a
subliminal metrical dissonance that is quite transgressive (D 2-1, 1 = quarter note).
Another transgressive aspect of this section is the obsessive repetition of the four-bar
unit, which takes on a sense of the uncanny, or at the very least contributes to the sense
of strangeness in this section. Thus, the rank value of transgression is raised in the
second trio.
of the scherzo spanned an eleventh (Bb to Eb); now, in the second trio this same motive
(Bb to Eb) spans a fourth with a chromatic lower neighbor to start in mm. 14648. This
creates a dysphoric transformation of the original motive in this passage. In addition, a
further transformation is heard motivically in mm. 14850 and mm. 15658 (the
subsequent repetitions): the motive in the first violin part is expanded in mm. 15658
from a perfect fifth to a minor ninth, which imparts a greater sense of tension (Example
5.15).
The rising conflict in Trio II is also supported by the transformations of the piano
accompaniment figuration, as it becomes more and more agitated rhythmically
throughout. The heightened sense of agitation is the result of repeated chords with
accents in the piano left hand and the doubling of the melody in the right hand (m. 138).
Tension is ratcheted up again with the introduction of dotted rhythms in the left hand
in m. 182 (Example 5.16).
121
the order-imposing hierarchy. In fact, the Bb is pulled up further to Cb (b6) (m. 250b)
before falling back to Ab (4) and then on to the final G (3).
In addition, the rising gesture now involves eight dotted-quarter beats that end
on the dominant, instead of the four dotted-quarter beats established earlier. Beginning
with a tonic pedal in broken octaves in the piano, a grouping dissonance (G3/2) is
created that engenders an immediate opposition: the stability of the tonic pedal versus
the grouping dissonance (Example 5.17). The metrical displacement dissonance
established in the Scherzo (D 41) is still present in the coda, but it is finally resolved at
the end of the coda in mm. 26065, where the downbeat is emphasized clearly with
accented dotted-quarters in the first violin and viola.
A deep middleground sketch of the entire movement reveals that the voice
leading of this movement, according to Schenkers theory, "works"the fundamental
line descends as expected at the end of the final return of the Scherzo (Example 5.18).
However, a voice-leading sketch of the coda reveals an inner voice motion that adds
further support for a reading of this movement as comic irony (Example 5.19). As seen
in the sketch, an inner voice is superimposed over the structural 1 (Eb5) that states the
original eleventh motive from the scherzo expanded to a twelfth. This expansion to a
twelfth introduces a climatic Bb5 (5) that is approached with a chromatic ascent (G5-Ab5An5-Bb5), intensifying the arrival at Bb and perhaps alluding to the opening of the
Beethoven (refer to Example 5.3), which achieves the Kofpton (5) also through a
chromatic ascent (C-D-E-Fs-G). We find, however, that this climatic Bb5 as 5 is
ultimately "false" since it is in fact a reaching over that resolves down by step to Ab5, an
upper neighbor to the inner-voice 3 (G5). This feature enhances the reading of an ironic
narrative, since the attaining of Bb5 as 5 is shown here to be structurally subordinate
rather than the Kopfton. Once again, an allusion to the Beethoven scherzoin terms of
the treatment of 5is shown to be irrelevant just at the point where Schumann is at his
most joyful and triumphant in the codaSchumann has indeed overthrown his
precursor.
123
5.2.7. Conclusion
My analysis of the plot of Schumanns scherzo movement as an exemplar of the
ironic narrative archetype that falls in the comic phase of irony is rooted in the idea that
irony is a narrative of denial and subversion, it reminds us of the unreality of our
ideals, shatters our convictions, and throws aside our conventions.248 To recall Almns
quote regarding comic irony:
248
124
249
Ibid., 167.
125
CHAPTER 6
A COMIC ARCHETYPE OF EMERGENCE:
THE FINALE OF THE PIANO QUINTET
126
the absurdity of life and human eccentricity.251 Comic topics such as these can be
inserted into music through techniques like exaggeration or incongruity of expectation
and reality. But for a piece of music to fall into the comic archetype, two things must be
present: (1) the victory of a desired transgression over an order-imposing hierarchy, and
(2) a transvaluative structure in which transgressive elements challenge and overturn
an initial hierarchy. Almn further describes the necessary conditions for a comedy in
music:
In order to make the transgressive element acceptable to the reader or listener,
the initial hierarchy is generally presented as flawed, limiting, or overly rigid. By
contrast, then, the critical feature of the transgressive element is its adaptability,
by means of which it is able to achieve its higher status. Comic narratives thus
frequently inscribe a rejection of arbitrary limits; since this dynamic is a
stereotypical component of generational conflict, comic narratives are often
presented rhetorically as involving a conflict between the old and the young,
whether familial or social.252
One element that is essential to the nature of a comic narrative is an increased
freedom or flexibility and the possibility of transgression achieving success; comedy is
the only archetype that inscribes adaptability and change as valued elements in the
narrative design.253 It is because of this that comedies are more likely to feature freer
discursive trajectories. Almn goes on to say that, while the definition of a comic
archetype is the successful overthrowing of an old order, there are several ways to
attain that result in music. He lists three discursive strategiesepiphany, emergence,
and synthesisthat are templates for achieving a particular transvaluative result in a
comic archetype.
The first strategy, epiphany, occurs when an impasse in the narrative conflict
gives way to a sudden, unexpected new development, or epiphany, that enacts this
transvaluationthe victory of the transgressive elementsat a stroke.254 The second
strategy, emergence, occurs when the transgressive element gradually and steadily
251
Ibid.
Ibid., 18889.
253
Ibid.
254
Ibid., 188.
252
127
acquires a higher rank value until the transvaluative result has been achieved.255 The
third and final strategy is synthesis, where the transgressive element merges or
combines with valued elements of the initial hierarchy from which it had been excluded
or devalued.256 When synthesis is found, the transgression achieves narrative victory
through reconciliation with the initial hierarchy, resulting in a newly constituted
synthesis.257
The discursive strategy found in the comic narrative of the quintet finale is that
of emergence, where the transgressive element begins with a low rank value and
gradually increases in value through time. Almn points out that the strategy of
emergence suggests most often a transgressive element whose power is undervalued or
even completely overlooked, and the transgressive element appears to effect its own
victory by building in strength until it is unstoppable.258 Almn uses Debussy s Lisle
joyeuse to illustrate this discursive strategy in a comic archetype, with an analysis in
which the three primary themes found in the piece dictate the narrative trajectory. His
reading reveals that the third theme, presented first in a subdued state and then with
great confidence, initiates a process of reversal that transvalues the hierarchical
relations in the work as a whole.259 My analysis of the quintet finale will reveal a similar
process of emergence, in which a flawed order-imposing hierarchyrepresented by the
minor mediant key, a parallel form that fails, and a low-style peasant topic that creates
the listeners expectation for a normative folk-like finaleis ultimately defeated by a
positively viewed transgressionrepresented by the major tonic key, and a substantial
coda that corrects the failed parallel form and features high-style learned topics. Before
turning to my narrative analysis of the movement, I will summarize the essential
features of a parallel form, and discuss the irregularities of this specific movement.
Ibid.
Ibid.
257
Ibid.
258
Ibid., 195.
259
Ibid., 207.
256
128
often in outer movements of his piano works.260 The article uses Schumanns Presto
passionato in G minor, op. Posth., and the outer movements of the Concert sans orchestra
(F-Minor Sonata), op. 14, and Fantasie, op. 17all composed in the 1830sto propose
that, with those pieces, Schumann rethinks sonata structure by replacing the customary
sonata procedures with a more flexible type of parallel form that permits a unique
overall design to each work.261 Roseners Figures 2 and 3 (my Figures 6.1. and 6.2) reveal
a structure of the opening movement of op. 14 that is parallel both tonally and
thematically: the exposition in F minor, development in Ab major, a retransition
that leads to the recapitulation in F minor, and a restatement of the development in
Db major before returning to F minor for a coda.
Linda Correll Roesner, Schumanns Parallel Forms, 19th Century Music 14 (1991): 26578.
Ibid., 266.
129
Julie Hedges Brown, in her dissertation, provides a diagram that shows how the
binary form of traditional sonata form is reconfigured with a parallel sonata form.
Reproduced in my Figure 6.3 below, it is evident that in such a form the recapitulation
restates the development section as well as the exposition, causing a large-scale
sequential repeat, or tonal parallel, for most of the second half of the form. Brown
points out that near the end of the parallel repeat a tonal shift prepares for the return of
the tonic key, and thus a coda becomes functionally analogous to the recapitulation.262
130
Ibid.
In her dissertation Julie Hedges Brown discusses two contrasting views of nineteenth-century
reviewers of Schumanns turn to instrumental works and classical models of form: (1) critics of a
traditional mindset saw progress in these works of Schumann; (2) critics of the New German School
believed that Schumanns best works were the early piano works, and that this style became stifled
within the confines of traditional forms (54).
268
Brown, 118.
269
Ibid., 116.
270
In her 2011 essay, Brown notes that Kohlhase first descried the second part of the movement as twofold: a coda to the finale and a coda to the entire quintet (284). Julie Hedges Brown, Schumann and the
Style Hongrois, in Rethinking Schumann (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 265299.
267
131
the tonic key, E-flat major, is not emphasized in the first part (the parallel form) of the
movement; rather it is G minor (the mediant of the Quintet as a whole) that dominates.
It is only in the codas that Schumann emphasizes the tonic key, yet another way in
which this movement strays from the norms of traditional sonata-rondo form.
Reproduced in Figure 6.5 is Browns formal overview of the Piano Quintet finale
(Figures 13.3 and 13.5 from her 2011 essay).271
Several aspects of the parallel form of the quintet finale (seen in Figure 6.5 below)
are remarkable. First, the Piano Quintet as a whole is in the key of E-flat major, and one
would expect the finale to begin in the tonic key (Eb). Instead, Schumann begins the
finale in the minor mediant key (g). Second, unlike a traditional sonata-rondo form, the
refrain of this movement appears in mostly non-tonic keys (d, b, g#, d# and bb). The
recapitulation, moreover, begins in the remote key of g# and does not return to g until
the very end of the parallel form. Third, within the exposition of part I there is a tonal
pairing between the A and B sections: first with g/d# (Eb) and then with d/Bb; creating a
local-level parallelism that foreshadows the large-scale parallel form.272 The
development strongly prepares the distant key of gs for the recapitulation.
In part II of Browns formal diagram we see that the first coda of the finale begins
with a closing idea in Eb major, but quickly returns to G minor with a move to a fugato
based on the refrain theme (A) of the movement. However, the end of the first fugato
undercuts the control of G minor with a plagal move to V/c minor (the relative minor
of Eb major).273 Thus the coda to the finale ultimately undermines the control of G minor
in favor of Eb major. The second coda of the quintet contains a new fugato that
transforms the main theme (P) from the first movement into a fugal subject, and the
main theme of the finale (A) is the countersubject. This second coda appropriately
reveals the tonal authority of Eb major as the quintet as a whole comes to a close.
271
132
133
emergence is represented by the gradual subversion of the opening minor mediant key
(g) in favor of the major tonic key (Eb), by a failed parallel form that requires a
substantial coda in order to close the movement effectively, and by a low-style peasant
topic (style hongrois) in the refrain that is transformed into a high-style topic (fugato) in
the coda. This flawed hierarchy requires the substantial coda in order to close the
movement and the work as a wholebringing the themes and tonal center togetherin
a more successful way.
134
Transgression
275
Robert Bailey, An Analytical Study of the Sketches and Drafts in Prelude and Transfiguration from
Tristan und Isolde (New York: Norton, 1985), 11920.
276
Recall the discussion of the scherzo movement (Chapter 5) in which tonal ambiguity existed in the
opening measures of Trio I (it was unclear whether Cb Major or Gb major was tonic in that case).
277
Ibid., 281.
278
Ibid.
135
embodied by this theme are further supported by four-bar phrases and the exact
repetition of a very simple theme.
c minor:
g minor: iv
VI
iv
V/iv
iio6t
iv
V6r
5e
iv
iv
iio6t
iv
V6r
5e
V6r
iio6t
iv
5e
iv
V/VI
iio6t
V6r
5e
137
the piano suggests a metaphor for a protagonist who is striving to break through a
barrier.
A voice-leading reduction of the first episode (B) further clarifies the reversal in
the role of Eb (Example 6.4). Whereas Eb was an incomplete upper neighbor in the
refrain, it becomes the structural tonic in the first episode. Moreover, Eb4 is the goal of
the first four-note gesture in m. 22, and this gesture is sequenced up to end on F4 in m.
23, then expanded to a reaching-over that culminates with G4 in m. 25. The sequencing
of this rising gesture suggests a local Anstieg (123 in E-flat) that reveals the first
glimpse of the potential for the ascendency of E-flat major. The first episode exposes a
nascent state of the actual Anstieg for the entire piece, as the true Kopfton of the
movement, G (3 of E-flat major), is not achieved until the coda.
The conflict between the G-minor style hongrois refrain and the E-flat-major
marginally higher-style first episode is the first the protagonist faces in the movement.
The order of the G minor refrain presents a high rank value in the opening of the piece,
but the first episode immediately introduces transgression (Eb) and ever so slightly
raises its own low rank value. The subsequent statement of the refrain, in mm. 29b37a,
is truncated and is in the key of D minor, which once again emphasizes the D5
associated with order, although this time as the goal of the descent rather than the
Kopfton. The second episode presents the B theme again in mm. 37b41, only this time
truncated and in Bb major, which also emphasizes D5, now as the Kopfton goal of an
Anstieg motion from Bb4 to D5. At the end of the second episode, in m. 43, the rank
value of order is high, as the D5 maintains its place of prominence over Eb5, even in the
higher-style B theme.
The Third Episode (C). The third episode, C, begins in m. 43b in the key of G
major and is strongly based on the B material of the first two episodes (Example 6.5).
Derived from Bs four-note rising gesture, this theme is transformed into faster surface
rhythms (now eighth notes instead of quarter notes), with staccato articulation of the
eighth notes in the piano (as opposed to the more peasant-like heavily detached quarter
notes in B), and a piano dynamic level (as opposed to the sempre forte of B). The third
episode (C) is the most substantial section yet, at 34 measures long, and despite many
sequences that seem to modulate, it does cadence strongly in G major on the downbeat
of m. 77.
The C section represents a struggle between order and transgression, where
order is weakened and transgression is strengthened. The presence of the major mode
here shows progress for transgression, despite the fact that the tonic pitch is G, the same
tonic as the A theme. The order-imposing hierarchy attacks the B idea by disfiguring it
through rhythmic diminution (staccato eighth notes). A counterattack by transgression
occurs in the form of a new eight-note scalar idea (indicated by arrows in Example 6.5)
that is extended at the end of the section as the music cadences in G major. This scalar
idea is in a higher singing style, and it articulates a descending third-progression (54
3) thus partially supplanting the complete descending fifth-progression of the A theme.
The completion of the descent, 21 in G, comes at the end of the sectionhence, the
139
voice leading of the A section (54321) has been appropriated by the transgressive
scalar singing theme.
Example 6.5. Second Episode (C), mm. 43b77a.
140
While transgression does acquire a higher rank value at the end of this section, it
is the order-imposing hierarchy that comes out ahead in m. 77b, as the refrain returns
with the style hongrois in the key of B minor, indicating that the transgressive Eb from B
has not only been lowered in rank value but has even been completely removed at this
point in the narrative, as there is no neighboring Eb in the B-minor statement of the
refrain (Example 6.6).
141
Julie Hedges Brown, A Higher Echo of the Past: Schumanns 1842 Chamber Music and the Rethinking
of Classical Form (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 2000), 120.
142
against a falling four-note gesture in the viola, derived from C. The melody and
countermelody are sequenced and passed imitatively through the strings in mm. 115
30a, while the piano takes a completely accompanimental role with half-note block
chords followed by half-rests. A brief retransition begins in m. 130b that emphasizes V
of G# minor and sets up the return of the refrain for the recapitulation in m. 136b
(Example 6.8).
conflict in the movement. The development section of this parallel sonata-rondo form,
however, seems to remove much of the tension by introducing the new and quiet
pastoral fanfare (mm. 85b93), and the new lyrical melody juxtaposed against the
scalar idea that was developed in C (mm. 11530). The combination of the new,
expansive lyrical melody with the C scalar melody as a counterline represents yet
another step up for transgression against the folk finale tradition of order.
The Recapitulation. When the refrain returns in m. 136b for the recapitulation,
the order-imposing hierarchy is reintroduced more forcefully than ever, with a
fortissimo dynamic marking and wrenched up a half step to G# minor (Example 6.8). In
order to create a parallel return that is entirely sequential yet ends ultimately in G
minor, Schumann immediately restates the refrain in D# minor in m. 148b. This move to
D# minor strengthens the hand of transgression in the recapitulation for two reasons.
First, it is enharmonically equivalent to Eb minor; which exposes another attempt of
transgression to rise in rank value, by transposing the style hongrois refrain to the
transgressive key. Second, because of the shift to D# minor in A, the lengthy C section
is also transposed to the transgressive key of Eb major. Recall that C is derived from the
B materials four-note rising striving gesture that hints at a higher style. The fact that
this longer section returns in Eb major indicates that transgression has gained a higher
rank value; especially since the C section cadences strongly in Eb in m. 212.
Although the initial move from G# to D# minor in the recapitulation sets up the
final statement of the refrain in G minor in m. 212 (see Table 6.2), the final return of the
refrain theme is weakened, again suggesting a transvaluation of order. First, the final
statement of A is truncated from twenty-one bars to eight; this severe compression
undercuts the power of the order-imposing hierarchy at the end of the parallel repeat.
Second, this truncated restatement features a diminuendo in its final four bars, again
diminishing the rank value of the peasant theme. All of the events in the recapitulation
described abovestarting the parallel repeat in D# minor, bringing back C in Eb major,
understating the final peasant refraincontribute to the lowering of the rank value of
order in favor of transgression. The final steps in this process are heard in the lengthy
and unusual coda.
144
Development
A*
B*
A*
m. 1
m. 22
m. 30
m. 38
m. 43
m. 78
m. 86
m. 115
g M3 to
Eb m2 to
d M3 to
Bb m3 to
G M3 to
V/E to V/gs
Recapitulation
A
A*
B*
A*
m. 137
m. 157
m. 165
m. 173
m. 178
m. 213
gs P5 to ds M3 to
B m2 to
bb M3 to
Gb m3 to
Eb M3 to
145
280
281
146
Example 6.9. End of Part I, Introduction to Coda, and Closing Idea 1, mm. 217232.
282
Auxiliary cadences lack an initial strong tonic triad in the root position; they point forward to their
final strong tonic using the formula XVI. See Allen Cadwallader and David Gagn, Analysis of Tonal
Music: A Schenkerian Approach, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford), 256.
147
In a striking reversal, Schumann brings back the G-minor theme of the refrain in
m. 248b, now transformed from a low-style peasant topic (style hongrois) to a high-style
learned topic due to its fugato treatment (Example 6.10). This suggests that the value
order of the low-style topic may have been mistaken: the peasant-like style hongrois
should have been a learned topic from the very beginning. This treatment of the peasant
theme elevates it, making its initial presentation now seem inadequate in comparison.
The strict four-bar phrase structure of the refrain is gone in the fugato, as the irregular
phrase structure of a fugato takes over. While the transformation of the topic from the
low style to a high style suppresses order and therefore raises the rank value of
transgression, order does not entirely let go of its hold on the music, because the fugato
begins firmly in the mediant key of G minor with a tonic-dominant statement of the
subject (mm. 24956).
The tonal center at the very opening of the movement (mm. 13) was ambiguous:
it was unclear whether G minor or C minor was in control. This ambiguity returns in
the first fugato, as the opening tonic-dominant statement (mm. 24956) is balanced by
subdominant-tonic statements (in stretto in mm. 25762) (Example 6.10). Brown notes
that the emphatic G chord in m. 274 now functions not as tonic but as V of C minor, the
subdominant of G minor and the relative key of E-flat major.283 This paves the way for
E-flat major to assume control, as an episode that is based on the lyrical melody from
the development confirms Eb as tonic (Example 6.11) and leads to a second closing idea
in m. 286b.
283
148
149
150
Example 6.12. End of First Coda and Beginning of Second Coda, mm. 295318.
151
The Coda to the Sonata Cycle. A second fugato begins in m. 319 that completes
the transformation of the transgressive elements as they take over and fully overpower
the flawed hierarchy. This fugato transforms the main theme from the first movement
(P) into a fugal subject, with the main theme of the finale (A) as an accompanyingand
therefore subordinatecountersubject. Brown notes that, unlike the first fugato, which
stressed both tonic-dominant entries and tonic-subdominant entries, the second fugato
stresses only tonic-dominant entries, clinching E-flat major by reviving the theme that is
first associated with that key (P from the first movement).285
When the Closing 1 material returns in m. 378b, it is the final stage in the process:
G as the true Kopfton now descends to the true tonic, Eb (Example 6.13). Since G5 is the
goal of the imperfect authentic cadence ending the second fugato at m. 371, it takes the
return of the closing material to lead to a final descent to 1 at the perfect authentic
cadence in m. 402 (Example 6.14). An extension follows in m. 40227 that confirms the
victory of transgression, with a tonic pedal in mm. 40210 and a perfect authentic
cadence in m. 421 that is then expanded by a tonic arpeggiation in the last seven
measures. The transformation process is complete: transgression has, throughout the
course of the movement, successfully challenged and overturned the initial hierarchy
with the ascendancy of E-flat major and the high-style fugatos found in the coda.
Example 6.13. End of Second Fugato and Introduction to Closing 1, mm. 370-379.
285
Ibid., 289.
152
(2
1)
Example 6.14. End of the Closing 1 Theme and Final Extension, mm. 396-404.
6.3.4. Conclusion
It is largely the many irregularities in the form of the Piano Quintet finale that
sets the stage for a comic narrative archetype in which the transgressive elements
gradually emerge as successful throughout the course of the movement. The form of
this movement is one that is often discussed by scholars and critics for its anomalies.
The parallel sonata-rondo of the first part of the finale introduces the minor mediant
key (g) as tonic, but then proceeds to present many non-tonic returns of the refrain that
undermine it. Schumanns blurring of the tonic identity in the first part of the finale
delays the crystallization of E-flat major, the key in which the quintet as a sonata cycle
must ultimately end, until nearly halfway through the extensive coda. In addition, the
flaws in the parallel form, most notably the many statements of the refrain in non-tonic
keys (the only statements in G minor are the first, mm. 121, and the last, mm. 21320)
help to open the way for transgression to be successful. The style hongrois topic of the
refrain is transformed from a low style in the refrain to a high style in the coda, first as
the subject of a fugato that begins in G minor but ends in E-flat major, then later as the
countersubject to a second fugato that uses the P theme of the first movement as a
subject that is firmly in Eb throughout.
The gradual yielding of tonal control from G minor to E-flat major is a process
foreshadowed in the first statement of the refrain (G minor) and first episode (E-flat
major) but not realized wholly until the first fugato. The second fugato, then, provides
the ultimate closure with its tonal restoration of Eb and cyclic recalling of the first theme
153
154
CHAPTER 7
TWO ADDITIONAL ROMANCE NARRATIVES: THE FIRST
AND THIRD MOVEMENTS OF THE PIANO QUARTET
process of Bildung. The third movement of the Piano Quartet is a ternary form that
reveals a romance archetype, where a desired order is victorious over transgression, in
the form of a duet between two characters: a male and female voice that can be mapped
onto Robert and Clara Schumann.
286
287
Robert S. Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), 14.
Ibid.
156
Transgression
Metrical Consonance
Metrical Dissonance
157
The principal theme that follows the slow introduction (Example 7.2) strongly
resembles the hymn topic of the introduction but is transformed into a new state, which
I will label as a heroic topic (mm. 1314 and mm. 1718).288 While it retains the
homophonic texture, the melody, and the harmonies of the hymn topic, the stylistic
register is lowered as a result of a faster tempo, the staccato rolled chords in the piano,
and the mezzo forte, crescendo, and sforzando dynamic markings. The rank value of the
order-imposing hierarchy established in the hymn topic of the introduction is raised in
the heroic topic of the principal theme, as the theme takes on a new, more confident
state. The forward- and upward-pointing gesture of the heroic topic, labeled motive x,
begins on beat 2 and leads strongly to the downbeat of the next measure, suggesting a
metaphor of a protagonist who is setting out on a quest.
The arabesque-like figures found in mm. 14b17a and mm. 18b21a will be discussed in the second
part of the analysis.
158
order imposed by tonic. The statement of the heroic theme in F minor invokes a
metaphor for a brief anticipation of the more powerful obstacles that will follow. This
transgression is quickly reversed with the return of the tonic key in m. 31, although the
lack of the expected tonic resolution at m. 33 and the following one more time
technique289 that extends the phrase indicate that the reestablishment of order is not
obtained, rather it has been earned.
289
Janet Schmalfeldt, Cadential Processes: The Evaded Cadence and the One More Time Technique,
Journal of Musicological Research 12 (1992): 152.
290
The contour of motive y is taken from the bass line of the heroic topic, as can be seen in a comparison
of Example 7.2 (bass line) and Example 7.4a (motive y).
159
motive y recast in the marked minor mediant key (g), which embodies the second
transgression (mm. 4447) against the order-imposing hierarchy (Example 7.4b).
a successful fending off of the transgression. The restatement of the original theme in
mm. 5257 presents the order-imposing hierarchy in a more powerful state with a
higher rank value, as the dynamic level is now forte instead of mezzo forte and the first
violin doubles the piano melody. This second transgression, with its brief foray into the
key of G minor, has been turned aside in favor of a more powerful restatement of the
principal theme in the tonic key.
Example 7.5. Second Transgression and Restatement of Principal Theme, mm. 4155.
The most powerful transgression in the exposition of the movement occurs with
the arrival of the transition theme in m. 64 (Example 7.6). In this passage Schumann
presents an agitato topic that functions as a rhetorical gesture. According to Hatten, a
rhetorical gesture is any event that disrupts the unmarked flow of a musical
discourse.291 Here the agitato topic abruptly interrupts the discourse with a dominant
harmony in G minor, immediately following the perfect authentic cadence in the tonic
291
Robert S. Hatten, Interpreting Musical Gestures, Topics, and Tropes (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 2004), 135.
161
key on the downbeat of m. 64. The agitato topic, marked forte, is supported by a
sforzando unison entry with an agogic accent on beat 2 and is followed by a marcato
ascending scale and falling accented arpeggiations that lead to a cadence in G minor.292
292
The perfect authentic cadence in G minor (m. 76) employs a Picardy third and the G major chord is
immediately reinterpreted as the dominant of C minor.
162
discourse of the movement because the minor mediant postpones the arrival of the
structural dominant.293
The agitato topic, which begins in m. 64 on D (V of G minor), is repeated a half
step higher in m. 68 beginning on Eb (V of A-flat major) and then falls back to D in m. 72
(V of G minor) (Example 7.6). The neighboring motion of the pitches DEbD reverses
the status of these pitches, as compared to their relationship at the opening of the
movement. The higher rank was previously assigned to Eb (the tonic, which supports
the established order) in the introduction and principal theme, while in the transition
the higher rank is assigned to the D (the dominant of the minor mediant key, which
supports the transgression). The rank value of the transgressive material is raised at this
point in the narrative, as the transgression overpowers the musical characteristics
associated with the established order.
The key of G minor with its transgressive qualities continues to assert itself in the
transition. For example, after a failed attempt at a medial caesura in m. 88 (Example
7.7), a rising half-step sequence occurs in mm. 8896 (Bbbc)294 that is immediately
reversed in mm. 96103 (Bbg). Once again, the transgressive traits of G minor move the
transition away from the expected dominant goal, B-flat major. In mm. 1034 the agitato
topic is truncated and transformed with the addition of a dotted rhythm in the key of Bflat major, as an attempt is made to establish the dominant key. The transgression
regains control in mm. 1056, however, as the same truncated agitato topic is presented
in D minor rather than B-flat major.
293
Peter H. Smith comments on this feature in Associative Harmony, Tonal Pairing, and Middleground
Structure in Schumanns Sonata Expositions: The Role of the Mediant in the First Movements of the Piano
Quintet, Piano Quartet, and Rhenish Symphony in Rethinking Schumann, ed. Roe-Min Kok and Laura
Tunbridge (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 23564.
294
This sequence contains the marked quality of the reinterpretation of dominant seventh chords as
German augmented sixth chords, which is rather surprising in mm. 88-96.
163
164
165
agitato topic has been sublimated. The arrival six-four chord296 in m. 115 marks the
arrival of V of the structural dominant and confirms that the agitato topic no longer
transgresses against order but gives way to order as the music cadences decisively on Bflat major. The rank value of the agitato topic is therefore lowered, and the more
controlled ascent to the arrival six-four marks the defeat of transgression as the
exposition comes to a close in the expected dominant key.
Perhaps the most notable formal aspect of the Piano Quartet movement is the
lack of establishment of the second tonal area (V) until the last phrase of the exposition.
Joel Lester comments on this, saying that the failure to strongly establish the second key
is a novel tonal plan that supports the thematic narrative, as Schumanns creative
genius convincingly combines sonata forms thematic narrative with his novel tonal
drama.297 A tonally imbalanced exposition such as this, where the secondary key fails
to establish autonomy, is called a continuous exposition. Hepokoski and Darcy
describe the continuous exposition as one in which a clearly articulated medial caesura
and successfully launched secondary theme do not occur.298
The opening movement of Schumanns Piano Quartet falls into Hepokoski and
Darcys Expansion-Section subtype of the continuous exposition. In this subtype,
following a P-idea, the composer enters TR and continues to spin it out in a succession
of thematic or sequential modules for most of the rest of the exposition, never pausing
for the MC breath and the subsequent launch of S.299 Often a medial caesura is
suggested but abandoned, as the composer creates the expectation of an imminent MC
only to veer away from it for more Fortspinnung or other elaboration.300 This idea of a
failed medial caesura occurs twice in the Piano Quartet, as can be seen in Figure 7.1.
Despite the lack of secondary and closing material in this exposition, the idea
that order prevails at the end of the exposition is supported by the decisive cadence on
B-flat major in mm. 11920. The sense of victory of order is even greater than it might
have been had the music moved to the secondary key area earlier as expectedthe
more arduous and drawn-out the struggle to reach the secondary key, the greater the
sense of victory when it is finally reached.
296
166
1P1
51
52
64
EbfgBb
Eb
gcFBbbcBbgBbdEb/ebBb
1P
2P
13
35
Eb
EbfEb
88
120
EEC
MC
MC
Attempt
Attempt
Fails
Fails
167
minor (mm. 17379), this tension is intensified. At this point in the development a sense
of conflict, anxiety, and doubt is associated with motive x that lowers its rank value.
168
step added to the end of each y motive, three of which create the lamenting pianto halfstep descent.
169
and Cb (b6) as dissonant seventh and ninth of a Vb9 chord. Against the piano, the
rhythmic diminution in mm. 20811 in the strings creates metrical displacement
dissonance: groupings of four eighth notes are displaced by a quarter note value (D 4+2,
1= quarter note).301 The transgression is at its highest state at this point in the narrative
due to the competition between the x and y motives, the stretching of the y motive to an
octave, the intervallic dissonance (minor 7th and minor 9th) between the y motive and x
motive, and the metrical displacement dissonance between the piano and strings.
Harald Krebs, Fantasy Pieces: Metrical Dissonance in the Music of Robert Schumann (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1999), 1617.
170
302
Edward T. Cone, Musical Form and Musical Performance (New York: W.W. Norton, 1968), 84.
171
The agitato topic of the transition is rewritten in C minor, the minor submediant,
which is a more conventional diatonic third relation that leads to its relative, the tonic Eflat major. Thus the transgression embodied by the marked mediant key of G minor is
removed in the recapitulation. The augmentation of the agitato topic at the end of the
recapitulation once again represents the transgression being brought under control,
only this time in the tonic key.
The coda of the movement offers a reflection upon the adventures of the
protagonist and confirms the defeat of transgression. It opens with a passage that is
reminiscent of the serious, profound tone of the hymn topic in the introduction
(Example 7.14). In this opening passage of the coda (mm. 31120) the subdominant is
outlined (mm. 31113), which invokes a sense of the past.303 An ascending 56 sequence
(mm. 31320) leads to G minor in m. 315, but now G minor moves directly to a first
inversion E-flat triad and is subsumed within a prolongation of the tonic triad. Since the
E-flat major triad retains control of the passage, the ability of G minor to transgress has
been lost, affirming that its rank value has been lowered.
The pi agitato that follows in m. 321 introduces a new theme that contains
contrary motion between the cello and piano, producing several voice exchanges (see
Example 7.14). The theme contains upward thrusts that emphasize triumph and raise
the rank value of the order due to the harmonic emphasis on closure (V7/VV in m. 321,
V7I in m. 323).
303
Michael L. Klein, Chopins Fourth Ballade as Musical Narrative, Music Theory Spectrum 26, no. 1
(2004), 2356.
172
V6t /V
V6t
Motive x occurs in a new context in m. 338 (Example 7.15), with a change in pitch
level, slower tempo, piano dynamic level, and tonic pedal in the piano part. Another
tonicization of the subdominant in m. 341 again invokes a sense of the past, but the
reflective quality of this passage is even more pronounced, given the slackening of the
tempo. The coda comes to a close with an a tempo section that begins with three
consecutive statements of the heroic topic, which indicates that the order of the heroic
topic now has a much higher rankit is in fact triple charged. When the agitato topic
returns in mm. 35354, it is in major (just as when it was supported by the Neapolitan
harmony at the end of both transition sections), confirming that transgression has
indeed been defeated. The fact that this final statement of the agitato topicoriginally in
the transgressive minor modeis truncated and is now in the tonic major confirms the
removal of the transgression, since it now serves the order-imposing hierarchy. As the
movement comes to a conclusion, there is no question that order is victorious over
transgression.
173
175
regard to chamber music, Cone goes on to say that chamber music depends on
permanent characterization, although it is rarely desirable or even possible to single out
any instrument as the protagonist.307 Cone asserts, Sometimes, however, as in
chamber music, the persona can only be inferred from the interaction of equal
agents.308 This is the case in Schumanns Piano Quartet.
The Analysis. The Sostenuto assai introduction, which presents the hymn topic,
contains issues of voice leading that lend insight into the nature of the protagonist and
support a hearing of Bildung as a process in this movement (Example 7.16). In the
introduction the dissonant seventh of the V7 chord, Ab (4), is twice pushed upward
against its natural tendency: first, as part of an ascending third-progression in mm. 16
(where the normal resolution downward is transferred to the bass); second, when Ab
moves through An (n4) to Bb (5) in mm. 1012 instead of resolving down to G (3) as
expected. The nonchalant and idiosyncratic way in which the dissonant seventh is
pulled up with broken octaves invokes a metaphor of uncontrolled energy. This effect
of pushing above the boundary of the Kopfton (G5) invokes an energeticist metaphor.
Schenkers Harmonielehre recognizes the biological urges of tones, and the force of
the scale-step.309 Here, Ab is pushed upward to Bb instead of resolving down to G. This
treatment of the dissonant seventh can be mapped onto the idea of a protagonist whose
youthful exuberance strives upward, preventing a controlled resolution of the
dissonance. Moreover, this lack of control could be interpreted as a character flaw on
the part of the protagonistone that will require correction through the process of
Bildung as the movement progresses.
307
Ibid., 97.
Ibid., 110.
309
Lee Rothfarb, Energetics, in The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory, ed. Thomas Christensen
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 937.
308
176
(b)
(c)
178
310
Francesca Falcone, The Evolution of the Arabesque in Dance, Dance Chronicle 22, no. 1 (1999), 87.
Ibid.
312
Ibid., 99.
311
179
Beat:
(expansion ----------)
Beat:
in discourse that occurs when the agitato topic arrives at the beginning of the transition
(m. 64) provides a rhetorical gesture of interruption that indicates a sense of voice.313
Another device found within the music is that of interruption by music that does not
participate in the action and often takes the form of commentary. This is evident in the
Piano Quartet with the exceptional return of the slow introduction at the beginning of
the development section.
Voice can also be indicated through extra-musical conditions. But Seatons idea
that voice may be implied by an identification of the persona with the composer does
not come into play in the Piano Quartet because there is no strong documented
evidence to pin the narrative persona to Schumann. Rather, the narrative voice in this
movement is, as it was in the first movement of the Piano Quintet, the voice of a
composer with ambitions to undertake the chamber genres and the looming model of
the Beethovenian Heroic.
7.1.3. Conclusion
The journey of the protagonist in this movement is one in which he faces
obstacles on both external and internal levels but ultimately experiences triumph and
success. In a narrative reading of the movement as a Romance, the order-imposing
hierarchy and the musical characteristics associated with it are victorious over the
various transgressions experienced throughout the movement. The protagonist, having
begun the movement possessing tendencies that inhibit his progress, makes a journey
that reveals his growth and maturation. These two readings are complementarythe
second reading of Bildung enriches the first reading of the movement as a Romance
narrative. The analysis is further enhanced by an understanding of narrative voice in
this movement as that of a composer who aspires to master the chamber genres and rise
above the intimidating model of the Beethovenian Heroic. Thus the movement can be
understood as supporting musical meaning on two different levels: that of a Romance
narrative and that of the Bildung of the protagonist and the persona.
313
Vera Micznik applies this principle to Mahlers music when she points out that it contains a higher
degree of narrativity than does music from the Classical style due to its individualitythe essential
feature of Romanticism in general. According to Micznik, the more unexpected the music is, the greater
its ability to contain narrative. Vera Micznik, Music and Narrative Revisited: Degrees of Narrativity in
Beethoven and Mahler, Journal of the Royal Musical Association 126 (2001): 193-249.
181
Transgression:
Hymn Topic
Metrical Consonance
Metrical Dissonance
Homophonic Texture
182
John Daverio, Robert Schumann: Herald of a New Poetic Age, (New York: Oxford University Press,
1997), 260. Daverio notes that this cello solo was not lost on Brahms, who began the slow movement of
his Piano Quartet in C Minor, op. 60 with a similar sumptuous cello solo (260).
183
cellos theme in mm. 3-4 does indicate a hint of transgression, as the cello interrupts
the violin.
Example 7.20. The Cantabile Topic of the Main Theme (A), mm. 118.
184
Example 7.21. Voice-Leading Reduction of Main Theme, Cantabile Topic, mm. 318.
In m. 17, the cello theme is interrupted before it can complete its cadence as the
first violin sounds the same lyrical theme (only now two octaves higher). Marked mezzo
forte and cantabile a poco a poco crescendo, the violins singing melody grows in intensity
until it cadences in m. 32. In retrospect, we realize that the violins introduction in mm.
14 was interrupted by the cello in m. 3; after the violin allows the cello to state its
lyrical melody, the violin in turn cannot resist interrupting the cello in m. 17, before it is
quite finished. These interruptions by the entrance of the cello in m. 3 and the violin in
m. 17 are mapped onto transgression, since they indicate that the two voices have no
respect for one another.
A Dialogue Between a Male and Female Voice. This dialogue between two
voices is significant in this movement, and quite an obvious feature of the A sections.
The conversation between the voices can be mapped onto a male voice (the cello) and a
female voice (the first violin). While we must be careful to avoid the biographical
fallacy, it is not unreasonable to take this one step further and map the male and female
voices onto two characters that represent Robert and Clara. In some of his music,
Carnaval for example, Robert does explicitly depict Clara musically. While he does not
do that explicitly in the quartet, it is difficult to ignore the facts of Roberts biography
that suggest that he might have been doing so implicitly, invoking a kind of love duet
in this movement.
In Chapter 2 I discussed the difficulties that Robert and Clara were experiencing
in their marriage in 1842. While 1842 was the year that Schumanns chamber music
aspirations were realized, this achievement came at a price. In February, while on a
185
concert tour of German cities intended to showcase Claras virtuoso talent as a pianist,
Robert became depressed after being insulted by court officials following a concert
given by Clara. He returned to Leipzig alone to compose while Clara finished her
concert tour; he wrote in their marriage diary, This separation has once again made
clear to me our particularly difficult situation. Should I neglect my talent in order to
serve as your travelling companion? And conversely, should you let you talent go to
waste simply because I happen to be chained to the journal and the piano?315 Thus,
while I cannot explicitly say that the cellos male voice is Robert and the violins female
voice is Clara, I do assert that it is reasonable to map the characters of a male and female
voice onto the cello and violin respectively, since this strained relationship was much
on Roberts mind during this particular time and the low range of a male would
logically be suited to the lower sounding instrument.
The opening three bars of the movement, with the lyrical theme in the violin
interrupted by the cello, seem to begin in media resas if the listener walks into the
middle of a conversation. The dialogue between the cello and violin is once again
interrupted in m. 31, but this time by the piano (Example 7.22). The piano transforms
the lyrical melody to the point where it is nearly unrecognizable. With syncopation at
the eighth-note level, the right and left hand of the piano are out of sync with each other
and are unable to come together successfully until the end of the phrase in m. 47. The
phrase is now balanced (4+4+4+4), a characteristic of order, but this is overshadowed by
the transgressive syncopation of the melody. The rank value of transgression is thus
raised at this point in the narrative.
The male and female characters represented by the cello and violin are removed
from the narrative, and the viola tries to reason with the piano with interjections of its
own (mm. 3335, 3739, 4143, 4547) that try unsuccessfully to smooth out the
syncopations in the piano. This passage (mm. 3147) is the third phrase of A, and
represents an experience of conflict in the movement. The transgressive syncopations in
the piano and the frequent interjections by the viola seem to comment on the imperfect
dialogue of the first two phrases between the cello and violin: the piano and viola,
315
Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and Gerd Nauhaus, The Marriage Diaries of Robert & Clara
Schumann: From Their Wedding Day Through the Russia Trip, ed. Gerd Nauhaus, trans. Peter Ostwald
(Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1993), 206.
186
which are not a specific gender, reveal an inherent tension between the male and female
characters that lies beneath the more tranquil surface of the first two phrases.
188
189
316
Robert Hatten describes plenitude as a desired goal achieved by processes that lead to the ultimate
saturation of texture, and fulfillmentperhaps even apotheosisin the case of a theme (43). Robert
Hatten, Interpreting Musical Gestures, Topics, And Tropes (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004).
191
values that support the changing harmony over the pedal. Perhaps the final statement
of the lyrical theme in the cello with long supportive tones in the violin and viola voices
represents a compromise between the two characters: whatever the subject of the
dialogue, the two voices have come into agreement, or, at the very least the female voice
has given in. The male voice (cello) has the last say, and it is noteworthy that Schumann
has the cellist change the tuning on his instrument so that the C string actually plays a
contra Bb, which creates a different timbre, since the Bb is played on an open string. This
sets up the Bb pedal in the cello for the coda that follows.
317
Daverio, 36.
193
abrogated.318 The effects of the pianissimo dynamic level, the tied notes in the upper
strings, and the cellos tonic pedal (recall that Schumann asked the cellist at the
beginning of the final section to tune the C string down a step, so the Bb pedal is on an
open string) all contribute to a quality of temporal suspensionand elimination of all
conflict.
Ibid.
This three-note motive is the head motive for the fugal subject in the finale that follows. This means
that the motive has a cyclical purpose here as wellthough its expressive quality in the final movement
319
194
What follows in mm. 12326 is striking in terms of the narrative content, as the
upper strings and piano move in contrary motion: twice moving outward and away
from each other, then inward and back to each other. These whimsical expansions and
contractions invoke the two characters finally coming together, first in m. 126 and then
again even closer in m. 127. A hint of the conflict of the central section is recalled with
the Gb (b6) as a neighbor tone in m. 126 and 127 and one final wistful statement of the
three-note motive is passed between the piano and viola, almost like an echo, as the
movement comes to a close.
7.2.6. Conclusion
The third movement of Schumanns Piano Quartet, Andante cantabile, with its
beautiful and sentimental lyrical theme, represents a different kind of romance
narrative. It is not heroic in nature, as is the first movements of the Quintet and Quartet;
rather, it is a romance of a sentimental love that encounters difficulties and is ultimately
able to compromise in a successful way. The order in this movement resides in the tonic
key and lyrical topic, as well as the metrical consonance and healthy dialogue of
distinct characters in the A sections. Transgression is represented by the syncopated
piano melody at the end of the first A section, and the bVI key, hymn topic, metrical
dissonance, and lack of individuality of characters due to the homophonic texture in the
B section. Order prevails at the end of the movement, as all elements of transgression
are removed with the return of the A section, and the striking coda at the end of the
movement presents a sense of timelessness and peace, as the two characters come
together in unity.
is transformed into something much more overtly joyful. The resolution of conflict between lovers at the
end of this movement clears the way for a joyful final outcome in the finale.
195
CHAPTER 8
CONCLUSION
8.1 Summary
In this dissertation I have explored the interaction between structure and
narrative in Schumanns 1842 chamber music. This repertoire, which has been
somewhat neglected in the scholarly analytical literature, is often criticized as
attempting and failing to live up to the quality found in the chamber works of
Beethoven. While Schumann differs from Beethoven, he was ultimately successful at
creating an identity of his own in the genrean identity surely influenced by his love of
Romantic literature, which I have found makes his music especially suitable for
narrative analysis.
Using the narratological approach of Byron Almn as my primary methodology,
I have also drawn upon the semiotic approaches of Robert Hatten and Kofi Agawu and
the narratological approaches of Anthony Newcomb and Douglass Seaton, in order to
enrich the discussion. My analyses use structural support to trace musical oppositions
including oppositions in topic, style, markedness, motive, and texturein order to
support narrative readings. More importantly, I have also explored how oppositions in
foreground voice leading can be mapped onto expressive oppositions, thus enhancing
narrative interpretations. I believe that the combination of these analytical techniques
has ramifications for music theory, because combining these narrative and semiotic
theories with oppositions in surface voice-leading structures can produce analyses that
are deeper and more penetrating than many in the current literature.
Chapter 1 covered the relevant theoretical and analytical literature associated
with music and meaning, focusing on the current trends in semiotic and narratological
theory as applied to instrumental music. I provided critiques of the theories discussed
as well as insights into how each theory could be useful for the current study. In the last
subsection of this chapter, I recognized the problems that one-to-one mappings between
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structure and meaning can create and discuss the benefits and pitfalls of this type of
analysis.
Chapter 2 contained a brief discussion of the historical background associated
with Schumanns 1842 chamber music year. In addition to providing historical
context for the time during which Schumann wrote the pieces studied in this
dissertation, this chapter also explored Schumanns chamber music modelsMozart,
Haydn, Beethoven, and Mendelssohnwhich have a great bearing on the analyses in
Chapters 3 through 7, especially those drawing on Blooms theory of the anxiety of
influence and Beethoven. The final section of this chapter discussed Schumanns
compositional process, which reveals much about his stylistic development.
Chapters 3 through 6 provided comprehensive analyses of the four movements
from Schumanns Piano Quintet, op. 44. Primarily using Byron Almns adaptation of
Northrop Fryes theoretical model of narrative archetypes, I showed how the four
movements of the Piano Quintet represents the archetypes in clockwise motion around
the circular model: the first movement as a romance archetype at the top of the circle in
the realm of innocence, the second movement as a fall to the tragic archetype at the
bottom of the circle in the realm of experience and tragedy, the third movement as a
move to the ironic archetype also in the realm of experience, and the fourth movement
as a move upward to the comic archetype with a return to innocence and happiness.
The first movement (Chapter 3) revealed a journey during which the hero
managed to overcome obstacles and successfully navigate a path between nostalgia and
a new future. But the journey of the heroic protagonist was not one of a conventional
succession of functional events. It was instead one that avoided clear linear narrative,
much like the novels of Jean Paul, which Schumann loved and admired. In addition, I
used the persona theories of Robinson, Hatten, and Seaton to suggest that the persona,
or narrative voice, in this movement is one of an aspiring Romantic artist.
In Chapter 4 my reading of the second movement revealed a failed tragic-totranscendent narrative. In a rondo form, the movement presents a funeral march that
reveals a protagonist who strives for transcendence throughout the work, with the
major-mode singing style of the first and third episodes struggling to break free from
the restraints of the tragic funeral march refrain. But success is never achieved in this
narrative, and transgression is defeated by an oppressive, order-imposing hierarchy.
The narrative analysis here is enriched by reference to Harold Blooms theory of the
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process of Bildung. The third movement is unusual because it is a ternary form that
reveals a romance archetype, where a desired order is victorious over transgression, in
the form of a duet between two figures: a male and female voice that can be mapped
onto characters represented by Robert and Clara Schumann.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Emily S. Gertsch, a native of Springfield, Virginia, earned the Bachelor of Music
degree in piano performance and music theory from Furman University in 2001. She
was awarded a graduate assistantship in music theory at The Catholic University of
America, and received her Master of Music degree in piano pedagogy in 2003. Emily
joined the music theory faculty at Furman University in the fall of 2005, where she
taught the core music theory sequence, form and analysis, and music appreciation, and
was an active accompanist and chamber musician. In the spring of 2007 Emily was
awarded the Phi Mu Alpha Outstanding Teaching Award at Furman University. She
began her doctoral studies in music theory at Florida State University in the fall of 2007,
and served as a graduate teaching assistant during her doctoral study, teaching the core
music theory sequence as well as eighteenth-century counterpoint. While at Florida
State, Emilys efforts in the classroom were recognized with three nominations for
outstanding teaching awards. In the fall of 2012 Emily joined the music theory faculty at
the University of Georgia, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate music theory
courses and supervises the music theory graduate teaching assistants. She has
presented her research at national and regional conferences, including The Society for
Music Theory, The Semiotic Society of America, Music Theory Southeast, and the Texas
Society for Music Theory. Emily was awarded the Colvin Award for Outstanding
Student Paper at the 2012 Texas Society for Music Theory Conference. Her current
research centers on Schenkerian analysis, music and meaning, and the chamber music
of Robert Schumann.
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