The Sketches for "Dichterliebe" Author(s): Rufus Hallmark Reviewed work(s): Source: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Nov.

, 1977), pp. 110-136 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746473 . Accessed: 11/07/2012 15:28
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to 19thCentury Music.

http://www.jstor.org

The

Sketches

for

Dichterliebe

RUFUS HALLMARK

The autograph manuscripts of Schumann's Lieder have received almost no scholarly attention. The sources themselves are abundant: there is autograph material, often from more than one stage of composition, for every opus of songs.' While preparing his edition,2 Max Friedlanderinvestigated the largest single col-

lection of autograph sources for Schumann's songs, the manuscript Liederbiicherin the Berlin Staatsbibliothek.3His student Viktor Ernst Wolff subsequently devoted his dissertation to these sources. Wolff'sbook, Robert Schumanns Lieder in ersten und spidteren Fassungen (Leipzig, 1914), is the only systematic examination

'See Georg Eismann, "Nachweis der internationalen Standorte von Notenautographen Robert Schumanns," Sammelbainde der Robert-Schumann-Gesellschaft II (Leipzig, 1966), pp. 7-36. A few more song autographs have been located since Eismann's catalogue, and a number of items designated by him as "Sammlung Wiede" have been sold; cf. Hans Schneider catalogue no. 188, "Robert Schumann" (Tutzing, 1974). Fortunately many of these manuscript materials, including most of the Lieder, were purchased by two public institutions, the Universitaitsbibliothek, Bonn, and the Heinrich Heine Institut, Diisseldorf. The author is presently engaged in a study of all Schumann's Lied manuscripts. 2Edition Peters, nos. 2383, 2384, and 2385.

3The three Liederbiicher (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Mus. ms. autog. 16/1-3) consist of complete drafts or fair copies of nearly all the songs Schumann composed in 1840. He compiled the manuscripts and inscribed the first page of each volume with a dedication to Clara. Individual pages or songs from the Berlin albums have often been reproduced; e.g., Mondnacht, op. 39/5, appears in Franz Grasberger, Kostbarkeiten der Musik, Erster Band: Das Lied (Tutzing, 1968), p. 127. Herwig Knaus, in Musiksprache und Werkstruktur in Robert Schumanns "Liederkreis" (Munich, 1974), prints a photographic facsimile of the complete Eichendorff Liederkreis from the first album. See also Friedlinder, "BalladenFragmente von Robert Schumann," Jahrbuch der Musikbibliothek Peters 4 (1897), pp. 61-69.

110

of Schumann Lieder manuscripts before the present author's work.4Wolff's reportingof the contents of the albums, however, is not always careful and thorough, and his study was handicapped because related autograph sources, which would have provideda more nearly complete picture of Schumann's song-composing, were unavailable. When Wolff wrote about the autograph of Dichterliebe, or, more precisely, about the original autographscore of twenty songs in the Berlin library,5the preliminary sketches were in a private collection unknown to him. In 1889 Clara Schumann had given the sketches to Mathilde Wendt;6 they remained inaccessible until after the Second WorldWar,when an undisclosed private owner donated them to the Robert-Schumann-Museum. Georg Eismann included the manuscript in his catalogue of autograph sources for Schumann's works,' but no one until now has examined it. The intrinsic

interest of this document and the new light it casts on the autographscore are manifest. The manuscript, still residing in the Robert-Schumann-Museum in Zwickau, bears the siglum Sch.-Mus. nr. 12321-A1.8It is a double leaf in oblong format (34.3 cm. x 26.4 cm.) with twelve music staves printed in blue ink.9 A facsimile is provided at a later point in this article (plates I-IV, pp. 128-31). The contents are as follows:
fol. 1r 1 2 3
1l

RUFUS HALLMARK Sketches for

Dichterliebe

Im wunderschonen Monat Mai Aus meinen Trianen spriessen Die Rose, die Lilie

complete melody and text

(op. 48/1) (op. 48/2) (op. 48/3) (op. 48/4)

complete melody and text

4 5 6

complete melody and text

Dein Angesicht

complete melody and text

Wenn ich in deine Augen seh'

Lehn' deine Wang

incomplete melody and text (op. 127/2) complete melody and text [continued] complete melody and text (op. 142/2) (op. 48/5)

2r 6
7 8

Ich will meine Seele tauchen Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome Ich grolle nicht

in RobertSchumann, Einffihrung Personlichkeit und Werk

(Berlin, 1941), refers to and quotes extensively from manuscripts of numerous works, including Lieder, by way of illustrating his thesis about Schumann's symbolism and composing process, he does not provide a systematic survey of the sources for a single genre or a study of the sources for a single work. (See also Gerald Abraham, "Modem Research tion 75 [1948-49], 65-75.) I am indebted to Prof. Boetticher for his assistance and encouragement during my stay in Gbttingen in 1970. Herwig Knaus's discussion of the manuscript of op. 39 is only incidental to his analysis of the cycle. 5Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Mus. ms. augog. 16/2, pp. 31-74. Four of the songs in this manuscript were withdrawn from the cycle before publication: Dein Angesicht, Lehn' deine

4Although Wolfgang Boetticher, in his monumental book

2v

incomplete melody and text (op. 48/6) title only title only (op. 48/7) (op. 48/8)

10 Und wiissten's die Blumen 11 Das ist ein Fliten und Geigen

on Schumann,"Proceedingsof the Royal Musical Associa-

partial melody and text and right hand of piano part (op. 48/9) (unnumbered)
Mein Wagen rollet langsam

incipit of piano part, no text (op. 142/4)

langsam; these songs were later published as op. 127/2, op. 142/2, op. 127/3, and op. 142/4, respectively. Arthur Komar's critical score of Dichterliebe (New York, 1971) conveniently prints all twenty songs, designating the omitted songs as 4a, 4b, 12a, and 12b according to their sequence in the original group of twenty. 6The right margin of the first page bears the inscription,

Wang', Es leuchtet meine Liebe, and Mein Wagen rollet

The Zwickau manuscript shows the first written stage of composition for a large group of songs based on poems from Lyrisches Intermezzo in Heine's Buch der Lieder. Not yet conceived as the sixteen-song cycle Dichterliebe, or even as the set of 20 Lieder und Gesange that

Wendt/ dies Skizzenblatt von / Robert "Derlieben Friaulein Schumann zum / Andenken. / Clara Schumann. / Frkt. [Frankfurt] 1889." Mathilde Wendtwas a good friend,a Jan.
frequenter of musical soirees, and an occasional partner at cards. Clara referred to her in a letter to Brahms as "die alte

aus den Jahren 1853-1896, ed. Berthold Litzmann (Leipzig, 1927), p. 558. 7"Notenautographen," p. 15.

Getreue" (see Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms: Briefe

81Iwish to express my warm thanks to Dr. Martin Schoppe, director of the Robert-Schumann-Museum, Zwickau, for his help during my visits there and for his permission to quote from and reproduce the sketch manuscript. 91 could see no watermark, but the paper can be identified by its blue staves and by the following measurements. Each staff is .6 cm. wide and 18.5 cm. long, and the space between each staff is .6 cm. The printed portion of the page then measures 18.5 x 13.8 cm., leaving unusually ample margins.

111

19TH CENTURY MUSIC

appears in the autograph score,'0 the manuscript is the first projection of a Liederreihe of undetermined length. It not only allows us to catch a glimpse of the first conception of a number of songs eventually published in Dichterliebe, but it also reveals Schumann's planning of the cycle as a whole. Such manuscripts of Schumann'sLieder are classified by Wolfgang Boetticher as Melodieskizzen,11 and I shall retain his terminology. The melodies in the Zwickau manuscript areby no means fragmentary,however, but ratherare complete or nearly complete versions of the vocal lines; only insofar as they clearly represent a compositional stage priorto the full score is it meaningful to referto them as "sketches." The composer's handwriting here does contrast with the large, clear hand of the letters and the fair copies of musical scores; it is often rough and hurried and tends to suggest the small, eccentric hand of the diaries.12 These sketched melodies provide a vivid example of the change in Schumann's compositional procedure for his Liederjahr.'3Prior to 1840 it was his custom to compose at the piano, but his work with vocal music occasioned a new approach. "I mostly compose [songs] standing or walking around,not at the piano," he wrote to Clara. "It is an entirely different kind of music, which does not come first through my fingers but much more directly and melodiIt ously."114 seems only natural to begin a song with a draft of the melody, but Schumann was surprisedand exhilarated by the experience. To his friend Kefersteinhe wrote, "Ihave just come

still warm from composing. I am now writing hardly tell you what a joy it is to write for the voice compared to instrumental composition, and how things are surgingup and clamoring in me as I sit at work. Wholly new things areopening up to me."15is As is clearly documented in the Zwickau sketches and Berlin score, Schumann tended first to record his melodic ideas and next to transfer them to other music paper, adding the piano part and sometimes emending the melodies. The same two-step process can be witnessed in other autograph sources of his Lieder.'6 But if Schumann began to compose songs this way, he did not feel bound to the procedure. In the cases of Das ist ein Fliten und Geigen and Mein Wagen rollet langsam, the Zwickau manuscript shows that he began by sketching the piano music. And since half the songs have no sketches at all, it appearsthat he occasionally abandoned the sketching process altogether and went directly to work in the score. There are numerous variants, however, between the Berlin score and the first edition.17 Presumably, therefore, a fair copy of the autograph score must have existed in which Schumann made corrections and from which the engraverpreparedhis plates. There are, indeed, such intermediate scores for other
only vocal things, large and small
..

. I can

10A title page appears as an insert (p. 31a) at the head of the score. See further below. "Schumann, p. 529. The manuscripts on which Boetticher based his description differ somewhat from the Dichterliebe sketches. His Melodieskizzen typically contain an indication of voice and piano notated in one staff, with frequent marginal insertions and other notes. 12See further Linda Correll Roesner, Studies in Schumann Manuscripts (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1973), I, 1-61; II, 134-145. On Schumann's literary hand, see Boetticher, Schumann, p. 101, fn. 17. '3For critical discussions of Schumann's apparently abrupt change to Lied composing, see Fritz Feldmann, "Zur Frage des 'Liederjahr' bei Robert Schumann," Archiv fiir Musikwissenschaft 9 (1952), pp. 246-69; and Leon Plantinga, "Schumann's Conversion to Vocal Music," in Schumann as Critic (New Haven, 1967), pp. 179-83. 112

'4Berthold Litzmann, Clara Schumann: Ein Kiinstlerleben; Nach Tagebfichern und Briefen (Leipzig, 1902), p. 407, a letter to Clara from Robert, 2 February 1840. "Meistens mach' ich sie stehend oder gehend, nicht am Clavier. Es ist doch eine ganz andere Musik, die nicht erst durch die Finger getragen wird-viel unmittelbarer und melodi6ser." This was not a complete break from the piano like his experience in 1845, which he described in his diary (see Roesner, Studies, I, 14-15). 15Boetticher, Robert Schumann in seinen Schriften und Briefen (Berlin, 1942), p. 327; 18 February 1840. "Eben komme ich noch ganz warm vom Komponieren. Ich schreibe jetzt nur Gesangsache, Grosses und Kleines ... Kaum kann ich Ihnen sagen, welcher Genuss es ist, fir die Stimme zu schreiben im Verhiltnis zur Instrumentalkomposition, und wie das in mir wogt und tobt, wenn ich in der Arbeit sitze. Da sind mir ganz neue Dinge aufgegangen." 16E.g., in the case of Frauenliebe und -leben, op. 42. The sketches for this cycle are at the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City, item 194 in the Cary Collection; the score is in the second Berlin Liederbuch, Mus. ms. autog. 16/2, pp. 112-30. 17Leipzig: D. F. Peters, 1844; plate number 2867, I and II.

Lieder,18 and for Dichterliebe there are no en-

graver's marks in the autograph score. But Schumann's work on these songs did not stop with the fair copy, for there is evidence that two sets of proofswere emended by the composer. A recalled that Schumann made many proofreader in the first proofs for op. 48 and then changes restored his first readings in the final ones.19 Thus, a complete list of the sources which document the evolution of Dichterliebe would have to include the Zwickau sketches, the Berlin score, a lost fair copy, two lost sets of en-

graver'sproofs, and the first edition. This study draws the reader's attention primarily to the heretofore unpublished sketches, taking note of other documents along the way. 11 in a few cases, the sketches are not Except startlingly different from the melodies of the finished songs. But while Schumann's first conceptions are close to his final ones in general, the sketches show that the songs underwent considerable refinement in detail.

RUFUS HALLMARK Sketches for Dichterliebe

1. Im wundersch6nen Monat Mai 2.

als als

alle -

Knos V

pen sprangen, gel sangen,

da da

ist
hab

in meinem
ich ihr

Herzen
gestanden,

die
mein

Liebe auf
Sehnen

ge-gangen
SchlulB

und verlangen

Example 1

Although the opening phrase as sketched has a contour similar to the final version, it lacks the suspension of the latter.20 Schumann copied this melody into the Berlin score and added the piano music before he emended it to the reading familiar to us. The change has two
18E.g.,again in the case of Frauenliebe und -leben, there is a fair copy, in a copyist's hand, with pencilled emendations by Schumann (Morgan Library, New York, Cary Collection, item 193). 19A certain proofreader for C. F. Peters, Roitsch, recalled to Hermann Erler that Schumann was always changing things in the proofs of his music and cited op. 48 as a specific example. See Erler, Robert Schumanns Leben aus seinen Briefen (Berlin, 1887), II, 124; note to letter of 16 August 1850 (to Peters), in which Schumann sends his greetings "dem trefflichen Correktor Hrn. Roitsch."

effects. First, the declamation of "wunderschinen" is improved; the sketch version overemphasizes the third syllable. Second, there now exists an exact symmetry between the piano's and the singer's opening phrases; the last four notes of the emended vocal phrase are
20Curiously,

the original opening melodic idea seems to have a life of its own. Schumann used it earlier in 1840 in another Heine song Abends am Strand (op. 45/3). It also occurs in the Album ffir die Jugend (op. 68/21). James Sykes construes this latter instance as a conscious quotation from Beethoven's Fidelio, from Florestan's aria Euch werde Lohn (see "The Significance of the Three-Asterisk Mark in some Robert Schumann Compositions," a paper read at the convention of the American Musicological Society, Chicago, 1973).

113

19TH

CENTURY MUSIC

an inversion of the correspondingnotes in the prelude.21Forthis reason, one might regardthe change as an accommodation of the vocal melody to the piano music that was provided later. Schumann clearly had some definite ideas for the piano part because he took care to leave two measures of rest in the vocal sketch for a prelude and interlude (and, by inference, for a postlude). In the score he doubled the amount of

piano music, matching the piano prelude to the two identical vocal phrases which follow. Furthermore, at the end of the sketch Schumann wrote out a piano arpeggio across two staves
and labeled it "Schluss." Without this re-

minder for his tantalizing cadence on a Cgseventh chord, the sketch would contain no hint of the celebrated tonal fluctuation of this song, a harmonic conception clearly in the composer's mind from the beginning.

Aus

meinen Thranen spriel3en viel blfihende

Blumen hervor

u.

meine Seufzer
10o

werden ein Nachti [erased]

gallen A.h

Chor und wenn du mich Lieb hast K h Klingen das Lied der

Kindchen,

schenk ich dir die Blumen

all,

undvor

deinem Fenster soll

Nachtigall

Example2

A reading of Heine's poem unbiased by Schumann's rhythms reveals that whereas the predominant line length is three feet, there are four in line 6:
Schenk' ich dir die Blumen all

A detail of the sketch may be interpreted to mean that Schumann at first read a four-foot line, too. In the sketch, what appears to be a barline has been rubbedout in the middle of m. 11. This apparently misplaced barline could have been a slip of the pen, but it is also possible
21As noted, for example, by Peter Benary, "Die Technik der musikalischen Analyse dargestellt am ersten Lied aus Robert Schumanns 'Dichterliebe'," in Versuche musikalischer Analysen (Berlin, 1970), p. 27; and by Komar, Dichterliebe, p. 67.

that Schumannfirst spreadthe passageover two bars. The four sixteenths in the sketch, though indifferent in appearance,could have been converted from eighths, and the d"and b' on "Blumen," with their strangely long flags, look as though they have been doctored from a dotted quarterand eighth. Its rhythm aside, this phraseis the only one in the sketch which differs in pitch from the final version. The sketch melody strongly suggests a more conventional harmony than that of the published song:
V m. 9 V7lII II V7 I 11 12 10

The final version of this melodic phrase would then be an accommodation to the harmony that evolved as Schumann worked on the piano part,

114

a harmony that echoes a progressionin the first song (B minor-Cg major-A major). To put this episode in another perspective: the use of closely related keys for these songs was firmly in Schumann's mind from the beginning, as the sketches demonstrate. There the

songs proceed with the orderand in the keys of the published cycle: there was no subsequent rearrangementor transposition. But Schumann continued to invent additional, internal means of connecting the songs as he wrote out the score.

RUFUS

HALLMARK Sketches for Dichterliebe

Die

Rose, die

Lilie, die

Taube, die Sonne,

die liebt ich einst alle

in

Liebes wonne

ich

1F7,-siclieb' sie nicht mehr, iiPk

,
liebe alleine

------, .

ich

die Kleine die Liebe, die Reine, die

E? Eine,

sie selber,

aller

Liebt
15

Bronne, ist

Rose ii.

Lilie und Taube iu. Sonne,

ich

Example 3

The first note of the sketch (andof the score as well) is d". Only later did Schuman change the upbeat to a', thereby resolving the b' left hanging in the vocal line at the end of the second song and creating a smoother melodic connection for the tonal progression between the songs. In the score and in subsequent revision, Schumann reworked many of the phrase endings as originally sketched. The slurred sixteenth-note pair occurs only three times in the sketch (mm. 10, 14, 15), but seven times in the final version (mm. 4, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15). This process of modification might be characterized as a chain reaction; the few slurred phrase endings of the sketch give rise to more of the same, bringing the song into a more tightly-knit motivic unity. The change of "alle"

jettisoned in the process. The melody of m. 13 went through two stages in the sketch, both of which were rejected for the slurred reading in the score. The sharpening of the rhythm of the
vocal cadence on "Eine" (m. 16) seems to be

(m. 3) to an eighth and sixteenth is a related emendation. The fermata on "Eine" (m. 8) was

related to this same process. The words in mm. 6-8 of the sketch are not clear, but it looks as though Schumann absentmindedly altered Heine's text and restored it later. In both sketch and score, the text in m. 10 is clearly "Liebe Bronne" (Heine), not the "Liebeswonne" of the first and subsequent printed editions. Schumannwrote out no text in the sketch for mm. 13-16, the only indication for a reprise of lines 3 and 4 being the "ich"
(m. 12) and the capital "E" of "Eine" (m. 16).
115

19TH

CENTURY MUSIC
Wenn ich in deine Augen seh, soschwindet all mein Leid

it.Weh,

doch wenn ich kfi3e deinen

Mund, so werd' ich ganz i. gar

' '
12

gesund

Wenn ich mich lehn' an deine Brust kommt's fiber mir wie

Himmelslust

doch wenn du sprichst

"ich liebe dich"so muB ich weinen bitt

er

lich, bitter

Example4 Aside from some minor rhythmic variants (mm. 1, 5, 7), there is no significant divergence from the melody of the final version until mm. 9-10, where one encounters a more compressed declamation of the fifth line ("Wennich mich lehn' an deine Brust"). Schumann considered the same kind of setting for line 3 in the score, but his final version restored line 3 to its original readingand altered line 5 to match, favoring a more relaxed rhythmic setting. The most interesting aspect of this sketch -indeed, perhaps the single most telling variant in the manuscript-is the way Schumann first sketched the ending of this song. Instead of the familiar G-major cadence of the published song, the sketched melody passes from the major to the minor third, continues its descent (repeating the word "bitterlich"), and ends inconclusively on the leading tone. When Schumann copied this melody into the score, he retained the chromatic inflection, but revised the cadence to end on the tonic. Then he decided to abandon the word-painting of the sketch altogether and crossed out the bb.22 Schumann has been criticized for his failure to capture the spirit of Heine's shattering last couplet. Eric Sams has alleged that Schumann missed Heine's point entirely, that he misunderstood the last line to mean tears of humility.23 But it is clear that Schumann was not insensible to Heine's irony. His awareness of the barbis demonstratedby a remarkhe made about a piano piece to W. Taubert which had as its heading the penultimate couplet of this poem:
22In his discussion of this song, Wolff ignored this first read-

mich lehn' an deine Brust, kommt's fiber mich wie

To me the prettiestandmost heartfelt the collecof tion is the one whichis alsothe simplest:"Wenn ich

Himmelslust." But as fora musical translationof the end of the same Heine poem ("Doch wenn du lich"), the composer must have laid that aside for the
future.24

sprichst, ich liebe dich, so muss ich weinen bitter-

Clearly Schumann recognized that the apparent simplicity of the poem vanishes when one reads the closing couplet. The sketch attests that Schumann did conceive an ending to reflect the sadness of the last line. One can only speculate as to why he removed this touch of word-painting.25 Perhaps he had a musical aim in mind, namely, to preserve the musical similarity of mm. 6-8 and mm. 14-16. In the last analysis, however, Schumann probably decided that musical understatement was better suited to this poem and to its place in the cycle than the hyperbole of his original ending. The chromaticism on "sprichst" already calls our attention to what
24Schumann, Gesammelte Schriften fiber Musik und Musiker, 5th edn., ed. Martin Kreisig (Leipzig, 1914), I, 100; from a review in the Neue Zeitschrift ftir Musik (1835) of Pianoforte, op. 16. "Als schbnstes, innigstes gilt mir das, was auch das leichteste ist: 'Wenn ich mich lehn' an deine Eine Brust, kommt's iiber mich wie Himmelslust'. musikalischen Obersetzung des Schlusses desselben Heineschen Gedichtes: 'Doch wenn du sprichst, ich liebe dich, so muss ich weinen bitterlich', moge sich der Komponist fuirdie Zukunft zurtickgelegt haben." 25Heine's attitude toward this last line vacillated, too. In his manuscript, where the line reads "Dann wein' ich still und bitterlich, " the last word has been crossed out and replaced with "freudiglich." See Ernst Elster, Heinrich Heines Drucken oder Handschriften and 59. (Heilbronn, 1887), pp. cviii

Taubert's An die Geliebte: Acht Minnelieder fiir das

Buch der Lieder, nebst einer Nachlese nach den ersten

ing in the score (see Schumann's Lieder, pp. 84-85). 23The Songs of RobertSchumann (New York, 1969), p. 111.

116

will follow. It sets the last line in bold relief and lets the closing words make their own effect. The music proceeds as if nothing has happened, just as Heine's poetic stanza concludes with no outward interruption of its pattern. The sketch makes no provision for a post-

lude. Perhaps Schumann conceived these bars (which lack the attention-getting quality of other postludes in the cycle) as a moment of reflection on Heine's last line, a pause that would be unnecessary with the musical emphasis of the sketch's ending.

RUFUS HALLMARK Sketches for

Dichterliebe

Dcin An gcsicht so
A

lich ut. schon das

hab ich jungst im Traum ge sehcn es k

k k

"

a[sic]

ist so mild und En gelgleich, und doch so blcich U. schmerzenrcich

11'[~]

und

nur die Lippen

[sic] SIC"'f]

die sind roth

18

bald aber kiiUt sie bleich der Tod, er 16schen wird das Himmelslicht,das L .

A ,

-"

L ,

aus den frommen Augen

bricht

Sketch W. IN
I II
k4

V
I

F"=i

Hb

10L

r[v-rvr

r r

IIF

r
14

I r ' F r "

'

OFV

Score2

IF r

IFIr F r

51

LiJ

L 14 11 F r FF r 4i FF

1,20 L,

II'

117

19TH

CENTURY MUSIC

With Dein Angesicht Schumann's thoroughness in sketching began to wane. The melody of the vocal sketch stops abruptlyon the dominant; the rounding out of the song with a repetition of the first stanza is not indicated; and a whole phrase of the melody ("Erlbschen wird das Himmelslicht / Das aus den frommen Augen bricht") differs substantially from its final version. A comparison of the sources reveals a chain of emendations more striking than that of Die Rose, die Lilie. Within the sketch of Dein Angesicht no two phrase endings are alike. In the score, the end of the first phrase has clearly been modeled on that of the fourth phraseof the sketch, and then emended to its final version. The score's second phrase ending, different from the sketch because of its syncopation, is further changed to imitate the end of the first phrase(as emended).The end of the thirdphrase has been recomposedin the score to imitate the revised version of the second phrase. And the whole fourth phrase has undergone an extensive transformation so that in the score it becomes essentially a sequential repetition of the first phrase. Note, too,that the syncopation of m. 11 in the sketch, itself an emendation, has

been suppressedin the score, but has turned up in mm. 7-9. (The final readingsof the score are those of the published song.) Although the wholesale repetition of the first stanza of a poem at the end of a song is not an unusual gambit for Schumann,26this is its sole instance in this groupof twenty songs. The sketch tantalizingly leaves it a moot point whether or not Schumann originally intended to repeat the first stanza. It is clear that the sketch is tonally incomplete, but tonal closure could be broughtabout in a postlude, as in songs 2, 6, 9, 12, 12b, 13, 14, and 16, or even ended by the piano without closure, as in songs 1 and 4b. The imitation of phrases 1 and 2 in phrase4 (implicit though not literal in the sketch) achieves a thematically roundedform. One might assume that Schumann's substitution of "schmerzenreich"for "schmerzenbleich" was deliberate, were it not for the evidence in the score. There the composer wrote "schmerzenreich" in m. 9 (as in the sketch), but in the repetition of the first stanza
he clearly wrote "schmerzenbleich" (m. 26).

This makes the word change look more like a slip which should be corrected in modern editions.

Lehn deine Wang' an

meine

Wang, dann flief3en die

A

Thranen zu
h Nr

sammen,
1"1-I

u.

an mein

Herz

drfickt fest dein

Herz, dann schlagen

zu

sammen die Flammen

und wenn in die

26

groB3e

Flamme

flieft,

der Strom

von unsern

ThriThrnnen

und wenn dich mein Arm

ge-

waltig
34

umschliet3t

sterb' ich vor

Liebes

sehnen

Sterb ich vor Liebes

SchlieBtin Di r.
sehnen

Example6

26Cf. Schone Wiege

Stille (op. 39/4).

(op.24/5), Intermezzo (op.39/2, andDie

118

The sketch of this song, like the last two, comes close to its final version except at the ending. In the sketch, the last verse is sung twice, once with a subdominant deceptive cadence (implied) and then with an authentic cadence. Schumann's marginal note reminds him to end the song in the major key. The melody in the score, while retaining much the same contour as the sketched version, is in longer time values, does not repeatthe text line, and ends on the dominant. The sketch, by ending abruptly in eighth notes on a full cadence, underlines "Sterb'ich"; the augmented setting in the score ending on the dominant emphasizes
"Liebessehnen. "27

The implication of Schumann's first intentions for Lehn' deine Wang' is that he had not fully decided how to deal with its alternation of

long and short lines. His rate of declamation here is one foot to the bar,and he first set line 2 with "-sammen" on two quarters,thus assigning the line three measures. Possibly he would have followed this phrase with a measure of rest, but instead he reset "-sammen" with a half and quarter before continuing (mm. 7-8). The original declamation in m. 18 in halved time values could well have been the beginning of a compression of the four feet of line 5 into three measures. The following phrase is three measures long. The adjustment in m. 24 of the declamatory rhythm may imply further indecision about setting the alternatingline lengths of the poem. In the end, Schumann ironed out these differences by opting for the convention of equal four-measurephrases, regardlessof the length of individual lines.

RUFUS HALLMARK Sketches for Dichterliebe

1. Ich will meine Seele tauchen in den Kelch der Lilie hinein; die 2. Das Liedsoll schauernu. bebenwie der KuB vonihren Mund den j J [sii 1 f2 klingend hauchen ein Lied von der Liebsten mein einst ge geben in

Li lie soil sic mir

wunderbarsufBser Stund!

Example7

The melody of this song took a different turn at the very beginning, proceedingfrom b' to g'. But Schumann changedhis mind even before he had added a stem to the notehead of the g'. That he contemplated this pitch at all shows that the non-tonic harmony of the first measure was already in mind, and indeed, the note may have been meant only as a harmonic reminder in the first place.

27Compare the original abrupt ending of Lehn' deine Wang' with the close of Lieb Liebchen, leg's Handchen (op. 24/4).

The falling fifth (f#"-b')in m. 6 of the sketch becomes the familiar falling third (f#"-d") in the score, where Schumann emended the vocal melody to be more consistent with itself and to fit the pattern of the falling thirds in the piano. In the first ending, an unstemmed f#' follows the a#' on "mein." This note of course shows up in the right hand of the piano in the final version, but it is absent from the Berlin score. There Schumannreplacedit with a line in the piano that proceeds from the a#' back up by step to the e" of m. 9.
119

19TH

CENTURY MUSIC -'

Im
8kI

C
Rhein im heiligen Strome da spiegelt sich in den Well'n, mit seinem grol3en Dom, das giro.e *

. ,,.
heiligen K61n

J... ..

I
in

.. .. .. _

tJ.

"

Im Dom da stcht ein Bildnis auf goldenem Leder gemahit

meines

.-4Il'
Le bens Wildnis hat's freundlich hinein gestrahlt

-"

- "
i.

Es schweben Blumen

Eng-lein

uImun sre licbe

Frau

die Augen die Lippen die Lippen die Winglein

Example 8

The sketch of Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome

is striking because of its notation in C rather than the familiar alla breve. Schumann probably decided on the conversion to alla breve (in which the score is notated) for two reasons: to enable him to write the piano music without having to fuss with sixteenth- and thirty-secondnotes and to give the music a solemn appearance appropriate to a poem whose setting is the imposing Gothic cathedral of Cologne. The performance direction in the score is etwas feierlich (changed in the published song to ziemlich langsam). The rhythm of the sketch lacks the dotting and double-dotting that appear in the vocal line of the score, a rhythmic sharpening motivated by the baroque piano figuration. This sketch, like that of Dein Angesicht, is unfinished. In the earlier song, however, the text of the poem is complete; the sketch simply lacks the reprise. InIm Rhein Schumann did not even finish the poem; the sketch breaks off before the last line. The song in the Berlin score also has a less finished appearance than any of the songs heretofore. Wolff reported some of the variants, but he did not explain the extensive compositional activity going on. In mm. 7-23, little of the piano part is written in ink; a good deal is in
120

pencil (see ex. 9).28 It seems reasonable to infer two stages of writing. The composer drafted securely in ink until m. 10, where the right hand trails off, and continued the bass until m. 13, where the ink stops altogether. The writing in ink resumes in m. 17 and continues to the end (except for m. 20). Schumann later completed the empty measures and then went on to make a number of revisions to the music written in ink. This is the first instance in the score where an uninterrupted continuity of musical ideas has broken down. The cause of the halt may have been indecision about the bass line. The vocal line in mm. 8-15 is essentially the same as in mm. 1-7, but the bass, having reached A for the beginning of the second phrase, could not simply repeat its earlier course. Schumann had to find a new continuation, a new counterpoint to the vocal melody, one that would accomodate the new f ?' in the voice (m. 14) and lead harmonically to the A minor of m. 17. He seems not to have liked

28Wolffseldom reports anything other than musical variants which exist in the final layer of the manuscript. This is the only extensive use of pencil in the score; elsewhere, dynamic marks, slurs and other such additions are occasionally pencilled in.

[original, inked notes and words: j.

J, mit; pencilled notes and words: j.

Dome das

'

, mit]

RUFUS HALLMARK Sketches for Dichterliebe

Well'n

mit

seinem

Igrolien

grof~e

. .....

hei--

li-ge

C61n

Im

Dom

da

steht

ein

gildnis

auf

20

goldenem Lcder goldenem Leder ge

mlt g,

malt

in in

m mci.i

[etc.

Example 9

the way he had started that line, with F# and E in mm. 10 and 11. The resultant tonic closure in been what bothered him. In m. 6 of the sketch (mm. 11-12 in the alla breve), Schumann apparently started to continue the melody higher. A c" and a d" are present in the sketch, but canceled. This initial melodic direction implies that Schumann may have begun this phrase as a sequential repetition in the relative majorof mm. 3-4 (mm. 5-7).
mid-phrase (m. 11) and the simultaneous leaps of a fourth in voice and bass (m. 12) may have

The next two songs, Ich grolle nicht and Und wiissten's die Blumen, are included in the sketch ms. by title only. If Schumann made sketches for these songs, they are not known; the only extant autograph source is the Berlin score. But there, within Ich grolle nicht, occurs an emendation which suggests that Schumann was composing without benefit of preliminary sketch. Wolff reported the situation incompletely. Here is a diplomatic copy of mm. 5-10 of the score and a reconstruction of its individual layers:
121

19TH

a)

CENTURY
music

SH
E-wig ver-lor'nes Lieb ewig

.
Lieb

k
ich b.1

do
njetit grol le nicht

I
verlor'nes

[sic]

b)

i-

lor'nes Lieb d) E--wig verlor']--

c)

-1
Lieb Ewig verlor'nes

Ewigver

Ewigverlor'nes

Lieb

ich grolle nicht--Ewig

verlor'nes

Lieb

Ewig

verlor'nes

Lieb

ich

grol

le

nicht

Example 10

Having set "Ewig verlor'nes Lieb" in mm. 5-6, Schumann first continued with a rhythmically augmented version of the sequential repetition (ex. 10b). Even before he had copied in the words for this idea, he rewrote the sequence as a literal rhythmic repetition of the preceding phrase and finished setting the line in short rhythmic values akin to the song's opening (ex. 10c). At this point he added the piano part. Still

dissatisfied, Schumann recast the second part of the line in longer note values and added its own sequential repetition (ex. 10d). At the same time, he revised the piano part. These basic decisions about the phrasing of the song-more fundamental changes than he had made in any other song at this stage of compositionstrongly suggest that he had not sketched its melody before drafting the score.

Das

ist d.

F16tenu.

Geigen

Trom a e ten schmet- tern drein

p
AMAl~

k,18 NJ
1

ten rschmettern drein k.. -K

10IML

-'I

I Trom " I.
[]

k
tanzt
I I IA, I,

da

den

k 'J

"
zeit '=

..L/
--

Hoch

II

I I I

%..dpl?

122

rei

gen

die

Herz aller

liebste

mein

RUFUS HALLMARK Sketches for Dichterliebe

Example 11

Eric Sams has described this song as "piano music, on which the vocal melody has somehow to be grafted."29 Without having seen the Zwickau sketch, Sams cannot have known how accurate his characterizationwas. Here, in contrast to his methods for all the preceding songs, Schumann launched directly into a thorough sketch of the piano part, and indeed grafted on the vocal line. He wrote out the right hand of this wedding dance in very nearly final form, except for mm. 24-26, where there are discrepancies involving primarily the location of the registral change.30 One infers from the dotted-quarter left-hand chords in mm. 25-34 of the sketch, however, that Schumann had not yet conceived the accompaniment figure. The double barandupbeat figure at the end of the sketch imply a return to the beginning for the second stanza. There is no indication for a postlude. Whereas the piano melody is essentially finished in the sketch, the vocal melody has yet to undergo its extensive evolution. Two stages
29Songs of Robert Schumann, p. 116. the sketch, the piano melody is missing in mm. 5-8; one assumes the melody of mm. 1-4 is repeated here. The same assumption seems not to hold for mm. 21-24 of the sketch, for although they begin as a repetition of mm. 17-20, the identity breaks down in m. 22. The sketch is ambiguous; perhaps Schumann meant to modify the piano melody to accommodate the vocal melody at this point. In the score there is no evidence of any discrepancies between mm. 17-20 and 21-24.

of the vocal melody arediscernible in the sketch and two more in the autographscore; the published version presents still another reading. The following example shows the voice parts of the sketch, score, and published song (ex. 12). Given the literal transposition of the piano music of mm. 1-16 in mm. 17-32, Schumann must have wondered just how similar to make the melodies of the two sections. In the sketch, the melody for the second couplet of the
poem ("Da tanzt wohl ...") bears little re-

30In

semblance to that of the first. In the score, Schumann seems to have tried to bring the melodies into line. Especially in the second layer of the score, the two couplets are quite similar. In the song as published, the melodies have retreated from this high degree of correspondence. Arthur Komar attributes to considerations of vocal range the fact that in melody the second couplet is not an exact transposition of the first, and certainly a literal transposition would take a tenor or a soprano well below his or her range(to tenor F or sopranof).3'Another facet of the melody should be noted: in the published song, and only there, the melody of the second couplet continues the descent begun in the first couplet and completes it without an interruptive seventh leap at the end. Fromm. 7 through

31Komar,Dichterliebe, p. 84.

123

19TH

CENTURY MUSIC

Sketch first couplet

emended

second couple t

Score first couplet

ememendendeded second couplet

Published Song first couplet

second couplet

Example 12

m. 31 the voice traces a long, conjunct line through the octave from f" to f', the bb'in m. 14 picked up in m. 23. The final version of this melody is a fitting vocal counterpart to the sweeping bass melodies in the piano of Im Rhein and Ich grolle nicht. The sketch, as far as it goes, recordsHeine's text faithfully, although Schumann's rhythms

do not always fit the text as written. He subsequently changed "drein" to "darein" (line 2), "tanzt den" to "tanzt wohl den" (line 3),32"Von Pauken und Schallmei'n" to "Ein Pauken und ein Schallmei'n" (line 6), and "guten" to "lieblichen" (line 8). All of the changes involve the addition of one syllable to fit the dotted waltz rhythm.

[!]

A
Example 13 32Not"tanzt wohl im" as printed in Komar'sscore, pp. 31 and 33. 124

At the bottom of the last page of the Zwickau manuscript there is a faint sketch of two bars of the piano introduction to Mein Wagen rollet langsam. There is neither number nor text, but simply the characteristicmotive of the song. Like Das ist ein Fldten und Geigen, this song began with the text-inspired piano music. But in the left hand, in contrast with the Bb pedal eventually found in the Berlin score, an inner voice sounds the beginning of what will become the vocal melody. The score contains evidence that it was written with no more than these two scant measures of sketch to go on, for in the second musical stanza, especially in mm. 39-46, it bears substantive emendations. These changes testify to Schumann's difficulty with the text-setting, and by inference, to the lack of a sketch.33The emendation process seen in the Berlin score strongly suggests that the composer encountered his basic text-setting problems for the first time in the score,not in any priorsketch. After the incipit of Mein Wagen rollet langsam there are no more sketches in the Zwickau manuscript, which thus ends with only twelve of the 20 Lieder accounted for. It is possible that Schumann made sketches in another manuscript since lost, but more likely that he composed the cycle from this point on entirely in the Berlin autograph. At the end of Es leuchtet meine Liebe (song 12a)in the autograph score, there occurs an enticing piece of autographevidence. In the bottom left margin of the last page, Schumann pencilled this note:34 B Dur Es Moll H Dur
E Dur

not have needed this note. In the extant sketch manuscript he was simultaneously selecting poems, sometimes rearrangingHeine's order, choosing keys and key schemes, and making vocal sketches. It seems unlikely that he would have begun to sketch songs randomly without regard for their order and key relations. Had Schumann made sketches for the rest of the songs, they themselves would have shown the orderand key plan, and the note would not have been necessary. The negative evidence (that no other sketches are known for these songs) together with the positive evidence from the score (that many of the songs were composed without such sketches) indicate that Schumann's approach to composing was dynamic. He began work on the cycle by making complete drafts of vocal melodies, became less thoroughas he proceeded (as in the incomplete sketches of Dein Angesicht and Im Rhein), started sketching the piano music instead, and finally abandonedthe sketching process and began making full scores from scratch. This flexible procedure, responsive to his varying creative impulses, accords with the exuberant composer portrayedin the letters, who found himself impatient with sketching if he felt he could bypass that step. "I have so much music in me that I could sing all day. But above all I must write the songs down," he wrote on May 2.3 And on the 15th he wrote, "I have composed so much that sometimes it seems quite uncanny to me. Ah, I can do nothing else, I may sing myself to death like a nightingale.""3 So this document closes, its truncation bearingwitness to Schumann'svolatile manner of composing. But though there is no more music, the sketches have not yet yielded all their information.

RUFUS HALLMARK Sketches for Dichterliebe

The designated keys are, in fact, those of the four songs that follow in the 20 Lieder: Mein Wagen rollet langsam, Ich hab' im Traum
geweinet, Allndichtlich im Traume, and Aus alten Mlirchen winkt es. If Schumann had been working from sketches, he presumably would
35Boetticher, Schriften, p. 338; letter to Clara of 2 May 1840: ". .. Und Musik hab ich in mir, dass ich den ganzen Tag nur singen m6chte. Vor allem aber will [ich] die Lieder aufschreiben." 36Jugendbriefe von Robert Schumann, ed. Clara Schumann (Leipzig, 1885), p. 314; letter to Clara of 15 May 1840: "... Ich habe wieder so viel komponirt, dass mir's manchmal ganz unheimlich vorkommt. Ach, ich kann nicht anders, ich mochte mich todt singen wie eine Nachtigal."

33Wolff does not report on this song at all. 34Berlin Staatsbibliothek, Mus. ms. autog. 16/2, p. 58.

125

19TH

CENTURY MUSIC

III In the upper left margin of the first page, Schumann penned the note: "1-7 am 24sten Mai, 1840. / 9-11 am 25sten." At the bottom of the same page appears,in the composer's hand, the following list of numbers:
11.18.19.20.21.22.23.31.32.33.3 7.

ener Gedichten zur Composition.40Moreover, Schumann drew on the Buch der Liederfor motMusik.41

tos in eight issues of the Neue Zeitschrift ffir

When Schumann began to compose songs

from Lyrisches Intermezzo, he started by mak-

39.41.42.43.44.46.47.55.58.63.64.

ing vocal sketches of the first seven poems with no break in Heine's continuity. One is tempted to speculate that Schumann at first thought of
setting all or most of Lyrisches Intermezzo to

Why did Schumannnot account for sketch no. 8 (ImRhein) in his note? To what do the figures at the bottom of the page refer? What does Schumann mean by including the numbers 9 and 10 in his note when the sketch contains only their titles? To answer these questions is to propose a hypothetical reconstruction of the way in which the composer drew on the literary source for Dichterliebe. By the middle of May 1840, Schumann had composed sixteen Heine songs, including the All op. 24 Liederkreis.37 of the poems for these came from the Buch der Lieder (Hamsongs burg: Hoffmann and Campe, 1827), which was by and largea compilation of Heine's previously published poems.38 Schumann had become acquainted with the anthology at least as early as August 8, 1828, when he wrote in his diarysimply, "Heines Buch der Lieder."39 That entry may indicate his purchase of the book, and he almost certainly did own it, for neither he nor Clara bothered to copy any of Heine's poems into their notebook of Abschriften verschied-

music.42 Whatever the reason, he stopped his consecutive setting of Heine's poems afterno. 7 and noted at the head of the manuscript that he had sketched "1-7 am 24sten Mai, 1840," as though to mark the completion of one stage of work.43 On the first page of the score, Schumann wrote above the first song, "Angefagen am 24sten Mai 1840." By this note he may have meant simply that he began his work on these songs in generalon May 24, but it is likelier that he began the score on May 24. Having sketched melodies for the first seven poems in Lyrisches Intermezzo and sensing a completed unit of work, Schumann turned from the sketches to begin the full score. Ideas for piano music were already in his mind and indeed he had already sketched the piano's close for the first song.
40Zwickau, Schumann-Museum, ms. 4871/viii, 4-5977 A3. Except for having been briefly described by Boetticher (Einfiihrung, p. 623), this document has not been examined. In it are copied in both Robert's and Clara's hands a total of 169 poems, representing vocal compositions from throughout Schumann's career. 41Schumann used excerpts from Heine's poems as mottos in the following issues of the Neue Zeitschrift:: 14-VII-1835, 11-111-1836,22-111-1836, 6-IX-1836, 26-IV-1839, 14-VI-1839, 9-VII-1839, and 13-VIII-1841. These quotations also show that Schumann must have owned the first edition (1827), for although second (1837) and third (1839) editions appeared before Schumann set any of its poems to music, he was using them in the journal as early as 1835. 42Though the idea of Schumann setting all of Lyrisches Intermezzo to music seems improbable on the face of it, another nineteenth-century composer, Vesque von Piittlingen, set all eighty-eight poems of Heine's Die Heimkehr as a song cycle. 430Ofcourse Schumann had already set poem no. 10, Die Lotosblume (op. 25/7); and he may not have wanted to rival Mendelssohn's setting of no. 9, Auf Fluigel des Gesanges (Mendelssohn, op. 34/2, composed in 1834). Possible reasons for Schumann's break in Heine's continuity are discussed below.

37Liederkreis, op. 24/1-9, Belsatzar, op. 57, Was will die einsame Triine, op. 25/21, Die Lotosblume, op. 25/7, Du bist wie eine Blume, op. 25/24, Abends am Strand, op. 45/3, Die feindlichen Brider, op. 49/2, and Die beide Grenadiere, op. 49/1. The dating of these songs is based on the dates Schumann himself entered in his manuscripts. In his index of the Berlin Liederbiicher, Wolff conveniently lists the dates (Schumann's Lieder, pp. 12-19). 38Lyrisches Intermezzo, the section of the book from which the present cycle was drawn, originally appeared in 1823 between two dramas (Tragodien nebst einen lvrischen Intermezzo [Berlin: Dummler]; hence its title. But this older version differed considerably from the one published in the Buch der Lieder, lacking such poems as Im wunderschbnen Monat Mai and Ich grolle nicht. 39Tagebiicher, Bd. 1 (1827-1838), ed. Georg Eismann (Leipzig, 1971), p. 123, item 39.

126

After scoring these seven songs, Schumann leafed through the rest of Lyrisches Intermezzo looking for more poems to set. His next choice was Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome. This is the eleventh poem in Lyrisches Intermezzo, and "11" is the first figure in the list at the bottom of the first page of sketches. This correspondence suggests that the list is Schumann's initial selection of another twenty-two poems.44 (Table 1 summarizes the selection process.) The Berlin score has long before shown that Schumann's first planned publication was the set of twenty songs. The sketch reveals that Schumann earlier conceived of setting an even larger group of songs, possibly as many as twenty-nine. Having made the list, and probably as a last of work on May 24, Schumann sketched Im bit Rhein, im heiligen Strome and broke off sketching in order to write the song out in the score. There the incomplete state of his first (ink) draft attests to his waning energy. Because this sketch and score were made after the completion of the earlier unit of work (the seven consecutive poems) and at the beginning of a new selective process, Schumann neglected to emend his note on the first page to include sketch no. 8. Schumann's second note on the first page of the sketches says, "9-11 am 25sten." Only no. 11 in this manuscript is a musical sketch; nos. 9 and 10 are titles only. The upper margin of the last page contains the following indications: 9. Ich grolle nicht 10. Und wiissten's die Blumen 11.

reasons: 1) the list begins with "1 1," the next poem set after an interruption of Heine's sequence; 2) the highest number in the list (64) does not exceed the number of poems in Lyrisches Intermezzo (66); and 3) there is a fair degree of correspondence between the numbers in the list and the numbers of poems which Schumann did set. (The first edition of the Buch der Lieder contained 66 poems in Lyrisches Intermezzo; in subsequent editions Heine omitted the poem originally numbered 37.)

44This is a plausible and logical inference for the following

The piano-vocal sketch for Das ist ein F6lten und Geigen begins in the first staff. The absence of sketches for two songs, the crossed out figure 10, and the unexpected sketch of piano music suggest the following reconstruction of events. On May 25, Schumann went back to work. He consulted his list and decided that Heine's poem no. 18 (Ich grolle nicht), the next figure on his list after no. 11, would be his next song. Instead of making a sketch at once, he continued through his list. He decided against no. 19, but when he read no. 20 (Das ist ein Flbten und Geigen), he envisioned the piano music for the Hochzeitreigen. He made a note to himself that the ninth song would be Ich grolle nicht, and, writing the figure 10 in the margin, he launched into a sketch for the D-minor wedding dance. Once he had committed to paper as much of the music as he needed, Schumann stopped and returned to select more poems. He chose the next one on the list, no. 22 (Und wiissten's die Blumen) and decided furthermore that this song should precede Das ist ein Fliten und Geigen (the first poem that Schumann took out of Heine's order). So he inserted its title after Ich grolle nicht and numbered it 10, crossing out the first "10" and replacing it with "11." At this point, Schumann turned to the score manuscript and drafted Ich grolle nicht and Und wiissten's die Blumen, without benefit of sketches. He then wrote out the score of Das ist ein F16ten und Geigen, transferring the music from the sketch and filling it out and revising as he went along. With these three songs chosen and composed, and with the two leaves of sketch paper practically full, Schumann felt another stage of work completed, and so he wrote his note 9-11 am 25sten. The inclusion of 9 and 10 in spite of the absence of sketches must have been warranted by Schumann's composition of them in the score along with no. 11. The writing of this second note is in a slightly different, perhaps hastier, hand, supporting the assumption that the notes were written on different days (May 24 and 25) and not summarily after the whole manuscript had been filled. (If the latter were true, it seems unlikely that he would have overlooked sketch no. 8). With the piano music of Das ist ein Flaten

RUFUS HALLMARK Sketches for Dichterliebe

127

19TH

CENTURY MUSIC

A?-::.-*-:__--:

-:::j:i:: ~ ai-~iii~.'i?:~~:::-----: ::b~--:ii-'--:i_ /~ii'~i~~,;?~S'i';':si:l:ii :.:::::--_~:i:: ?.-~~'i

I::: ::::: .::--: : ::::1:::::.:-:?

I-_

:_--:~::: ii-ii-:::-' :;: iiii~j::" :::'i-ii'ii-: i--ir _I:_:- ---+: J:*I

-:1 1:J4: -:iii~~: : :: Z? f

rff J. i~-'-'::i:-::-:_-_::. --'14 ::: :::---:::::: :-:?:?:p :i~i-?'~ ::iiii:.iii---::?:.i~z-i:? ::::-:::-: i:- -.: -::::.: ii _----i------l:?-- I::::-:'
:-,::'~--i-:::_: -::::iiiiiii~~::~::

~P:ii::::i.~~~

::.:-

i:-~l-i -?;:~i:il-:-__:i-..:-sl:-!::i g~ii:ij6.~~_~:':--'::::::::: ;~~::~4 ~:::::j:-:j::i;::::j 3--' i~i''a-ii:iiii'i :: -::i~i:ii~t-~i-ii .~ti~ii '-?-iiiiiil~i i i:-_:: ii-~~-:::-::::-:i:-:::i-:' : -:::: :-i~i.:'-iili:

_:~::::-s,:i-- :: _l-:?: -:::i:-: ii :~ -: -:-iBL -; A~l?~i~;i4i~"

P ?-

--

~ '~~?:"

----iii--i4i:iiiii-i-

:I~~~~'.::

~~
?

:'''''~~--i~~:: :i::-::;~~:=.:~~;i~:__;~: -::ii~i l;: j::j~i~i? l~:~-::l:::: jiij1i ::_:I::iii:iiiiiijiji~

i f i -::----:-si--iii :_iii:ii:iii?-ii-

~ ~
4

&.ji ::~: :i:l,:::i::-::-_:?::-: I :~::-----;::'::":::::::;i::ji:-_:-.:,-~ia-? i~i-::-:=::::::-r:j:: :: 4,iw~ie-ii :

:h~l::: i:
.-

iiii~,'iia~ii:i --iii'iiiii? iii~i

~~

:::: :--~sl::?ii~ ~~~?:i--iii:--.. :-l?l,::~'i~:: iii:illi

Plate I Zwickau: Robert-Schumann Museum. Sch.-Mus. nr. 12321-A1. Fol. ir Reproduced by permission.

und Geigen still on his mind, Schumann looked through the rest of the poems on his list to see if any others inspired programmaticpiano music. He found what he was looking for in poem no. 55, Mein Wagenrollet langsam, and responded by jotting down the opening piano figuration at the bottom of the last page of sketches. He knew this song would be much further along in the cycle and that he could therefore not readily assign it a number. Here the Zwickau manuscript ends, with
128

sketches for only nine of the 20 Lieder and the piano incipit of another. Schumann had given up sketching altogether. The compostion of Das ist ein Fldten und Geigen may well have been the turning point; certainly the relatively troublefree writing down of Ich grolle nicht and Und wiissten's die Blumen in the score encouraged him to continue this procedure. It is as if with the sketching and scoring of the first eight songs Schumann had reached a kindling temperature which, fanned by the excitement of discovering

i ? :::::::~ ?. . ..~~~ i .... . ??

. ll~

ii -iil-ii-iiBI_
i !

~~

??? i ?7??I???

....
:-:2:::

RUFUS HALLMARK Sketches for Dichterliebe

. ..... .........

'i ???!?...

'~

!~

!?i

~~~......
v>

......

17 ii 4"w !
4

4
'r

41OW'9

*1

Plate II. Folio 1v

the proper piano music for Das ist ein Fl6ten und Geigen, ignited his full creative energy. The list of numbers suggests that he originally considered setting twenty-two other poems in addition to the first seven, for a total of twenty-nine. As we have seen, the five other pieces in the Zwickau manuscript (counting titles) correspond to numbers on the list (11, Schumann's selecting and reorderingof Heine's poems is the appearanceof twenty songs in the autograph score. There, of the eight songs not present in the sketches, four are settings of poems on the list (41, 44, 46, 47), and four are not (40, 56, 57, 66).
18, 20, 22, 55). The next documented step in

Schumann wrote himself one other note about the selection of poems: the list of keys on the last page of Es leuchtet meine Liebe in the Berlin score. Following the premise that Schumann was by that time composing without sketches, let us look again at his working list of poems from the Zwickau manuscript (see table 2). After Und wiissten's die Blumen and H6r ich das Liedchen klingen (poems 22 and 41), Schumann made his first choice of a poem not on the list, Ein Jiinglingliebt ein Middchen(no. 40). He placed it, out of Heine's order, after no. 41. He skipped42 and 44-the latter only for the moment-and took the next three poems on the
129

19TH

CENTURY MUSIC

...... ..

... ... .....i:iiiii

ioi

Plate III.Folio 2r

list in order(46, 47, and 55). After composing the first two and with the music of Mein Wagen rollet langsam in mind from his sketch, Schumann paused to consider how to proceed. He must have realized he was not far from concluding the set of songs, for which he probably had Heine's own last poem in mind all along
(no. 66, Die alten, b6sen Lieder). He chose two

keys may be construed as Schumann's shorthand notation for all these decisions. The sequence in which Schumann selected poems for this cycle is revealed by the manuscript sources, but not the motivation for his choices. For that, one must turn to the poems themselves. If Schumann ever thought of setting all of Lyrisches Intermezzo, he soon re-

consecutive poems not on his list, Ich hab' im

Traum geweinet (56) and Allnichtlich im

Traume (57), and then skipped back up his list

for his next choice, Aus alten Mirchen (44).

These new choices warranteda note. And as he pondered making songs of them, fitting them
with Mein Wagen rollet langsam, and conclud-

ing the cycle, he thought of music and keys appropriate to the individual songs and to the progress of the whole. For all these thoughts Schumann needed a reminder. This bare list of
130

treated from that ambitious undertaking and sought some means to pare down Heine's abundant source. What eventually suggested itself was a drama condensed from Heine's wideranging anthology of lyrics of frustrated and embittered love. But no story is apparentin the list Schumann made. Of the twenty-two poems on that list, only nine were used in the narrative which later emerged.
Schumann seems for one thing to have been attracted at first by poems which Heine paired.

RUFUS HALLMARK Sketches for

Dichterliebe

09,

..........

]--i~ .: . . ..... i ............. ..... ... .

. ... . ....

": ,,iii!'!::: !~i: .... .: ii.:.}'ii::-:i ! !:.,

. ...... .ii '.........

...

:i ! iiii i;ii~!iiii ii iili i i:i: il iiiI,

Plate IV. Folio 2v

Forexample, the list includes nos. 18 (Ichgrolle nicht) and 19 (Ja,du bist elend). The two poems are related in content and in their unusual use of five-foot lines. Other paired poems on Schumann's list are 22 (Und wiissten's die Blumen) and 23 (Warumsind denn die Rosen so blass), which are linked by their similar nature imagery and by their formal procedure of following three like stanzas with a different concluding one; and 31 (Die Welt is so schan) and 32 (Mein siisses Lieb), which both depend on startling death imagery, the one taking up where the other leaves off. A number of other poems on Schumann's list deal with death: nos. 42 (Mir triiumte von

einem Kbnigskind), 47 (Es leuchtet meine Liebe), 63 (Am Kreuzweg wird begraben), and 64 (Wo ich bin, mich rings umdunkelt). Yet Schumann virtually avoids Heine's death poems in his final selection. There it is mentioned only in dreams (op. 48, songs 13 and 14). Dein Angesicht and Es leuchtet meine Liebe, both of which deal with death, were included in the 20 Lieder but removed from Dichterliebe. Another poem on the list, no. 58 (Das ist ein Brausen und Heulen), may have been chosen by Schumann as a counterpart for no. 20 (Das ist ein Flhten und Geigen). While no. 20 depicts the unhappy lover's reaction to the wedding of his beloved to another man, no. 58 can be construed
131

19TH

CENTURY

MUSIC

as his discovery of the woman's unhappiness in her marriage. Another non-adjacent pairing may have motivated two choices, nos. 39 (Manch Bild vergessener Zeiten) and 46 (Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen).The first, portrayingthe abject lover wandering aimlessly through the streets by day and always finding himself beneath his beloved's window at night, could have effectively preceded the second-nighttime sorrow relieved by daytime consolation. In this case and in the one above (nos. 20 and 58), Schumann chose to set only one poem of each pair. The rejected poems would have addedto his story a chapter on the moping lover, which Schumann ultimately condensed into one song (Hbr ich das Liedchen klingen). One of the poems on Schumann's list, no. 37, was omitted by Heine from the second and subsequent editions of the Buch der Lieder:
Geliebtes, holdes Weib,

would not have used it for Dichterliebe. Another poem, no. 43 (Mein Liebchen, wir sassen beisammen), though it includes the dramatis personae, treats the progress of their relationship metaphorically as a boat ride that draws near but passes by an enchanted island. None of Heine's facetious poems appears on the list. The playfulness of many of the poems was inappropriate to the Minnespiel Schumann was composing. Indeed it may have been the wittiness of Heine's eighth poem, Es stehen unbeweglich, that caused Schumann to interrupt his consecutive setting of Lyrisches Intermezzo in the first place.

10) is such a poem, and even if Schumann had not already set it to music (op. 25/7), he probably

Ichkannes nicht vergessen,

Das ich dicheinst besessen, Die SeeleunddenLeib.

Den Leib m6cht' ich noch haben, Den Leib so zart und jung; Die Seele k6nnt Ihr begraben, Hab' selber Seele genug. Ich will meine Seele zerschneiden, Und hauchen die Hiilfte dir ein, Und will dich umschlingen, wir mfissen Ganz Leib und Seele sein. This poem, like many in Lyrisches Intermezzo, makes a harsh judgment of the spiritual qual-

Schumann's ultimate selection shows that he decided against setting most of the paired poems;45 that he tended finally to eschew death poems; that he chose not to portraythe beloved as the shallow, soulless woman that emerges in Heine's poems; that he curtailed the expression of the jilted lover's grief; and that he turned away from poems which by their metaphoric or
humorous cast did not fit into a narrative. At the least, the existence of this list and the fact that

it contains many poems that the composer ultimately eliminated demonstrates the uncertainty of Schumann'sconception of this cycle as he was beginning to compose. The Zwickau manuscript of musical sketches in effect holds Schumann's literary sketch of his cycle as well. IV Schumann composed the set of twenty The dates in songs over a period of nine days.46
sketch and score manuscripts agree on May 24 as the starting date, and the last song in the

ities of the beloved. The proportion of such

caustic, fault-finding characterizations among

Heine's sixty-six poems is high; it has been

drastically reduced in Dichterliebe to a single

instance, Ich grolle nicht. All the more wonder,

then, that this poem and one of a similar nature

(no. 21: So hast du ganz und gar vergessen)

found their way into Schumann's list. Poem no. 33 (Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam), like a few others, refers not directly, but metaphorically to the lover and the beloved. Schumann must eventually have decided that this kind of lyric would not fit into his firstperson narrative. Die Lotosblume (Heine's no.

45Except for Ich hab' im Traum geweinet and Allniichtlich im Traume. "The actual working time may have been shorter. Schumann doubtlessly referred to this cycle when (ca. 1846-47) he wrote in his diary, "Ich habe das Meiste, fast alle, das kleinste meiner Stficke in Inspiration geschrieben, vieles in unglaublicher Schnelligkeit, so meine Iste Sinfonie in B Dur in vier Tagen, mein Liederkreis von zwanzig Stuicken ebenso. (Tagebuch 8, Zwickau, Schumann-Haus, MS. 4871 VII.." A/a8, p. 25f, as quoted in Roesner, Studies, I, 15).

132

score is dated "31 Mai u. 1 Juni."47 June 2 On Schumann wrote a letter offering the 20 Lieder und Gesinge to the Berlin publishers Bote & Bock, who had recently solicited a composition from him. They declined his offer, on the grounds that the song cycle he proposedwas too ambitious an undertaking for their young firm, and they asked fora small piano piece instead.48 Apparently Schumann did not negotiate further for the publication of these songs until three years later. Although many of his letters to publishers have been lost, his own record of the correspondence survives in his Briefbuch.49 There one learns that Schumann offered the Heine songs to three different firms in 1843:
Entry 977 Aug. 31 Breitkopfand Hairtel My offer about the Heine Liederretracted.Instead the Variationsproffered for 10 Louis d'Or.50 984 Oct. 6 B6hme Offeredhim Heine Lieder, Allegro, and Symphony in D minor for publication."' 993 Nov. 14 Peters Sent him the Heine cycle. 20 Louis d'Orhonorarium and 6 complimentary
copies.52

of 20 Lieder und Gesinge.53 On November 16, he noted receipt of payment from the publisher in his Haushaltsbuch.54 Only after preparationfor publication was underway with Peters did Schumann eliminate four songs. Dein Angesicht is a stark comment on death, a theme in Heine's poems to which
Schumann was originally drawn, but which he later decided was not germane to his narrative. He may have removed Lehn' deine Wang only because it is too unconditional a love lyric to follow the doubt introduced into the narrative

RUFUS HALLMARK Sketches for Dichterliebe

in Wenn ich in deine Augen seh'. Es leuchtet

meine Liebe deals in metaphor with the dramatic situation, turning it into a fairy tale. This is the kind of objective distance Schumann reserved for a single song, Ein Jiingling liebt ein

Miadchen. Mein Wagen rollet langsam is a nearly inscrutable poem, with nothing to contribute to Schumann's tale of woeful love. His initial interest, after all, was in the opportunity With the removal of these songs the implicit story of the cycle is clearer.It is no coincidence that at the same time Schumann changed the name to Dichterliebe. One other of his
cycles has a programmatic title, Frauenliebe und -leben, which is based on a frankly narrative cycle of poems of the same name by Chamisso. Schumann composed these songs in early July
53According to the testimony of Gustav Jansen (see Robert Schumanns Briefe, Neue Folge, 2nd revised and enlarged edn. (Leipzig, 1904), p. 540, fn. 535). Jansen cites no documentation, but his added detail that Schumann sent them as "op. 47" lends credibility to his assertion. In his Projektenbuch Schumann included " 'Dichterliebe' 16 Lieder v. H. Heine" in a list of works from 1840. (Georg Eismann, Robert Schumann. Ein Quellenwerk fiber sein Leben und Schaffen [Leipzig, 1956], I, 147.) The works, however, are not listed in order of composition, but in order of publication; since many were not published in 1840, I believe this list was made several years later. 54Boetticher, Einffihrung, p. 619. In his table of Schumann's most important sources of income, Boetticher has reckoned everything in Thaler, and for op. 48 he records 110 Thaler. 55There must surely have been musical reasons, too, for Schumann's excision of these songs; I have suggested some reasons in my dissertation, The Genesis of Dichterliebe (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1975), pp. 242-47, in connection with my discussion of the tonal plan of the cycle. In his analysis, Arthur Komar also gives possible reasons for the omissions on purely musical grounds (Dichterliebe, p.

to depict the rolling carriage in piano music.55

It was Peters who finally accepted the songs, and Schumann sent them along still in the form

47Berlin Staatsbibliothek, Mus. ms. autog. 16/2, p. 70. 48Forthis correspondence, see Willhelm Altmann, "Bisher unveriffentlichte Briefe Robert Schumanns," Die Musik 15 (1923), 865-69. 49Zwickau, Schumann-Haus, ms. 4871 vii c 10 A3. Lieder Antrag wegen d[en] Heineschen 50"M[ein] zurfikgenommen. Dagegen die Variat[ionen] f[iir] 10 L[ouis] d'Or angeboten." Schumann's substitute offer probably concerns the Andante and Variations in Bb Major, op. 46, for 2 pianos, published by Breitkopf in 1844. 51"Ihm Lieder v[on] Heine, Allegro, u[nd] Symph[ony] in D m[oll] zum Verlag angeboten." 52"Ihm den Heineschen Cyklus geschickt. 20 L[ouis] d'Or Honorar u[nd] 6 Freiexempl[are]."

81).

133

19THI CENTURY MUSIC

1840, a month after he finished the twenty Heine Lieder, but he published the Chamisso cycle earlier, as op. 42, in 1843. He may have arrivedat the final title of op. 48 by analogywith Frauenliebe und -leben. Dichterliebe finally appearedin September
1844.56

A remark Schumann

made

about

another group of songs seems relevant to the delayed publication of this cycle. On September 8, 1843 (nearthe time he was beginning to look for a publisher for the twenty Heine Lieder), Schumann wrote to Clara:
This morning I put the first volume of the Balladsin order:Schatzgriiber,Friihlingsfahrt,and Abends am Strand. That reawakened joy in me; they are three good pieces. There are advantages sometimes in putting one's compositions away to sleep for a couple of years. What is good will still have the same effect, and one doesn't touch that. It is fundamentally true, in art as well as in life, that without noticing it one becomes more sensible with years.I realized that again this morning with these songs.57

contrast to Beethoven, penned finished masterpieces in flights of inspiration. The sources for Dichterliebe reveal that Schumann did indeed compose this cycle in only a few days and that his revisions seldom fundamentally altered his initial conceptions. It is as if his harder task was finding the right poems for this cycle; once he had chosen a text, he seems to have proceeded with ease and assurance in composing the music. At the same time, the sources disclose a craftsmanlike attention to the sensitive, refinement of detail. And although Schumann essentially finished the cycle in a little over a week, he put it aside to season for a number of years and made major revisions just before publication. It may be that the analogy with Beetnineteenth-century composers, erroneous in its fundamental assumptions. In any event, the evolution of Dichterliebe is a story of artistic decisions artfully made-in the choice of texts, in the setting of melodies, and in the development of a new tension in the relationship of voice and piano. ,'

hoven is for Schumann, as for so many other

There has long been an image of Schumann an impulsive, romantic composer who, in as

meister, Musikalisch-LiterarischerMonatsbericht neuer Musikalien, musikalischer Schriften und Abbildungen ffir

56The date of publication is that given in Friedrich Hof-

das Jahr 1844 (Leipzig, 1845). 57Boetticher, Schriften, p. 395-96. "Heute frtih brachte ich das erste Heft der Balladen in Ordnung: Schatzgrdiber, Das hat mir wieder Frtihlingsfahrt, und Abends am Strand. Freude gemacht, es sind drei gute Stiicke. Es hat doch auch sein Gutes, wenn man fiber seine Kompositionen manchmal ein paar Jahre hinwegschliift. Das Gelungene iibt seine Macht doch immer gleich [aus] und das liisst man gewiss unangetastet. Im Grund ist's wahr, man wird doch auch in der Kunst, ohne es zu merken, mit den Jahren gescheiter. Heute friih bei den Liedern fiel mir dergleichen wieder ein." The first two songs (both Eichendorff poems) were composed in November 1840; the third (Heine) was composed in April 1840. The songs were published as op. 45/1-3, by Whistling, Leipzig, in 1844.

134

Table 1 SELECTION POEMSFROMLYRISCHES OF INTERMEZZO

Heine: Lyrisches Intermezzo (Buch der Lieder, 1827) Prolog 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 Im wunderschinen Monat Mai Aus meinen Triinen spriessen Die Rose, die Lilie Wenn ich in deine Augen seh' Dein Angesicht Lehn deine Wang' Ich will meine Seele tauchen Es stehen unbeweglich Auf Flfigeln des Gesanges Die Lotosblume Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome Du Liebst mich nicht O schwdre nicht Auf meiner Herzliebsten Die Welt ist dumm Liebste, sollst mir Wie die Wellenschaugeborene Ich grolle nicht Ja, du bist elend Das ist ein Floten und Geigen So hast du ganz Und wfissten's die Blumen Warum sind die Rosen Sie haben dir viel erziihelt Die Linde bluhte Wir haben viel fiireinander Du bliebest mir treu Die Erde war so lange geizig Und als ich so lange Die blauen Veilchen Die Welt ist so schin Mein sfisses Lieb Ein Fichtenbaum Ach, wenn ich nur Seit die Liebste war entfernt Aus meinen grossen Schmerzen Ich kann es nicht vergessen Philister im Sonntagsricklein Manch Bild vergessener Zeiten Ein Jiingling liebt ein Miidchen Hir ich das Liedchen kligen Mir triiumte Mein Liebchen, wir sassen Aus alten Miirchen Ich hab dich geliebet

Numbers in Schumann's list

Sketch

20 Lieder

Published Opus Number

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

op. 48/1 op. 48/2 op. 48/3 op. 48/4 op. 127/2 op. 142/2 op. 48/5 op. 25/7

11

op. 48/6

18 19 20 21 22 23

9 11 10

9 11 10

op. 48/7 op. 48/9 op. 48/8

31 32 33

37 39 13 41 42 43 44 46 47 12 19 14 15 op. 48/11 op. 48/10 op. 48/15 op. 48/12 op. 127/3

46 Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen 47 Es leuchtet meine Liebe 48 Sie haben mich gequdilet 49 Es liegt der heisse Sommer 50 Wenn zwei voneinander

Heine: Lyrisches Intermezzo (Buch der Lieder, 1827) 51 Sie sassen und tranken 52 Vergiftet sind meine Lieder 53 Mir trailmte wieder 54 Ich steh' auf des Berges Spitze 55 Mein Wagen rollet langsam 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 Ich hab' im Traum geweinet Allndchtlich im Traume Das ist ein Brausen Der Herbstwind riittelt Es fiillt ein Stern herunter Der Traumgott bracht mich Die Mitternacht war kalt Am Kreuzweg wird begraben Wo ich bin Nacht lag auf meinen Augen Die alten, bisen Lieder

Numbers in Schumann's list

Sketch

20 Lieder

Published Opus Number

55

(unnumbered)

16 17 18

op. 142/4 op. 48/13 op. 48/14

58

63 64 20 op. 48/16

Table 2 CONCLUDING SELECTION OF POEMS FROM LYRISCHES INTERMEZZO

Schumann's list of numbers 11 18 Songs made from poems on list Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome Ich grolle nicht Das ist ein Flhten und Geigen Und wiissten's die Blumen List of keys after Es leuchtet

Subsequent choices

19
20 21 22 23 31 32 33 37 39 41 42 43 44 46 47 55 58 63 64 1

Hjr ich das Liedchen klingen

40

Ein Jiingling liebt ein Miadchen

Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen Es leuchtet meine Liebe Mein Wagen rollet langsam ......................................................B _ 56 Ich hab' im Traum geweinet ........... (57 Allndchtlich im Traume ...............H

Dur Es moll Dur

Aus alten Mirchen ..........................................................E bbsen Lieder 66 Die alten,

Dur