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On 15 December they move to Dresden and take up residence there at Waisenhausstrasse No 6. He writes to Mendelssohn confessing the terrible state of his mental health and his ongoing anxiety attacks. When hearing the opera for the first time in November he favourably revises his opinion as to its worth.
He initiates a new series of subscription concerts in Dresden with Ferdinand Hiller as conductor.
Later in the month he works on the sketch of the Symphony No 2 in C major Op October—November Completion of the instrumentation of Symphony No 2, and its first performance in the Gewandhaus 5 November conducted by Mendelssohn. With their two elder daughters, Robert and Clara set off by coach to Prague and thence by train to Vienna where they stay until January The Schumanns are offended by the frosty reception given to both his music and her playing in the Imperial city.
April Robert begins work on the overture of a new projected opera, Genoveva. He completes work on the Szenen aus Goethes Faust. It is offered as a birthday present to Clara Schumann on 13 September. He travels to Leipzig for the funeral on 6 November. He continues to work on the opera throughout the year until he completes it in August, and Clara prepares the piano score. There is a marked increase in his composition of choral music. February The outbreak of revolutionary unrest in Germany.
These waves of insurrection will affect Schumann more directly in in Dresden. The politically active Wagner flees Dresden and takes refuge with Liszt in Weimar. The Schumann family retreats to neighbouring Maxen, and then Kreischa, to avoid any danger. Not a particularly glorious moment for Robert, who had once imagined himself fit and able to man the barricades. Parts of Op 79 are composed in Kreischa. They rent a new apartment. A period of continual ill-health. Schumann finds it increasingly difficult to conduct the choir and orchestra.
August A visit to Antwerp where Schumann judges a vocal competition and Brussels. The couple lived for many years in London. He complains constantly of illness and depression. Manfred is conducted by Liszt in Weimar. November Schumann experiences head-noises and strange singing in the ears. Looking back on Schumann writes: April Robert experiments with the latest craze for the paranormal and develops an enthusiasm for table-tapping. Schumann plans to move to Berlin or Vienna.
He suffers bouts of panic and hallucinations. This is a suicide attempt. Robert is put under the care of doctors and two male nurses. Clara leaves the house to live with friends. These reports settle once and for all, and despite various theories to the contrary over many years, that Schumann was indeed suffering from tertiary syphilis. The composer is forbidden to see his wife. He will stay there for two years. July Robert sends a bouquet of flowers to Clara. He is permitted to receive a letter from her in August and replies in September.
He writes more often to Clara, heartbreaking letters for the reader. In December Joachim visits the composer. As a Christmas present she sends him portraits of Brahms and Joachim. In January Schumann composes a fugue. When Brahms visits him in April he is unable to understand a word that Schumann says to him. On that visit Brahms is completely devastated by what he sees. Clara, long forbidden by Dr Richarz to visit her afflicted husband, sees him for the last time on 27 June between 6 and 7 in the evening.
He smiles at her and with the greatest difficulty puts his arm around her—he can no longer easily move his limbs. For the next two days Clara is by his side. He is never still and is in constant, writhing torment. He has not eaten for days, but is able to suck drops of wine from her finger. Robert Schumann dies on 29 July and is buried at Endenich on the evening of 31 July. Clara Schumann dies almost forty years later on 20 May Of her seven children, two—Felix and Julie—predecease her.
Her closest friend, Johannes Brahms, survives her by less than eleven months. En mars et en avril, Robert tombe amoureux de deux jeunes filles de sa ville natale: Le texte est du jeune Schumann en personne. Il entreprend les Variations Abegg pour piano, op. En juin et juillet, il passe beaucoup de temps avec elle, et ses sentiments pour Ernestine se refroidissent. Il compose la Fantaisie en ut majeur, op. Le verdict est attendu pour le Nouvel An. Il termine les Szenen aus Goethes Faust.
Il compose nettement plus de musique chorale. Ils louent un nouvel appartement. Schumann envisage de partir pour Berlin ou Vienne. Clara quitte la maison pour vivre chez des amis. Il est interdit au compositeur de voir sa femme. Il y restera deux ans. En septembre , le Dr. En janvier , Schumann compose une fugue.
Clara Schumann mourra presque quarante ans plus tard, le 20 mai Son ami le plus proche, Johannes Brahms, lui survivra de moins de onze mois. Von bis tritt er hier als Pianist, Dichter und Redner auf. In diesem Jahr entsteht seine Anthologie von Gedichten aus eigener und fremder Feder unter dem Titel: Zu dieser Zeit ist er auf literarischem Gebiet aktiver als in der Musik. Nanni Petsch und kurz darauf Liddy Hempel.
Er beginnt, einen Roman mit dem Titel Selene zu schreiben. Die Weinende Anhang M2 Nr. Der Text stammt vom jungen Schumann selbst. Clara ist bereits als Wunderkind allgemein bekannt.
April erreichen sie Augsburg, wo sie Dr. Mai, wo sie Jean Pauls Witwe besuchen. Anfang Juni begegnet er erneut Agnes Carus, in die er sich verliebt hat. Juni schreibt er in sein Tagebuch: Dies erweist sich als ein Reisejahr: In diesem Jahr beginnt er auch mit der Komposition von Papillons op. Im Oktober kann er sein intensives Klavierstudium wegen einer Verletzung der rechten Hand nicht fortsetzen. Er arbeitet an zwei Klaviersonaten in fis-Moll op. Im September reist Ernestine nach Asch. Die vier Buchstaben dieses Namens finden sich auch in seinem Nachnamen Kryptografie und Wortspiele dieser Art waren Schumann stets wichtig und spielten sogar eine bedeutende Rolle in seinen Kompositionen.
Dieser Zufall inspiriert ihn zum Carnaval op. Im September trifft er zum ersten Mal Chopin. Clara spielt wieder die Sonate in fis-Moll, und am Sie tauschen den ersten Kuss am Er schickt Clara ein Exemplar der ihr gewidmeten gedruckten Sonate in fis-Moll. Er komponiert die Fantasie in C-Dur op. Er beginnt mit verschiedenen Projekten, einer Klaviersonate und etwas Kammermusik, doch nichts wird abgeschlossen.
Die Stimmung zwischen den verhinderten Liebenden ist unvermeidlich gespannt: Clara wiederum ist verstimmt wegen einer unangemessenen Rezension ihres Klavierkonzerts op. September zum ersten Mal nach siebzehn Monaten. Unterbrechungen in der Korrespondenz aufgrund der Heimlichkeit ihrer Beziehung wie im Oktober dieses Jahres sind unvermeidlich und lassen Schumann jedes Mal verzweifeln.
Robert und Clara treffen sich heimlich im Glauben, schon bald auf ewig vereint zu sein. Was wenige Monate zuvor noch Hoffnungen weckte, scheint nun in Pessimismus zu zerrinnen. Erst Mitte August wird sich das Paar wiedersehen. Clara ist mittlerweile ihrem Vater entfremdet und reist nur in Begleitung einer Zofe nach Paris. Ende August kann das Paar sich endlich wieder treffen. Oktober erscheint Wieck widerum nicht vor Gericht. Dezember erscheinen Clara, Robert und Wieck vor Gericht.
Das Urteil wird im Neuen Jahr erwartet. September befindet sich Robert bei Clara in Weimar. Januar Robert skizziert die Sinfonie Nr. Am selben Abend spielt Clara ein Klavierkonzert von Chopin. Juni Schumann arbeitet an seinen drei Streichquartetten op. Er willigt ein, am Leipziger Konservatorium zu unterrichten. Die Zeit vom Mai verbringen sie in Moskau, und am Hans Christian Andersen besucht den Komponisten in Leipzig.
Juni—Juli Schumann setzt die Arbeit am Klavierkonzert op. Februar Geburt des ersten Schumann-Sohns Emil — Juni Arbeit am ersten Klaviertrio in d-Moll op. Er reist nach Leipzig zur Beerdigung am 6. Er arbeitet das ganze Jahr daran, bis er sie im August fertigstellt, und Clara schreibt den Klavierauszug. Er komponiert deutlich mehr Chormusik. November—Dezember Schumann beendet die Orchestrierung von Manfred op. Sie mieten eine neue Wohnung. Oktober—Dezember Schumann komponiert das Cellokonzert op.
Eine Phase fortgesetzt schlechter Gesundheit. Elise, Ferdinand und Julie heirateten und hatten selbst Kinder. Liszt dirigiert Manfred in Weimar. September Komposition der Violinphantasie op. September—Oktober Komposition des Violinkonzerts in d-Moll. Schumann plant einen Umzug nach Berlin oder Wien. Robert wird in die Obhut eines Arztes und zweier Pfleger gegeben.
Clara zieht zu Freunden. Franz Richarz — befindet. Im August darf er einen Brief von ihr empfangen, den er im September beantwortet. Richarz, dass der Zustand ihres Mannes unheilbar ist. Im Januar komponiert Schumann eine Fuge. Als Brahms ihn im April besucht, kann er kein Wort von Schumann verstehen.
Brahms schenkt Schumann zu seinem Geburtstag am 8. Richarz schon lange keinen Zugang mehr zu ihrem Mann gehabt hatte, sieht ihn am Juni zwischen 6 und 7 Uhr abends. Robert Schumann stirbt am Juli und wird am Abend des Juli in Endenich beerdigt. Von ihren sieben Kindern sterben Felix und Julie vor ihr. Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. Don't show me this message again. September Total duration: This substantial and roomy dwelling doubles as home and business premises, and is rented by the Schumanns between and The presence of these transitions tends to be more noticeable if more of these criteria are met.
Inevitably, there is also some degree of interpretation involved. For the purposes of this article, I will focus on transitions that involve hypermetric irregularity and grouping or displacement dissonance. Other songs with less obvious transitions between NMCs generally involve texts with a dramatic narrative, especially those from a song-cycle-like collection.
Example 10 shows excerpts of op. Throughout the song, different metric environments correspond to the different emotions of the protagonist as his mind travels back and forth through time. In the following discussion, I first examine the elements that contribute to the quasi-symmetry—the form, the use of NMCs, and the tonal areas—and then continue to the elements that do not contribute to or even disrupt the symmetry—line 10 and the coda, for example.
The square brackets in the example indicate the text repetitions that were added by Brahms. The blue-colored lines are set in 4 6 meter as opposed to the black-colored lines, which are set in 4 9 meter. The poem is organized in a quasi-symmetrical manner. In the first and the last couplets, the protagonist reflects on his present physical discomfort and psychological distress.
He then recalls the past with grief and nostalgia in the second quatrain, and the two couplets surrounding the second quatrain lines 3—4 and 9—10 initiate and conclude the fleeing memory. In lines 3 and 4, he switches focus from himself to the moving trees that whisper about the past; in lines 9 and 10, he reveals his loss of youth, which signals a return to the present moment. In terms of poetic structure, the quasi-symmetry lies in the text repetition, which Brahms has underlined with sectional changes and meter changes. The closing couplet is a reversed repeat of the opening one, creating a palindromic effect.
This palindromic effect reflects the mood of the poem: There is also a text repetition across the quatrains: Line 4 introduces the idea of the fleeing memory that is continued in lines 5—7 where the protagonist starts describing the past. In short, all of these text repetitions contribute to the melancholic and cyclic quality of the poem, with its depictions of the inevitability of aging and the inescapability of reality. The repeated outer couplets form the outer A sections, both of which are set in G minor, with a triple meter of 4 9.
Brahms recasts the very last poetic line in 4 6 meter, and the original tonic, G minor, turns into a G major chord and functions almost like a dominant, vaguely implying a C-minor tonic. This last repeated line acts as a Type-1 NMC that functions as a short coda for the purpose of deceleration. These lines initiate a chromatic tonal ascent, moving from G major to A major.
A major to G minor, followed by an unexpected move to B major. Metric and tonal excursions, therefore, are the agents for traveling into and out of this symmetry. Note that if Brahms had preserved the structure of the poetic stanzas in his setting, he most likely would have added a piano interlude between sections, separating the repeated lines musically, and perhaps also metrically with NMCs. These rests within a poetic line are absent in later sections but reappear in the coda. However, this energy is short-lived because the cyclic return of the first couplet ultimately slows down the declamation again.
The outer A sections, for example, are tonally stable in the key of G minor, but accompanied by two rhythmically interlocking arpeggios that move in contrary motion between the two extremes of the keyboard another symmetry. As a result the accompaniment does not settle in any register until the fourth measure—but even that stasis is disrupted by a moment of metric grouping dissonance: All syncopated chords and melodic fragments that suggest 2 3 meter are highlighted in red in Example The unsettling nature of the piano introduction evokes the rustling wind and murmuring trees in the poem.
In the B section, the piano continues with a sense of disturbance. The displaced arpeggios turn into displaced block chords, and over the course of this section distant keys are juxtaposed. Both pairs of repeated texts mm. However, the music associated with lines 6—7 mm. As the protagonist gets closer and closer to the past memory, the tonal center of the accompanying music ascends higher and higher.
However, the transitional music—the descending line that forms another grouping dissonance in the piano in mm. Throughout the two B sections, Brahms indicates that the music should become nach und nach lebhafter gradually livelier , suggesting a faster tempo as the protagonist recalls both the joy and heartbreak of his past.
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The faster pacing maps onto the changing key areas and a more straightforward declamatory schema afforded by the shorter measures in 4 6 meter. The series of syncopated dominant-functioning chords in mm. The downbeats of these implied 2 3 measures are displaced they arrive a quarter note too late , further disturbing the sense of metrical regularity. The surface vocal rhythm in mm.
Placement of hypermetric downbeats in mm.
All syncopated chords and melodic fragments that suggest 2 3 meter are highlighted in red in Example Not a particularly glorious moment for Robert, who had once imagined himself fit and able to man the barricades. This line follows the second text repetition lines 8 and 9 and continues the question about the irretrievable past: Brahms and the Scherzo Studies in Musical Narrative. July Robert suffers what is probably a slight stroke.
This change in texture suggests the light-headed protagonist recollecting his thoughts about the past. The juxtaposition of static chords in the music with the description of murmuring trees in the text also suggests the powerlessness of man in the face of nature and fate. Together with the later appearance of these chords in mm.
The Type-1 NMC in mm. The additional text repetition and ambiguous tonal center in this coda offset the symmetry discussed thus far. The double neighbor figure in m. The same motivic gesture in mm. The text repetition in the coda mm. This stasis again freezes the temporal flow. The added rests in the middle of mm.
This line follows the second text repetition lines 8 and 9 and continues the question about the irretrievable past: The vocal line in mm. Not only does the declamatory schema of line 10 differ from the foregoing lines, but its tonal center B major departs from the symmetrical pattern discussed in paragraph [25]. The sudden shift to the relative major may seem odd at first. However, the syncopation and the sudden change to the major mode seem to suggest eagerness and yearning, as if the protagonist were fully aware of the irreversible fate but still indulges in false hope.
The early entrance in mm. Indeed, the distinct declamatory schema and the switch to B major are the important strokes that paint the dichotomy between acceptance and desire: The three recordings sampled are listed in Example 13 Audio Example 3: All three performances slow down during the displaced syncopated chords around mm. The large-scale flexibility in performance timing is also reflected on a smaller scale in his approach to rhythm. He elongates most of the eighth notes and pays great attention to creating a smooth legato line.
His speech-like intonation in m. Generally, these two notated meters alternate regularly measure-by-measure. As Rohr , and the pianist Lucien Stark , have noted, this composite meter or mixed meter is typical of Hungarian, Slovakian, and Bohemian dances. Songs with Type-3 NMCs. The following pages first discuss sections of the song with clear composite meter, and then explore other significant metrical features of this work. Example 15 provides the text and translation square brackets indicate text repetitions added by Brahms.
In Example 16 , the annotated score, alternating meter pervades these sections labeled A1 and A2 and yields an asymmetrical arrangement of beats: The numbers in black between the staves of Example 16 indicate the number of beats in each measure. Thus, Schubert normally sets pentameter lines to even-numbered groups of metric units. The text suggests both physical and emotional imbalance, which Brahms enhances with a slight tonal imbalance, a brief and abrupt shift to D major in mm.
This kind of oscillation between relative keys is a common trait of much folk music. The physical imbalance comes from standing on a cliff face, as described in poetic lines 1—3 set as mm. This espressivo section hints at the subdominant key of E minor, with less energetic accompaniment and slower harmonic rhythm as the girl is plotting. The opening piano accompaniment and faster harmonic rhythm gradually resume as her plan becomes clear in mm. This skillful use of alternating musical meter not only preserves the poetic meter and contributes a folk flavor, but also traces the deeper emotion of the protagonist.
It is set in the stable meter of 4 2 , however, the corresponding poetic lines 14—17 depict a totally different mood from that of the A sections. The maiden is now imagining an alternate and preferable future in which she is pursued by a young man. Unlike the opening, each poetic line is now stretched across ten quarter notes instead of seven. The temporal fluctuation in these two passages is artfully composed-out. It re-establishes both the tonic chord and the previous tempo, and hints at a false return of the earlier A1 section. However, these measures intermingle with the triple meter in m.
These attempts to re-launch the A section are metrically ambiguous if not suspended. This metrical hesitation and uncertainty reflect the hesitation of the protagonist: The piano in m. This succession of duple groupings hastens the declamation and leads to the recoup of the composite meter in mm. With the help of the crescendo and the return of the composite meter, the momentum of the composed-out acceleration is intensified to the extent that it over-compensates for the metric suspense in mm.
Measures 29—32 prolong the dominant of B major and depart from the composite meter, creating a mild harmonic and metric suspense similar to that in mm. A poetic text that is positive in tone is heard for the first time in these measures: The immediate repetition of this line in mm. These portrayals evoke the emotions of the character as well as adding to the folk flavor of the song. I sample two recordings that are representative of distinct styles: Jessye Norman takes a relatively fast tempo throughout the song, and an even faster tempo at animato grazioso , giving the newly consistent metric pulse a dancelike quality.
In contrast, Bernarda Fink takes the song slower than Norman does, and without much change in tempo at animato grazioso. Recording by Jessye Norman and pianist Daniel Barenboim. Recording by Bernarda Fink and pianist Roger Vignoles. She slows down significantly in m. She speeds up again into m. This constant ebb and flow in tempo continues throughout her performance. She takes on an even faster tempo in the very last section mm.
Fink, on the other hand, shapes her performance with varying articulations rather than employing tempo fluctuation. Her animato grazioso passage has no sense of rushing, as if Fink herself were enjoying the moment, just as the text suggests. As Styra Avins has pointed out: Yet he was careful to provide clues for performers, mechanisms to direct the pacing of the music, the manner of declaiming texts, the shaping of a melodic line.
Clues from his Letters. Studies in Chronology and Compositional Process. Complete Songs for Solo Voice and Piano: The Composition of Performance. Analytical and Historical Perspectives , edited by George Bozarth, — Fehn, Ann Clark, and Rufus E. University of Rochester Press.
Metrical Displacement in Brahms. Metrical Dissonance in the Music of Robert Schumann. Essays in Analysis and Meaning , 53— Rhythm and Meter in the German Lied. Brahms and the Scherzo Studies in Musical Narrative. Pascall, Robert, and Philip Weller. Early Evidence of Performing Style , — Essays in Analysis and Meaning , 80— Essays in Analysis and Meaning , 19— Studies in Musical Interpretation , edited by John Rink, — Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music.
The Songs of Johannes Brahms. Stein, translated by L. Stein, Deborah and Robert Spillman. Performance and Analysis of Lieder.