Schubert
wrote his Sonata in A Minor, Op. 42 (D. 845) in the spring of 1825,
dedicating it to the Archduke Rudolph, the pupil and patron of Beethoven.
The work was an immediate success, praised by the leading critics of the
day for unity, boldness, and freedom. The first movement, alternating
"melancholy seriousness" with "violently erupting somber
passion," was compared by the Leipzig Allgemeine
Musikalische Zeitung to "the greatest and freest of Beethoven's
sonatas."
The
sonata begins with a musical sigh in A minor, answered by somber chords
that leave a question hanging in the air. The opening sigh is repeated one
step higher, now followed by chords that seem intended to resolve the
question, but instead usher in a restless syncopated transition to a
march-like theme of fortissimo repeated notes and alternating chords,
again in A minor. All the material of the movement is derived from these
two contrasting thematic elements—either in their original form, or
disguised in ways that soften or intensify their character. The movement
closes with material based on the opening sigh, now in fortissimo octaves.
The Andante and variations in C major, one of Schubert’s most beautiful
slow movements, is followed by a lively Scherzo in A minor. Its opening
three-note motive, repeated softly three times, calls listeners to
attention, only to surprise them with a fortissimo syncopated chord on the
dominant E. The movement continues with unexpected harmonic twists,
syncopations, rhythmic cross-accents, and a
gentle trio in F major. The final Rondo brings the sonata to a
fitting and dramatic close, its theme a perpetual motion of eighth notes
outlining the five notes from E to A.
The
unity and cohesiveness of Schubert’s A Minor Sonata may be attributed to
its sparse, tightly integrated thematic material--whether from the first
four notes of the first movement’s opening theme (CBAE), or from the
alternating chords of the march theme. All three movements in A minor
begin with themes built around the fifth from A to E, and with E
emphasized in some way. Even the theme of the slow movement centers around
E. The Scherzo’s trio also gives the impression of being an inversion of
the first movement’s opening theme. Besides unifying the movements
thematically, Schubert’s emphasis on the fifth (A-E) creates for the
listener a mood of vastness and emptiness, transporting the pathos of the
music to a more distant stage.
Felix
Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel grew up in a
well-to-do household where music, literature, and intellectual pursuits
were valued highly. In contact with leading artists and intellectuals of
their day, the children developed extraordinary
musical gifts. The Songs Without
Words may have had their origins in a musical game the two children
played. In a letter to her brother in 1838, Fanny wrote, "Dear Felix,
when text is removed from sung lieder so that they can be used as concert
pieces" (a technique in vogue with Liszt and other virtuosi),
"it is contrary to the experiment of adding text to your instrumental
lieder--the other half of the topsy-turvy world. I'm old enough to find
many things utterly tasteless in the world at present . . . the jokes that
we, as mere children, contrived to pass the time have now been adapted by
the great talents and used as fodder for the public." Mendelssohn
wrote more than fifty Songs
Without Words, publishing them in six collections between 1830 and
1845. Two more sets were published after his death. The titles found in
many editions of these works, with a few exceptions including “Spinning
Song,” are not Mendelssohn’s own, but were added by later publishers.
Mendelssohn’s
sister Fanny, also a first-rate pianist and composer of some 400 works,
included among her piano compositions several Songs
Without Words. As it was considered unseemly for women of her station
to offer their artistic work to the public, few of Fanny Hensel’s
compositions were published during her lifetime, and many await discovery
by twenty-first-century pianists. O
Traum der Jugend, O Goldner Stern is an excellent example of her
elegant style.
Schumann's
Forest Scenes were inspired
by Heinrich Laube's Jagtbrevier
(Hunting Extracts). Composing the work in just two weeks
(December 24, 1848 to January 6, 1849), Schumann continued to refine and
polish it for the next two years. Originally, all but three of the nine
pieces were given a descriptive title and prefaced by a poetic verse. (In
the course of his revisions Schumann changed many of the titles and
discarded all but one of the poems.) The work reflects the Biedermeier
sensibility which, according to historian James Sheehan, "took the
fear and torment out of Romanticism, leaving in its place only some
vaguely menacing motifs and exciting titillation." Beginning with
"Entrance," a musical depiction of a walk in the woods, with
attendant feelings of well-being and a gradually dawning awareness of
forest sights and sounds, Schumann creates a colorful, thematically
interwoven narrative. Innocence and nostalgia ("Entrance,"
"Solitary Flowers," "Friendly Landscape") are
contrasted with images of the hunt ("Hunter in Ambush,"
"Hunting Song"), and folk melodies and boisterous drinking songs
("Country Inn"). The evanescent specter of the "Prophetbird"
and the ghostly baroque rhythms of the "Haunted Place" add an
unworldly dimension to an otherwise idyllic, even cozy picture.
"Haunted Place" is the only piece that retained its original
poem by F. Hebbel:
Die
Blumen, so hoch sie wachsen
Sind
blass hier, wie der Tod;
Nur
eine in der Mitte
Steht
du im dunkeln Roth.
Die
hat es nicht von der Sonne;
Nie
traf sie deren Gluth;
Sie
hat es von der Erde,
Und
die trank Menschenblut.
The
flowers growing here so tall
Are
pale as death;
Only
one stands dark red,
There
in the middle.
But
its color comes not from the sun,
Whose
glow it has never met,
But
rather from the earth,
From drinking human blood.
The
final "Farewell," with its rich harmonies, beautifully
interwoven melodic lines, and occasional nostalgic glimpses of earlier
pieces in the cycle, provides a fitting conclusion to Forest
Scenes.
