Schumann’s Orchestration for Das Paradies und die and Szenen aus Goethes Faust Laura Tunbridge

Laura Tunbridge is senior lecturer in music at the University of Manchester, UK. She is the author of Schumann's Late Style (Cambridge, 2007) and The Song Cycle (Cambridge, 2011), and co-editor of Rethinking Schumann (Oxford, 2010). [email protected] ecent “historically informed” per- R formances of ’s symphonic works have made a strong case for re-evaluating one of the most contentious aspects of his music: the quality of its orchestration.1 So far, less attention has been paid to the orches- tration of the choral works, although some of them have also benefi ted from the lighter touch of recordings by John El- iot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique or Philippe Herreweghe and the Orchestre des Champs Elysées. However, in the scores of Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri, Der Rose Pilgerfahrt, Szenen aus Goethes Faust, the four choral ballades. and the Mass and Requiem, we can fi nd multiple examples of inventive and delicate orchestral writing within the Romantic tradition of Carl Maria von Weber, Felix Mendelssohn, and even, to a degree, Hector Berlioz. As can be seen in Table 1, throughout his career, Schumann wrote for a standard classical orches- tra with paired woodwinds, paired horns and trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and fi ve- part strings. The bass end was sometimes bolstered by ophicleide (Das Paradies und die Peri) or its descendant the tuba (the choral ballades). Extra instruments—piccolo, harp or triangle—were included for particular illustra- tive effects. In this, Schumann was little different

CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 2 7 Schumann's Orchestration for

TableTable 1 OrchestrationOrchestration ofof Schumann'sSchumann's ChoralChoral WorksWorks

Title Chorus Soloists Picc. Flute Ob Cl. Bsn Hn Tpt Trb Oph Timps Perc Hp Strings Organ

Das Paradies SSAA 2 Sop. 1 2 2 22 4 2 3 1 Yes Triangle Yes Violins und die Peri TTBB Mezzo, Bass drum I and II Premiered 2 Alto, Gr. Tr Violas Dec 4,1843, Tenor, Cellos Leipzig. Baritone, Double Piano score Bass bass published 1844 (Breitkopf und Härtel), orch. 1874

Der Rose SSAA 2 Sop. 2 2 2 4 2 3 Yes Violins Pilgerfahrt, TTBB 2 Mezzos, (2 I and II op. 112 2 Alto, Ventilhorn, Violas Premiered in 2 Tenor, 2 Cellos 2 Baritone, piano version 6 Waldhorn) Double July 1851, 2 Bass bass Düsseldorf; orchestral version 5 Feb 1852. Pub 1852 (Kistner).

Der Königssohn, SA Alto, 1 2 2 2 2 4 2 3 Tuba Yes Triangle Violins op. 116 TTBB Tenor, (as above) +2 I and II Premiered Baritone, cornets Violas Düsseldorf Bass à Cellos May 6, 1852; piston Double Piano score pub- bass lished 1853. (Whistling), orch 1875

Des Sängers SA Alto, 1 2 3 2 2 4 23TubaYes Yes Violins Fluch, op. 139 TTBB Tenor, (as above) I and II Premiered Baritone, Violas Feb 28, 1857, Bass Cellos Elberfeld. Double Piano score pub- bass lished 1857. (Arnold), orch 1858.

Vom Pagen und SA 3 Sop. 1 2 2 2 2 4 23 Yes Yes Violins der König- TTBB Alto, (as above) I and II stochter, op. Tenor, Violas post 140. 4 Basses Cellos Premiered Double Dec 2, 1852, bass Düsseldorf. Piano score published 1857. (Rieter-Bieder- mann)

Das Glück von TTBB Tenor, 2 2 2 2 4 33Tuba YesTriangle Yes Violins Edenhall, op. Bass I and II post 143 Violas Premiered Cellos Oct 23, 1854, Double Leipzig. bass Published 1860. (Rieter-Bieder- mann)

8 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 2 Das Paradies und die Peri and Szenen aus Goethes Faust

Title Chorus Soloists Picc. Flute Ob Cl. Bsn Hn Tpt Trb Oph Timps Perc Hp Strings Organ

Missa sacra, SATB Sop. 2 2 22 2 2 3 Yes Violins op. 147 Tenor I and II Premiered Violas Kyrie and Gloria Cellos in Düsseldorf, Double 1853. bass Published 1863 (Rieter- Biedermann)

Requiem, SATB SATB 2 2 2 2 2 3 Yes Violins op. 48 I and II Premiered Violas Nov 19, 1864, Cellos Königsberg. Double Published 1864 bass (Rieter- Biedermann)

Szenen aus SSAA 5 Sop. 1 2 2 2 2 4 2 3 Tuba Yes Yes Violins Goethe's Faust, TTBB Alto, I and II WoO 3 Tenor, Violas Part III 3 Baritones, Cellos premiered Bass Double June 25, 1848, bass Dresden; complete work June 14, 1862 published 1858

from Mendelssohn.2 Whereas Mendels- were often detrimental to appreciation of man poets such as Ludwig Uhland, were in sohn’s orchestration is praised, however, the works. For instance, it took 23 years for keeping with the nationalistic impulses of the Schumann’s is not, even though there are an orchestral score of Der Königssohn to be age.4 Schumann, in other words, was writing many instances where he achieved compa- published and the interim piano reduction for the musicians and audiences around him. rable effects to the scores of A Midsummer does not give many clues to the work’s Yet, when we look back on Schumann’s Night’s Dream or St. Paul. distinctive low-voiced sonorities. time in Düsseldorf, our vision tends to be Inevitably, the evaluation of Schumann’s There is also the issue of where the clouded by awareness of his fi nal illness: orchestration does not simply depend on choral and orchestral works fit within of his incarceration in an asylum in 1854 whether or not he could compete with Schumann’s career. Das Paradies und die Peri and his death two years later. What with Mendelssohn. There are several other factors was composed in the early 1840s, but most hindsight we call Schumann’s late style has in play. Some have to do with the challenge of the choral music comes from the next typically been associated with a falling off in of talking about orchestration altogether. decade. One of the reasons for Schumann’s his creative powers, even if that judgment Julian Rushton has pointed out that, as for increased interest in choral music then was is sometimes queried by how his composi- any aspect of musical creativity, there are that he took up the post of music director no eternal laws for successful orchestra- in Düsseldorf in September 1850, duties for tion.3 What is more, it is almost impossible which included conducting and composing to disentangle orchestration from other for the town choir and orchestra. (His revi- features such as a composer’s treatment sions to what became known as the Fourth *ODGGH0XVLF3XEOLFDWLRQV of texts, themes, harmony, and form. There Symphony—the most notorious example 7KH&KRUDO0XVLFRI%UDGOH\1HOVRQ are practical problems too. The table shows of his “bad” orchestration, with all those 1HZ6WUHDPLQJYLGHR frequent delays between the publication of doubled winds—were perhaps intended ³$JQXV'HL´ Schumann’s choral works with piano reduc- to suit the forces and abilities of his players *ODGGH0XVLFFRPDJQXVGHL VVD KWP tions as accompaniments and orchestral in Düsseldorf.) The chivalric, nostalgic, and a6HHWKHVFRUHDQGKHDUDUHFRUGLQJa scores becoming available. Such delays sentimental texts he chose to set, by Ger-

CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 2 9 Schumann's Orchestration for

tionstions werewere receivedreceived at tthehe ttime.ime 5 NNegativeegative betrothed.betrothed SSchumannchumann eveventuallyen decided on die Peri was fi rst performed at the Leipzig assessments of Schumann’s orchestration, the second story from Lalla Rookh, about Gewandhaus on December 4 and 11, 1843, therefore, need to be considered against a a peri’s quest to fi nd a gift with which to with Livia Frege as the peri. It was an im- complex historical backdrop of not only mu- regain entry to paradise, from which she mediate success and was Schumann’s best sical but also personal and practical concerns. is excluded because she is the offspring of known work during his lifetime: there were In order to attempt this, we will here focus a fallen angel and a mortal. ( A peri is one performances throughout Germany, Europe, on two works: Das Paradies und die Peri, in of a race of beautiful fairy-like beings from and even in New York.6 many ways, the composer’s greatest suc- Persian mythology.) His friend Adolf Böttger In musical and formal terms, Schumann’s cess during his lifetime; and Die Szenen aus devised a libretto (rather than dealing with score for Das Paradies und die Peri was Goethes Faust, of particular interest because Moore directly, it drew on translations by unusual on two counts. First, it represented its three parts and Overture have been J. L. Witthaus (1822) and Theodor Oelker what the composer called “a new genre for seen to document changes in Schumann’s (1839)), which Schumann freely edited. Das the concert hall,” that aimed to sit squarely compositional approach in the last decade Paradies und die Peri is in three tableaux. In between oratorio and opera.7 Second, of his creative life. the fi rst, the Peri offers blood from a young Schumann pursued ’s warrior killed by the tyrant Gazna, but that practice of linking numbers so that they ran gift is rejected. In the second, she takes the virtually continuously. However, this was far Paradise and the Peri sighs of a maiden who dies in the arms of from an amorphous structure: each tableau Schumann had fi rst considered using her plague-stricken beloved. Those did not is clearly framed by changes in thematic sections from Thomas Moore’s extended suffi ce either. It is a criminal’s tears at the material, harmonic area, ensemble (chorus, poem Lalla Rookh (1817) as a source for an sight of a boy at prayer, discovered in part recitative, aria), and, importantly for our opera or concert pieces in 1841. The poem III, that fi nally grant her redemption. purposes, orchestration. follows the journey of Princess Tulip Cheeks When the composition began, Schumann The exotic landscapes and supernatural (Lalla Rookh) to her arranged marriage with worked at his typical speed: Part I was com- characters of Das Paradies und die Peri pro- the Sultan of Lesser Bucharia. Along the way, pleted between February 23 and March 30 vided ample opportunity for musical scene she is entertained by a young Persian poet’s 1843; Part II was drafted from April 6–17; paintings and orchestral effects. So, too, did romantic fables; as you may have guessed, it and Part III from May 17– 25. Everything was the choruses of Nile genies, houri (an hou- is fi nally revealed that the poet is in fact her orchestrated by June 16. Das Paradies und ris is one of the beautiful virgins provided in paradise for faithful Muslims) and Schumann added to the libretto. These were not only crowd pleasers; they also allowed Schumann to show his mastery of orchestra- tion in the manner of his two great German predecessors, Weber and Mendelssohn. The music for the Nile genies (no. 11) has been compared to the Act II fi nale of Weber’s Integrating the Christian faith 1826 opera Oberon, in which mermaids and with professional music-making fairies sing the gratuitous if graceful, “Oh! ’tis and fine scholarship pleasant to fl oat on the sea.” As in the Weber, Graduate and Undergraduate Schumann’s scene features sixteenth-note Programs in Music brocaderie for strings and upper winds as B.Mus. in: accompaniment for the chorus. Unlike the composition Weber, the string line is not for a soloist, but music education for “at least” three fi rst violins, then violas, performance then second violins and cellos at the octave, music with elective studies lending the whole a more substantial sound. M.Mus. in choral However, the slightly thicker texture makes conducting the disappearance of the genies all the more Generous graduate assistantships effective: the sixteenth notes start to falter and eventually become triplet eighth notes that sink into the subsequent tenor arioso. Admission 800.777.2556 | School of Music 585.567.9400 Mendelssohn’s infl uence, meanwhile, has [email protected] | www.houghton.edu/greatbatch been heard in the arioso solo vocal writing and characterful choruses of Das Paradies und die Peri. Perhaps these features alluded

10 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 2 Das Paradies und die Peri and Szenen aus Goethes Faust

to Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht, zum Trunke sich hinunterbeugen, character: the Frenchman theatrical and— which Schumann heard in February 1843. [Impatient fl ing him down to drink] signifi cantly for this article—a master of The presence of an ophicleide in nos. 6, 7, orchestration, the German less so. The two and 23 also reminds us of Mendelssohn. dann kehrt er schnell sein wild’ Gesicht met during Berlioz’s tour of Saxony from Patented in France in 1821, this precursor to [Then swift his haggard brow he turn’d] January 29 to March 1, 1843. While they did the tuba and euphonium is thought of today aufs schöne Kind, das furchtlos saß, not share a common spoken language, there primarily as the instrument that represents [To the fair child, who fearless sat.] seems to have been a musical connection. the comic character of Bottom in Mendels- Schumann heard the already mentioned sohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In fact, obgleich noch nie des Tages Licht Offertory, the King Lear Overture and Sym- it serves two roles: generally, it supports the [Though never yet hath day-beam burn’d] phonie fantastique (which he had favourably bass line (as in the Wedding March) but it reviewed from a piano score eight years can also occasionally provide a distinctive ein wild’res Antlitz sah als das, earlier). Perhaps it was only by chance timbre. For example, the ophicleide is the [Upon a brow more fi erce than that, -] that the Berlioz concerts coincided about sound that signifi es Thisbe’s enchantment Schumann’s starting sustained work on Das entsetzlich wild, ein grauser Bund, with Bottom despite his ass’s head, and Paradies und die Peri. The range of orchestral [Suddenly fi erce – a mixture dire,] provides the donkey’s bray in the dance of textures he explores, though, suggests that the clowns. at the very least his imagination was fi red. wie Wetterwolk’ aus Nacht und Glut, Schumann was impressed, on the whole, One striking aspect of Berlioz’s Offertory [Like thunder-clouds, of gloom and fi re;] by Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A is its initial lengthy presentation, by upper Midsummer Night’s Dream, which he heard dort stehn die Laster all, es tut strings, of a winding theme occasionally in Potsdam on October 18, 1843. (Shake- [In which the [peri’s] eye could read] punctuated by horn chords. The choir be- speare’s play he dismissed as a curiosity!) gins with a simple melodic fragment as if it “The music is fi ne and fanciful,” he wrote: dort jedes Bubenstück sich kund - is accompanying the orchestra rather than “The instruments tease and joke as if the [Dark tales of many a ruthless deed;] the other way around. In Das Paradies und fairies themselves were playing them. One Meineid, eschlag’ner Gast, die Peri, Schumann frequently uses a similar 8 hears brand new sounds.” He had already [The ruin’d maid – the shrine profan’d –] set up, with the orchestra (often the strings) composed Das Paradies und die Peri by this presenting a distinctive thematic kernel point, and had himself experimented with betrog’ne Braut, mit blut’ger Schrift around which the voices enter. For example, what one might call brand new sounds. [Oaths broken – and the threshold stain’d] the fi rst number begins with a descending Schumann did not use the ophicleide in violin motive, treated sequentially, which quite the same way as Mendelssohn, how- auf jenem Antlitz stand’s geschrieben. is gradually imitated by the other string 9 ever. Rather than playing in conjunction with [ With blood of guests! – there written, all. ] instruments; no. 7 features a prominent the other low brass instruments or to depict cello quarter-note melody; in no. 13 there a braying ass, it provides a darker hue. In the The underlined passages mark where the is one in triplet quarter notes for violas and sixth and seventh numbers of Das Paradies ophicleide plays. It is clear that the instru- cellos. Allowing the orchestra to carry the und die Peri, the ophicleide accompanies ment is associated with the rougher aspects thematic weight of a movement changed the Chorus of the Conquerors (Chor der of the man’s mien: his ferocity and the das- the way in which SSchumannchumann wwroterote fforor ssoloolo Eroberer), who celebrate the tyrant Gazna’s tardly deeds he has done. As we will see in victory. In no. 23, it underscores the tenor later examples, Schumann did not only use solo’s lengthy description of the old man: orchestration to paint scenery; in his choral music, particular timbres also are used to Beim Knaben, der, des Spiels nun satt, enhance musical descriptions of a character [Near the boy, who tir’d with play] or emotional experience. Mendelssohn was far from the only in Blumen sich gelagert hat, composer in Germany to use an ophicleide [Now nestling ’mid the roses lay,] in the early 1840s. The instrument appears sieht sie vom heißen Rosse steigen in ’s Rienzi and Der fl iegende [She saw a wearied man dismount] Holländer (premiered in 1842 and 43 re- spectively) and, perhaps most pertinently, in jetzt einen müden Mann und schnell the Offertory to Berlioz’s Requiem, another [From his hot steed, and on the brink] work Schumann heard in 1843.10 Despite their being contemporary, we don’t often an einem hochumgrasten Quell consider Schumann and Berlioz together. [Of a small imaret’s rustic fount] Perhaps they seem too contrasting in

CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 2 11 Schumann's Orchestration for

vvoicesoices iinn pparticular.articular. EEarlyarly ccriticsritics nnoticedoticed introduces a distant trumpet fanfare; the to promise that “Endless award / Waits for tthathat ““veryvery ffrequentlyrequently tthehe iinstrumentalnstrumental German words Gold and Juwelen prompt the those who joyfully serve the Lord.” The ccharacterharacter ((ofof SSchumann’schumann’s mmelodies)elodies) sshowshows only tutti passage in the number. The music number ends with an ascending scale from tthroughhrough aandnd tthehe vvocalocal llineine wwindsinds llikeike aann aar-r- associated with the description of wealth the solo violin that leads into the following aabesquebesque tthroughhrough tthehe oorchestra.”rchestra.”11 Making evaporates, leaving the peri alone with the tenor solo. the vocal writing more instrumental was not strings again to contemplate how to fi nd In a review of the Leipzig premiere of Das unproblematic; there were complaints about “the drops of life” (Lebenstropfen). At fi rst, Paradies und die Peri, Eduard Krüger praised a lack of lyricism, and that the tendency to the descending pianissimo fi gure in the violins Schumann’s facility at making the orchestra repeat melodies made no sense with regard and violas seems to be those drops, but they “take on the total content, illustrating and to the ongoing text. But bringing voices and are converted into something more urgent explaining the sung text.”13 According to orchestra closer together did mean that by fl ute and oboe as they lead into the Krüger, Schumann was, fi rst and foremost, Schumann could explore the coloristic and subsequent tenor solo. The orchestra here an instrumental rather than a vocal com- descriptive capacity of both, as evident in a seems to refl ect the peri’s consciousness. poser: the judgment may strike us as odd couple of further examples. The orchestra serves a more deliber- today, when we think of Schumann as a No. 4, “Wo fi nd” ich sie?” begins with ately illustrative purpose in the opening composer primarily of Lieder and solo the peri wondering “whither shall I go / To number of Part III, “Schmücket die Stufen piano music. Yet perhaps we can consider fi nd this gift for Heav’n?” Her uncertainty zu Allah’s Thron” [“Bedeck the steps to his use of the orchestra in his choral works is mirrored by the wandering harmonies Allah’s Throne”]. Across his choral works, as akin to the imaginative, evocative piano of the strings, the fi rst violins sequentially Schumann frequently divided his choruses accompaniments of the songs which so repeating a quizzical ascending fi gure. The into male and female voices, and his orches- often seem to tell us more than the words. texture becomes thicker and a more stable tra into high and low instruments. In Das Although the above examples all point to ♭ A major is established as the peri describes Paradies und die Peri, there are several female Schumann’s skill as an orchestrator, it should all the worldly wealth she knows: the where- choruses, partly because they seemed best be admitted that critics have not always abouts of “unnumbered rubies” and “Isles of suited to depicting the choruses of genies been similarly convinced. One reviewer of a Perfume” are described to clarinet, bassoon, and, here, peris. Sopranos and altos (each London performance of Das Paradies und die and horn accompaniment, with the fl utes divided into two parts) begin an imitative Peri in 1856 described it as “a work of great and oboes echoing the end of the vocal chorus as if the music itself is encircling Al- genius and power,” with the qualifi cation: phrase. Beneath them is an undulating viola lah’s throne with fl owers. Upper woodwinds line that an early critic described as if “en- occasionally echo their melodic contours, Much of the diffi culty which must gaged … in a quiet soliloquy.”12 Reference to against a light drone from strings, pizzicato be felt in comprehending and King Jamshid’s “jewell’d cup” full of life’s elixir cello, bassoon, and horns and intermittent appreciating it on a first hearing triangle and cymbal contributions. arises, we think, from the great A solo quartet (2 sopranos, 2 altos), in- elaboration and intricacy of the troduces a new stanza, dotted rhythms and a score. There is such a profusion new sound world—clarinet and horns, in the of minute and complicated details Lyric Choir Gown relative minor. But, this is soon dismissed with that the ear is perplexed, and fi nds the return of the opening material. With the it diffi cult to trace the simple form Company entrance of another soprano soloist, how- through the multitude of orchestral combinations and ornaments in ever, another section begins: faster, initially which it is enveloped. In this respect, using the dotted rhythm of the quartet and, Schumann’s music reminds us of one Professionally most distinctively, propelled by repeated trip- Tailored of those pre-Raphaelite pictures in let eighth notes on clarinets, bassoons, horn which every object is delineated Gowns of and violas. The soloist narrates what the peri with the laborious distinctness of Lasting is doing—“Lo, to the path to eternal light / miniature painting, or of the nice Beauty The peri now has taken her fl ight”—after tracery and carved work of a fl orid which the chorus interjects with support for Gothic edifi ce … When the ear is their sister: “Lovely Peri, be thou not afraid; / once accustomed to it, it may be FREE Truth and faith have never been betrayed!”. found that it is no longer perplexing, catalog A soprano duo then takes on the triplet but only heightens the richness of & fabric rhythm of the accompaniment to return to the colouring without obscuring the samples urge the peri to return to the “rosy bower,” form.14 AZ supported by punctuating chords from fl ute, 1.800.847.7977 • lyricrobes.com bassoon, and strings. The chorus re-enters Another complained that the score is:

12 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 2 Das Paradies und die Peri and Szenen aus Goethes Faust

so often completely tot that in Schumann’s Das Paradies smothered by uund die Peri, although, in the Ros- loud, complicated, ssetti, the central female fi gure and unproductive accompaniments, that wwishes to return to earth not their few beauties heaven. The connection I am inter- have to struggle eested in here, though, is the way in through a fog, more wwhich the scene is painted. Rossetti or less opaque, of reproduces his poetic description Neo-Germanic wwith care: the Damozel carries the mystifi cations.15 tthree lilies mentioned and there is aalso a halo of stars around her hair. The references in these Everything from the background reviews to pre-Raphaelite ffoliage to the folds of her gown paintings and “Neo-German is presented in detail and rich co- mystifi cations” raise two sig- lours. We might draw a parallel to nifi cant issues in the recep- tthe combination of instruments in tion of Schumann’s choral tthe score of Das Paradies und die works. Both have to do with PPeri: both Rossetti and Schumann the composer’s complicated aare invested in creating a kind of relationship with what con- heightened realism. stituted modern art. Today, The complexity of Schumann’s the sentimental poetry of DDas Paradies und die Peri was not the Peri, and its emphasis on ssimply a challenge for listeners; it choral writing, can make it aalso caused problems for perform- seem old-fashioned. How- eers. At its Leipzig premiere soloist ever, in the mid nineteenth- Heinrich Schmidt refused to go century, Schumann was oon stage at the last minute (fortu- considered to stand at the nately the Viennese tenor Johann forefront of the musical VVesque von Püttlingen stepped avant-garde, alongside none in). When Schumann moved to other than Wagner. Düsseldorf in 1850, it seemed that, This is not to say that fi nally, he would have a chance to there were not already wwrite for and work with a stable those who found Moore’s ggroup of able musicians. He had in- poetry mawkish. Dante Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Blessed Damozel herited a “well-drilled” orchestra of Gabriel Rossetti, one of @ National Museums Liverpool. aabout forty players in Düsseldorf the founders of the pre- from his predecessors as munici- Raphaelite brotherhood, pal music director, Mendelssohn, parodied the opening verse of Lalla Rookh Her eyes were deeper than the depth Julius Rietz and Ferdinand Hiller.17 Yet—as to commemorate his pet wombat.16 Still, of waters stilled at even; with Mendelssohn—it did not take long for the critic who compared the orchestration She had three lilies in her hand, his relationship with the musicians to sour. of Schumann’s Paradies und die Peri to the And the stars in her hair were seven. Within a year of Schumann’s arrival, there detailed paintings of the pre-Raphaelites were complaints about his taciturn and ab- could have found several supportive ex- Rossetti’s later painting The Blessed Damozel sent-minded manner, his style of conducting, amples from Rossetti’s oeuvre. “The Blessed (1871) shows said lady surrounded by an- and his hiring of soloists from out of town. Damozel,” a poem published in the short- gels, looking down towards her earthbound On his part, Schumann bemoaned the high lived journal The Germ in 1850, relayed the lover. She leans over a more literal gold bar rate of absenteeism and, to the disgruntle- story of a lady separated from her lover by too: the frame between the upper part of ment of his players, scheduled extra re- death: the picture and the lower predella canvas (a hearsals. After a fraught rehearsal for Bach’s layout borrowed from Italian fourteenth- or St Matthew Passion, Schumann’s wife Clara, The blessed damozel leaned out fi fteenth-century altarpieces). The division a famous virtuoso pianist, complained about From the gold bar of Heaven; between heaven and earth is not dissimilar the chorus’s “respect neither for art nor for

CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 2 13 Schumann's Orchestration for

the conductor!”18 She continued: “The ladies Scenes from Goethe’s Faust Hearing selections from Anton Heinrich hardly open their mouths and they behave The year after the success of Das Paradies von Radziwill’s Faust at a soirée in Berlin on (naturally with the exception of several und die Peri Schumann considered setting March 21, 1847, seems to have motivated trained singers) so impolitely, sit down when several texts, among them August Bürck’s Schumann to return to his score. By April singing, throw their feet and hands around König Artus and Karl Leberecht Immermann’s 19 he was “busy with the Finale;” by May 22, like quite untrained youngsters.” Despite the Tristan und Isolde. He eventually decided he began revisions. He then left it untouched importance placed on amateur singing as a on the fi nal scene of Goethe’s Faust, but until early summer 1848 when he added a way to consolidate and express feelings of progress was unusually slow. In a letter to conclusion to the central number, “Gerettet nationhood and communities, there were Mendelssohn, he explained that he had ist das edle Glied.” A private performance still, it seems, tensions between professional abandoned the work: took place on June 25. Over a year later, the and amateur musicians. Schumann’s creative work received its fi rst public airings, includ- ambitions were perhaps at odds with the The scene from Faust rests on my ing a performance on August 29, 1849, as circumstances in which he found himself; desk…. I’m downright afraid to part of Dresden’s, Leipzig’s, and Weimar’s this was never more apparent than with his look at it. Only because the sublime celebrations of Goethe’s centenary. Mean- attempt to set one of the great masterworks poetry of precisely this closing while, Schumann had decided to set more of German literature, Johann Wolfgang von scene grips me would I venture [to scenes from Faust. Between July 13 and 24, Goethe’s Faust, Parts I and II. resume] work; I don’t know whether 1849, he drafted and scored the whole of I’ll ever publish it.19 Part I. Just days before the Goethe centenary celebrations, he completed the opening scene of Part II; the remainder was done by the following May. In August 1853, he added an Overture. During the near decade that Schumann spent working on the Faustszenen he had completed numerous instrumental pieces as well as a sketch and chorus for Byron’s The Corsair, an overture and incidental music for Byron’s , the Requiem für Mignon, and his opera . Traces of those ex- periences can be detected in the different characters, and orchestration, of Faust’s three parts. Part I consists of three scenes from the Gretchen tragedy—a distillation of Faust’s seduction and desertion of a young inno- cent, which leads to the deaths of her child, her brother, and her mother. This episode in Goethe’s work is familiar from the operatic stage, and although Schumann was the fi rst to use the poet’s actual words rather than a paraphrase, as we will see, the overall effect is relatively operatic. Part II traces Faust’s progression towards death, while Part III sets the scene of his transfi guration. If Part III is the most straightforwardly choral, Part II straddles opera and oratorio. The differ- ent genre of each is refl ected in its vocal and instrumental requirements. As shown in Table 2, Part I is primarily for soloists, Part II for soloists and small choruses, Part III for numerous ensembles and multiple soloists. Closer inspection of a few scenes should help explain how the orchestration also shifts in each.

14 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 2 Das Paradies und die Peri and Szenen aus Goethes Faust

The fi nal scene of Part I, “Szene in Dom,” Faust resting in a pleasant landscape, trying to the sun emerges: a blaze of tremolando C fi nds Faust’s betrayed lover Gretchen in forget the horrors of Part I. Above him hover major that, against the surrounding harmo- church, tormented by Mephistopheles. It spirits, and Ariel (the nature spirit of Shake- nies, seems like an unexpected glare on the is a scene you could easily imagine on an speare’s The Tempest) sings to the sound horizon. It momentarily blinds Faust. operatic stage. Schumann subsumes the of Aeolian harps. The arrival of the sun is Sound and sight come still closer in the scenery—the pillars of the church, the un- heralded by a “frightful clangor” (angeheures next scene. Faust, now wealthy, is alone in forgiving congregation—into the parts for Getöse). Ariel warns the spirits to hide away, his palace at midnight. He hears a door orchestra and chorus to create a suitably for if the sound strikes them they will be creak and, shaken, asks who is there. Four claustrophobic atmosphere. The chorus deafened. Schumann renders this sonic gray women—Want, Guilt, Distress, and sings a Dies irae, while violas and cellos play boom of dawn with a break in harmony Care—have come to visit. Schumann’s a zigzag descending motive associated with and texture: swathes of tremolando strings score represents them by devices typical Mephistopheles (and, looking beyond Faust, unsettle the steady diatonic homophony of of Romantic representations of the musi- with the witch Margarete in Genoveva). the preceding chorus, diverting the imminent cal supernatural—high woodwind pedals, ♭ Gretchen’s fragile solo line is pitted against cadence from E major to its tonic minor, scampering string fi gurations, and fl ickering ♭ full chorus and orchestra, with hardly any and beginning a lengthy B pedal that lingers chromaticisms. Care introduces herself: support in her register, and—understand- threateningly. Brass fanfares, the trumpets Faust refuses to succumb to her magical ably—she faints. and trombones to which Ariel refers, piece power and so she breathes on him to blind Part II fi nds further absorption of scenery the whole. The spirits disappear, and Faust him. Those high woodwind pedals become into orchestration: indeed, you could even awakens. Overwhelmed by the beauty of part of Faust’s disorientation; interestingly, it say that visual and sonic phenomena here his surroundings, he indulges in a paean to is the only scene scored for piccolo. become one and the same. It opens with nature. From behind the mountain peaks, The fi nal part is in many ways more stat- ic; there are no scenery changes. The progres- sion through low (Pa- Table 2 Vocal Parts in Schumann's Szenen aus Goethe's Faust ter Profundus), middle (Pater Seraphicus), high (Angels) and highest Part I Part II Part III regions (Dr Marianus), however, is refl ected in Faust (B) Faust (B) changes in voice type Gretchen (S) and orchestration. Pater Mephistopheles (B) Mephistopheles (B) Profundus begins with ♭ Martha (S) a low B pedal from Chorus (SATB) Chorus (S1 and 2, T1 and 2, B2, SATB) Chorus (SATB) strings, trombones, and Ariel (T) horn. Pater Seraphicus 4 Gray Women (SSAA) is accompanied by up- Lemurs (AT) per strings and cello Pater Ecstaticus (T) in the tenor clef. The angels enjoy a full or- Pater Profundis (B) chestral texture that is Pater Seraphicus (B) also high and airy. With Blessed Boys (S1 and 2, A) Dr Marianus, we hear Angels (SATB) the harp (previously Young Angels (S2, chorus; later S2, M, T2, B3, chorus) associated with Ariel at The More Perfected Angels (T2, B3, chorus) the beginning of Part II), Dr Marianus (T or B) that routine signifi er of 20 Penitent Women (S4) heavenly spaces. Magna Peccatrix (S) Part III has always been considered the Mulier Samaritana (S) finest segment of Maria Aegyptaca (A) Szenen aus Goethes A Penitent (S) Faust. In it, Schumann’s Magna Gloriosa (A) successor as editor of Chorus Mysticus (S2, M, T2, B1)

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the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Franz Brendel, seldorf, when his physical and mental health composer’s late style with more purely mu- heard sounds of “the church music of the fu- was already wavering. Hanslick contrasted sical considerations. What I hope emerges ture.”21 The other scene judged particularly the chronology of Schumann’s composition from the above survey of Das Paradies und successful by nineteenth-century critics was with Goethe’s: the poet had written Part I die Peri and Szenen aus Goethes Faust is the the appearance of the four gray women, de- of Faust at the height of his powers, and Part richness of both scores and the way in which scribed by one as a “Wunderwerk.”22 Some II as an old man, who would not live long they demonstrate Schumann’s abilities not felt uncomfortable about the shift in style beyond his next birthday. Schumann also only to respond to poetry in music, but also from theatrical to something like sacred. The divided Faust into two, but in reverse order, to write inventively and effectively for chorus preference for Part III derived directly from composing the music for the fi nal scene at and orchestra. awareness of chronology. Eduard Hanslick his creative peak, and the fi rst parts when pointed out in his review of the fi rst com- in decline. By the time he turned to Part I, plete performance that the third part had Hanslick concluded, Schumann had no more NOTES been written fi rst, during what he called the power to produce something beautiful. fi nest hours of Schumann’s best period.23 The reception history of Schumann’s 1 See, for example, Herreweghe’s Symphonies Parts I and II and the Overture, he continued, choral music is complex, merging elements no. 2 op. 61 and no. 4 op. 120 (Harmonia were written when Schumann was at Düs- of biography and preconceptions of the Mundi, 1996); Szenen aus Goethe’s Faust

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16 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 51 Number 2 Das Paradies und die Peri and the Szenen aus Goethes Faust

12 (Harmonia Mundi, 1998); Gardiner’s Complete Krüger, review of the premier of Das Paradies und 19 Letter of September 24, 1845, Robert Schumanns Symphonies (Archiv, 1988); Das Paradies und die Peri, Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 47 Briefe: Neue Folge, ed. F. Gustav Jansen dir Peri (Archiv, 1999); and Norrington’s (1845), col. 567; quoted in Daverio, ‘“A New (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1886), 240. Symphony no. 3 in E fl at op. 97 “Rhenish;” Genre for the Concert Hall,”’ 141. 20 See Daniel Beller-McKenna, “Distance and 13 Symphony no. 4 in D minor (EMI, 1990). Krüger, review of the premier of Das Paradies und Disembodiment: Harps, Horns, and the 2 For more on Mendelssohn, see R. Larry die Peri, Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 47 Requiem Impulse in Schumann and Brahms.” Todd, “Some thoughts on Mendelssohn’s (1845), col. 620. Journal of Musicology 22 (2005): 47– 89. 14 Orchestration,” Mendelssohn, The Hebrides “Music: Philharmonic Society,” Daily News June 21 Franz Brendel, Geschichte der Musik in Italien, and Other Overtures (Cambridge University 24, 1856: 3152. Deutschland und Frankreich von den ersten 15 Press), 84– 88. “The Theatrical and Musical Examiner,” The christlichen Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart 3 Julian Rushton, “The Art of Orchestration,” The Examiner June 28, 1856: 2526 (Leipzig: Heinrich Matthes, 1878), 359. 16 Cambridge Companion to Berlioz, ed. Colin “I never reared a young wombat / To glad me 22 P. Lohmann, “Robert Schumann, Scenen aus Lawson (Cambridge: Cambridge University with his pin-hole eye, / But when he most Goethe’s Faust.” Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 51 Press, 2003), pp. 92–111; here 94. was sweet and fat / And tailless, he was (1859): 106–07. 4 For more on the political aspect, see John sure to die!” mimics Moore’s “The Fire 23 Eduard Hanslick, “Schumanns Musik zu Goethe’s Daverio, “Einheit—Freiheit—Vaterland: Worshippers”: “I never nurs’d a dear gazelle / Faust (vollständige Aufführung)”, Aus dem Intimations of Utopia in Robert Schumann’s To glad me with its soft black eye / But when Concert-Saal: Kritiken und Schilderungen aus Late Choral Music,” Music and German it came to know me well / And love me, it 20 Jahren des Wiener Musiklebens 1848–68 National Identity, ed. Celia Applegate and was sure to die.” (Vienna: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1897), 190–93, 17 Pamela Potter (Chicago: University of For more, see Cecelia Hopkins Porter, “The 304–09. Chicago Press, 2002), 59–77. Reign of the Dilettanti: Düsseldorf from 5 See Laura Tunbridge, Schumann’s Late Style Mendelssohn to Schumann,” The Musical (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Quarterly 73 (1989), 476–512. 2007). 18 Diary entry for March 30,1852, translated in 6 See Nicholas Marston, ‘“The most signifi cant Porter, “The Reign of the Dilettanti,” 502. musical question of the day’: Schumann’s music in Britain in the later nineteenth century,” Schumann Forschungen: Robert und Clara Schumann und die nationalen Musikkulturen des 19. Jahrhunderts, ed. Matthias Wendt (Mainz: Schott, 2005), 153–65. 7 For more, see John Daverio, ‘“A New Genre for the Concert Hall’: Das Paradies und die Peri in the Eyes of a Contemporary,” Schumann and his World, ed. R. Larry Todd (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 129–55. 8 Robert Schumann, ‘“A Midsummer Night’s Dream’: A Letter (1843)”, Schumann on Music: A Selection from the Writings, trans. and ed. Henry Pleasants (New York: Dover, 1965), 195–96; here 196. 9 Emil Flechsig’s and Schumann’s libretto is here given in parallel to Moore’s original; the translation is by no means exact, but the spirit is true. 10 See Schumann’s diary entry for February 23, 1843, Tagebücher 1827–38, ed. Georg Eismann (Leipzig: VEB, 1971), III, 238. 11 Eduard Krüger, review of the premier of Das Paradies und die Peri, Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 47 (1845), cols. 561–70, 585– 89, 606–11, 617–22; here col. 565; quoted in Daverio, ‘“A New Genre for the Concert Hall,”’ 140.

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