Experiencing Schumann by Sanders Donald;

Author:Sanders, Donald;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Unlimited Model
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

String Quartets, op. 41

Schumann’s quartets were all composed in just over a month. He dedicated them to Mendelssohn and arranged for their first performance to occur on Clara’s twenty-third birthday, September 13, 1842. Mendelssohn’s influence can be heard in several light, sparkling passages in the fast movements of all three works.

Schumann obviously planned for the quartets to be heard as a cycle because of the close tonal relationships between them. The keys of the three are A minor, F major, and A major, but F major figures prominently in the first quartet and reappears near the end of the third.[1] The slow introduction to the opening movement of quartet no. 1 is in A minor, but the main body of the movement is in F, as is the slow movement. The finale is in the tonic minor, but it is extended by a coda in A major, anticipating the key of the third quartet. The finale of that work, in the tonic A major, contains a central section called “Quasi Trio” that is clearly in F.

All three quartets contain the four movements that were relatively standard in the Beethoven tradition: large-scale movements in fast tempos at the beginning and end that surround a scherzo and a slow movement. In the first and third quartets the scherzo, most often in the third position, precedes the slow movement. The opening movements, all in the traditional sonata form, are preceded by slow introductions.

The second movement of the third quartet is one of Schumann’s most interesting formal structures. It is a set of five variations that are not preceded by the theme on which they are based. The melody of the theme is revealed intact only on the fourth variation, but there it appears in a canon between the first violin and the viola.

Along with the obvious influence of the great Viennese classical composers, the study of the fugues of Bach that Robert and Clara had undertaken since their marriage is manifested throughout the quartets. The introduction to quartet no. 1 begins with the first violin playing alone, followed by each of the other instruments in imitation. Virtually all of the development sections include significant contrapuntal writing as well.

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