Schumann by Jensen Eric Frederick

Author:Jensen, Eric Frederick
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2012-02-12T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

The Compositions, 1840–44

We all strive after a wider field, and rush thither like the stream which at length loses itself in the ocean. The soul struggles for activity, and comprehends its individuality.

—Hans Christian Andersen, O. T. (1836)

“I WOULD OFTEN LIKE TO CRUSH MY PIANO,” SCHUMANN CONFESSED TO Heinrich Dorn. “It has become too confining for my thoughts” (14 April 1839). After nearly a decade of writing almost exclusively for the instrument, Schumann appeared increasingly dissatisfied. “He who limits himself to the same forms and situations ultimately becomes a mannerist and a Philistine,” he wrote in an 1839 review. “There is nothing more detrimental to an artist than to continue within a genre which has become convenient and comfortable.”1

By 1840, Schumann may have felt that he himself was in danger of becoming “a mannerist and a Philistine.” His music, while not losing its vitality, no longer presented with regularity new ideas or concepts. He had first expressed himself as a “serious” composer by writing lieder—a half dozen of which had been sent twelve years previously to Gottlob Wiedebein for his evaluation. Now Schumann turned once again to writing songs. He did so not just because he clearly needed a change from solo piano. There was a strong and growing demand for lieder in the marketplace. By entering the field, Schumann would be able not only to broaden his skills and reputation but increase his earnings.

Despite Schumann’s attraction to poetry, during the 1830s he had shown little interest in setting any to music. He had expressed a marked preference for instrumental music, writing as late as June 1839 to Hermann Hirschbach that he did not regard vocal music as highly. But whatever debate Schumann may have inwardly conducted concerning the relative merits of instrumental or vocal music, his conviction that he was in danger of no longer developing as a composer helped to determine his course of action. In 1839 he began to fill a notebook with poetry suitable to set to music.2

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