Philipp Spitta

“ Though Mendelssohn excels him in regularity of form, and though Schubert's C major Symphony is quite unique in its wealth of beautiful musical ideas, yet Schumann surpasses both in greatness and force. He is the man, they the youths; he has the greatest amount of what is demanded by that greatest, most mature, and most important of all forms of instrumental music. He comes near to Beethoven, who it is quite evident was almost the only composer that he ever took as a model. No trace whatever of Haydn or Mozart is to be found in his symphonies, and of Mendelssohn just as little. ”

“ Schumann was both musician and poet, and he who would thoroughly understand his music must be first imbued with the spirit of the German poets who were most prominent in Schumann's youth; above all others Jean Paul and the whole romantic school, particularly Eichendorff, Heine, and Rückert. And just as these poets were specially great in short lyrics, revealing endless depths of feeling in a few lines, so did Schumann succeed, as no one has done before or since, in saying great things and leaving unutterable things to be felt, in the small form of a short pianoforte piece. ”

“ In Schumann's songs the proper function of the pianoforte is to reveal some deep and secret meaning which it is beyond the power of words, even of sung words, to express; and he always disliked and avoided those repetitions of the words of which other composers have availed themselves in order to fill out in the music the feeling to which the words give rise. When he does repeat he always seems to have a special dramatic end in view rather than a musical one, and often makes the piano supplement the sentiment aroused by the text, while the voice is silent. ”

“ The realm of feeling revealed to us in Schumann's songs is thoroughly youthful, an unfailing mark of the true lyric; the sentiment he principally deals with is that of love, which in his hands is especially tender and pure, almost maidenly coy. The set of songs called 'Frauenliebe und Leben'—the Love and Life of Woman—gives us a deep insight into the most subtle and secret emotions of a pure woman's soul, deeper indeed than could have been expected from any man, and in fact no composer but Schumann would have been capable of it. ”

“ It happened that in October a young and wholly unknown musician arrived, with a letter of introduction from Joachim. Johannes Brahms—for he it was—immediately excited Schumann's warmest interest by the genius of his playing and the originality of his compositions. In his early days he had always been the champion of the young and aspiring, and now as a matured artist he took pleasure in smoothing the path of this gifted youth. ”

“ That a work of art, mighty and instinct with life, can be produced with a sublime disdain of all limits set by circumstance, provided only genius is at work upon it, is amply proved by Byron and Schumann in this their joint production. It has been already remarked more than once that the gloomy, melancholy, and passionate intensity of strife in Byron's Manfred, heightened by contrast with the splendid descriptions of nature, corresponded to the conditions of Schumann's spirit at the time when the music was written. ”

“ Any one knowing his silent nature and his instinctive dislike to contact with the outer world, might certainly have feared from the first that he would find great difficulty in asserting himself as a director of large masses. And as years went on his incapacity for conducting constantly increased, as the issue showed, with the growth of an illness, which, after seeming to have been completely overcome in Dresden, returned in Düsseldorf with increasing gravity. His genius seemed constantly to shrink from the outside world into the depths of his soul. ”

“ The violence of the contrast most easily overpowers the most gifted natures, and sweeps them away into an exclusive enjoyment of the life it offers. Those who have some self-control after a time struggle out of the whirlpool, and avail themselves as best they may of the remaining years of study, rescuing from that period a precious store of poetical reminiscences which suffice to gild the prose of later life with an ideal light. It was the intoxicating poetry of the student life which Schumann drank in deep draughts. ”

“ It would be impossible to add one iota to the passion which rages through the scene, or to pile up one additional element in the music without sacrificing all clearness in the component parts. The novelty of the local colouring, so distinct from that of 'Cortez,' 'Olympia,' or 'Alcidor,' is admirable. Gloomy, forceful, and melancholy, all indicates the spirit of the heroic age. The music too is thoroughly German, the harmonies richer and more satisfying, the melodies quite national in character; isolated passages recalling Spohr, and even Weber, though without anything like servile imitation. ”

“ I long for regular duty, and though I can never forget the last few years, during which I have lived exclusively as a composer, and know that so productive and happy a time may perhaps never be mine again, yet I feel impelled towards a life of active work, and my highest endeavour would be to keep up the renown which the institution has so long enjoyed.' This wish was not realised, for Rietz remained in Leipzig. ”

“ The music contains much that is airy and fresh, as well as a beautiful dirge. On the other hand, it is full of a feeble sentimentality utterly foreign to Schumann's general character, and ascribable only to the decay of his imagination. The insignificant and wholly idyllic subject was quite inadequate to give employment to the whole apparatus of solo, chorus, and orchestra, and Schumann's first idea of providing a pianoforte accompaniment only was the right one. With a small section of Schumann's admirers the work will always keep its place, and produce a pleasing though not very deep effect. ”

“ Perhaps the gem of the whole is the second movement (Scherzo) , in which power and beauty are mingled with the romance which in every German heart hovers round the Rhine and its multitude of songs and legends. Although written in 1850, when Schumann's imagination was becoming exhausted, the work bears no trace of any diminution of power.
The poetical concert-overture, invented by Mendelssohn, and practised by Bennett and Gade, was a form never cultivated by Schumann. ”

“ No preference for any particular form of art can be traced in Schumann's work at this time. Pianoforte works and chamber trios, songs and vocal duets, choruses, choral works with orchestra, concertos with orchestra, compositions for horn, clarinet, oboe, violoncello, or violin, with pianoforte accompaniment, even melodramatic music—all these thronged as it were out of his imagination in wild and strange succession. Among all the beautiful and important works produced at this time, the music to Byron's Manfred deserves especial mention. ”

“ It should be the highest endeavour of a just critic to render himself wholly unnecessary; the best discourse on music is silence. Why write about Chopin? Why not create at first hand—play, write, and compose?' ('Gesammelte Schriften,' i. 276; Engl. trans, in 'Music and Musicians,' series i. p. 205.) True, this impassioned outburst has to be moderated by Eusebius. But consider the significance of Schumann's writing thus in his own journal about the critic's vocation! It plainly shows that he only took it up as an artist, and occasionally despised it. ”

“ A predisposition to worry himself, an 'ingenuity in clinging to unhappy ideas,' often embittered the fairest moments of his life. Gloomy anticipations darkened his soul; 'I often feel as if I should not live much longer,' he says in a letter to Zuccalmaglio of May 18, 1837, 'and I should like to do a little more work'; and later, to Hiller 'man must work while it is yet day.' The vigour of youth for a time conquered these melancholy aberrations, and after his marriage the calm and equable happiness which he found in his wife for a long time expelled the evil spirit. ”

“ Strictly speaking, poetry and music can only be really united by means of the human voice. But in these pianoforte pieces with poetical titles Schumann found a means of expression which hovered as it were between pure instrumental music on the one hand, and vocal music on the other, and thus received a certain indefinite and mysterious character of its own, which may most justly be called Romantic. ”

“ They will always hold a foremost place in the literature of music, and may indeed take high rank in the literature of art. For analytical acumen they are less remarkable. Schumann cannot be called the Lessing of music, nor is it by the display of learning that he produces his effects. It is the union of poetic talent with musical genius, wide intelligence, and high culture, that stamps Schumann's writings with originality, and gives them their independent value. ”

“ The compositions of this period seem as if forced out of him by sudden impulses of genius. As he subsequently says of his early works, 'the man and the musician in me were always trying to speak at the same time.' This must indeed be true of every artist; if the whole personality be not put into a work of art, it will be utterly worthless. But by those words Schumann means to say that as a youth he attempted to bring to light in musical form his inmost feelings with regard to his personal life-experiences. ”

“ When before or since did an artist find such words of praise for one of his fellows? It is as though, having already given so many noble proofs of sympathetic appreciation, he could not leave the world without once more, after his long silence, indelibly stamping the image of his pure, lofty, and unenvious artist-nature on the hearts of his fellow men. ”

“ The unity of design is remarkable, each act seems to be cast in one mould; and this from the fact that musically the several scenes of each act run into each other in a much more marked manner than in 'Cortez' or the 'Vestale.' There is also, throughout, the closest connection between the music, the scenes on the stage, and the development of the plot—the cachet of the true dramatic artist. ”

“ The first performance of the first movement at Zwickau took place at a concert given there on Nov. 18, 1832, by Wieck's daughter Clara, who was then thirteen years of age. Even then the performances of this gifted girl, who was so soon to take her place as the greatest female pianist of Germany, were astonishing, and by them, as Schumann puts it, 'Zwickau was fired with enthusiasm for the first time in its life.' It is easily conceivable that Schumann himself was enthusiastically delighted with Clara, adorned as she was with the twofold charm of childlike sweetness and artistic genius. ”

“ In January 1851 Schumann wrote to a friend, 'It must always be the artist's highest aim to apply his powers to sacred music. But in youth we are firmly rooted to the earth by all our joys and sorrows; it is only with advancing age that the branches stretch higher, and so I hope that the period of my higher efforts is no longer distant.' He is here speaking emphatically of 'sacred,' not of church music. Church music he never wrote, his Mass and his Requiem notwithstanding. ”

“ His melodies lack plasticity, that bold free movement which is absolutely essential if the melody is to remain dominant over all the accumulated masses of sound. He has not sufficient command of language to have always ready to his hand suitable means of expression for the rapid changes of sentiment in the course of a scene. Nor has he the power of assigning the instrumental music its due share in the dramatic development. If all the work is done by the singing and acting, one is tempted to ask what is the object of all this overwhelming apparatus in the orchestra? ”

“ Unfortunately there is less to be said for the Requiem; we should have expected the mere idea of a mass for the dead to have inspired such a genius as Schumann's, even without recollecting the wonderful tones which he has found for the final requiem in Manfred. But this work was undoubtedly written under great exhaustion; and the first romantic chorus alone makes a uniformly harmonious impression. It closes the list of Schumann's works, but it is not with this that we should wish to complete the picture of so great and noble a master. ”

“ In Spontini's character great and mean qualities were almost equally mixed, so that both friends and foes could support their statements by facts, while each shut their eyes to the qualities which they did not wish to see. After his friends had been silenced by the catastrophe of 1841 the verdict of his opponents prevailed, at any rate throughout Germany; but this verdict, we say emphatically, was unjust. The charge that he despised and neglected German music is simply untrue. That he admired and loved our great masters from Handel to Beethoven he proved through life in many ways. ”

“ The treatment of the parts in the fugues is by no means always strictly according to rule, even when viewed from the standpoint of Bach, who allowed himself considerable freedom. In employing an accompaniment of chords in one part, he also goes far beyond what had hitherto been considered allowable. But yet, taken as a whole, these works are masterpieces; no other composer of modern times could have succeeded as he has done in welding together so completely the modern style of feeling with the old strict form, or in giving that form a new life and vigour by means of the modern spirit. ”

“ Handel has left examples of each. The essential characteristic of an oratorio is that it should bring the feelings into play, not directly, as is done in the cantata, but by means of a given event, about which the emotions can be aroused. The form of the poetry, the choice of material and form in the music, should all depend upon the particular subject to be treated. The fact of Schumann's having retained so much of Moore's narrative is worthy of all praise; it is the descriptive portions of the poem that have the greatest charm, and the music conforms to this. ”

“ It must not however be imagined that Schumann's aim as an author was to lay down the principles on which he worked as a composer; it is indeed hardly possible to contrast the critical and the productive elements in his works. His authorship and his musical compositions were two distinct phases of a creative nature, and if it was by composition that he satisfied his purely musical craving it was by writing that he gave utterance to his poetical instincts. ”

“ A distinguished bass singer, recommended to him by Dorn for high-priest parts, was not even allowed to open his mouth because he was 'at least a foot and a half too short.' He insisted on the complete fusion of the vocal and instrumental, the dramatic and the musical elements, and demanded from the chorus, as well as the solo-singers, an entire absorption in their parts, and an intelligent rendering of each situation. His love for the grandiose and the awe-inspiring led him to employ all the resources of decoration, and what then seemed enormous masses of musicians, singers, and dancers ”

“ Musicians are still living, like Carl Reinecke of Leipzig, who at the time of its appearance were in the most susceptible period of youth, and who tell of the indescribable impression the work made upon them. ”

“ In judging of Schumann's sacred music, it is necessary to repeat that, though the chorus is not strictly speaking the musical means by which he was best able to express himself, yet both custom and the character and importance of the uubject urged him to make considerable use of it in these works. Thus they contain a contradiction in themselves; they are all nobly and gravely conceived, but as choral music are only very rarely satisfactory. The Mass no doubt ranks highest, and contains much that is very beautiful ”

“ To call this method an imitation of the music of the Evangelist in Bach's Passion Music is unnecessary and untrue; for the narrative portions are given by Schumann both to solos and chorus. True, there will always be a certain disadvantage in using a complete self-contained poem as a text for music, a great deal of which will inevitably have been written without regard to the composer. Much that we pass over lightly in reading has, when set to music, a more definite and insistent effect than was intended. ”

“ There prevails to a considerable extent in Germany a foolish inclination to undervalue that great genius on account of some weak points in his music; indeed, among the younger generation of German composers, Rudorff is the only one in whom we can trace his direct influence, and we owe to him the first edition of the score of 'Euryanthe' (Berlin, Schlesinger, 1866) . In addition to these the genius of Bach has influenced him powerfully. Rudorff however is no antiquated Romanticist. ”

“ Spontini had thrown so much life into the character of the Spaniards, and had made them so bold, patriotic, and fearless of death, that the sympathies of the audience were enlisted in behalf of Spaniards in general, and Napoleon ran the risk of witnessing an exactly opposite effect to that which he intended. The success of the opera was very great, equalling if not exceeding that of the 'Vestale.' On the whole we should not be wrong in pronouncing 'Cortez' the more finished work of the two. ”

“ In a good chorus there must be something to speak to the heart of the masses. Schumann took exactly the opposite view. The chorus was usually an instrument unfitted for the expression of his ideas. His genius could have mastered the technical part of choral composition as quickly and surely as that of orchestral composition. But since the case was otherwise, the chief importance of 'Paradise and the Peri' is seen to be in the solos and their accompaniments, especially in the latter, for here the orchestra stands in the same relation to the voice as the pianoforte does in Schumann's songs. ”

“ For his instructor in composition, however, he chose Heinrich Dorn, at that time conductor of the opera in Leipzig, subsequently Capellmeister at Riga, Cologne, and Berlin, and still living in Berlin in full possession of his intellectual vigour. Dorn was a clever and sterling composer; he recognised the greatness of Schumann's genius, and devoted himself with much interest to his improvement. [3] It was impossible as yet to confine Schumann to a regular course of composition: he worked very diligently, but would take up now one point of the art of composition and now another. ”