WHEN CONCERTO MEETS SONG CYCLE: A STUDY OF VOCAL INFLUENCES IN ROBERT SCHUMANN’S CELLO CONCERTO IN A MINOR, OP. 129, WITH REFERENCE TO HIS DICHTERLIEBE, OP. 48 BY KA-WAI YU THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in Cello Performance and Literature in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Assistant Professor Reynold Tharp, Chair and Director of Research Assistant Professor Christina Bashford Professor Charlotte Mattax Moersch Assistant Professor Brandon Vamos Associate Professor Ann Yeung © Copyright by Ka-Wai Yu, 2011 ABSTRACT This thesis responds to the long-existing doubts, prejudices and mixed critical views about the value of Schumann’s Cello Concerto and his late music with new ideas and possibly answers. It focuses on analyzing influences from Schumann’s vocal music in the concerto. Dichterliebe, Op. 48, which is one of Schumann’s most successful song cycles and reflects the composer’s mature vocal style, will be used as a reference throughout the thesis, besides examples from Schumann’s other early and late vocal works. The analysis of the concerto is divided into four main sections: structure, tonality, rhetoric, and orchestration. The first section examines how the musical material and sections/movements in the concerto are organically connected like the structure of a song cycle through studying the miniature scale of the work, cyclic recurrences of thematic material, structural unity and ambiguity, fragmentation, and possible song form in the concerto. The second part is an analysis of the concerto’s tonal and harmonic language. It looks into the irony of co-existing yet conflicting tonalities, a shift between sharp and flat keys with possible narrative associations, and a reflection of poetic intentions through the unique timing and function of the augmented 6th chord, which find resonance in Schumann’s songs. While the first two sections address the ‘cycle’ part of the concept of song cycle, the third part of the analysis looks at the rhetorical characteristics, or the ‘song’ part of the concerto, examining how poetic ideas can be spoken and sung in a wordless instrumental work. This section further investigates the use of song motifs in the concerto that may have similar symbolic meanings in Schumann’s vocal repertoire. The final section compares the close soloist-orchestra interaction in the concerto with the intimate partnership between singer and pianist in Schumann’s songs. This section first discusses song textures found in the concerto. It is followed by a discussion of ii narrative intentions of the orchestra as a narrator and musical conversations between soloist and orchestra. The thesis concludes with some thoughts about providing cellists, scholars, musicians, and others with new ways to re-evaluate the special qualities of the piece, reconsider previous prejudices against Schumann’s late style with reference to the Cello Concerto, and re-create an awareness of the long-existing inter-influences between instrumental and vocal music. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my special thanks to my Doctoral committee members for their constant support and advice during my uneasy journey to complete this thesis. I deeply admire my research adviser Reynold Tharp for his inspirations and the time he has given to my analysis, transcriptions, and thesis writing and revisions. His remarkable leadership has kept me in the right research directions and encouraged me fully to enjoy my research process. I would like to thank Christina Bashford for working with me on an earlier independent study of Schumann’s Cello Concerto that became the backbone of my research. I single out Brandon Vamos for his great cello teaching that helped create who I am as a confident performer and musician, and supported my artistic growth and career development. Without him, I would not be able to attempt this challenging yet exciting Doctoral Project. And I am indebted to Charlotte Mattax Moersch, for it is she who introduced me to the wonderful world of early music, and has strongly influenced my intellect as a scholar and my stylistic awareness as a period-instrument performer, which contribute to my desire to re-understand Schumann’s concerto with historical awareness through the project. I also thank Ann Yeung for her previous inspiring chamber coaching and support for my project. I am grateful to John Wagstaff and Hsin-Yi Lin for their English translations of some of my research materials that were originally written in German. Great appreciation is reserved for the performers who prepared for and performed in my Project Recital with the greatest efforts and fine musicianship. Last but not least, I would like to thank my beloved family, my musical and non-musical mentors, as well as friends in the USA and Hong Kong, who have given me the mental strength to complete this thesis work through their love and moral support. iv To lovers of Schumann’s music v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………1 1.1 Criticisms of Schumann’s Cello Concerto……………………………………………………….....1 1.2 Composition Background………………………………………………………………………3 1.3 Schumann’s Vocal Style………………………………………………………………………...6 CHAPTER 2: MUSICAL STRUCTURE OF THE CONCERTO………………………………..13 2.1 Miniature Scale of Work………………………………………………………………………13 2.2 Cyclic Structure………………………………………………………………………………..18 2.3 Structural Ambiguity and Unity………………………………………………………………..34 2.4 Fragmentation………………………………………………………………………………....41 2.5 Song Form…………………………………………………………………………………….50 CHAPTER 3: A POETIC HARMONIC LANGUAGE………………………………………….56 3.1 Dramatic Shift from Sharp to Flat Keys....…………………………………………………….56 3.2 Tonal Ambiguity………………………………………………………………………….........61 3.3 Use of Augmented Sixth Chords……………………………………………………………....66 CHAPTER 4: RHETORICAL CHARACTERISTICS…………………………………………...73 4.1 Rhetoric……………………………………………………………………………………….73 4.2 Song Motifs…..………………………………………………………………………………..82 CHAPTER 5: THE SONG-LIKE ORCHESTRATION…………………………………………95 5.1 Song Texture…………………………………………………………………………………..95 5.2 Narrative Associations……………………………………...………………………………...103 CHAPTER 6: FINAL THOUGHTS……………………………………………………………113 6.1 Performance Interpretation of the Concerto…………………………………………………113 6.2 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………...117 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………………….123 APPENDIX A: INTERPRETIVE PERFORMANCE SUGGESTIONS……………………….129 APPENDIX B: LYRICS AND TRANSLATIONS OF DICHTERLIEBE……………………..131 APPENDIX C: PROJECT RECITAL HOUSE PROGRAM……………………………............135 APPENDIX D: PROJECT RECITAL PROGRAM NOTES..............................................................136 APPENDIX E: TRANSCRIPTIONS OF SCHUMANN’S CELLO CONCERTO AND DICHTERLIEBE FOR CELLO AND STRING QUARTET………………………………….140 vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Criticisms of Schumann’s Cello Concerto Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there have been mixed views about the value of Schumann‟s Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129 composed in 1850. Performers, among them Frankfurt cellist-composer Robert Bockmühl, doubted the playability of the concerto. The work has often been criticized for being technically too awkward and lacking virtuosic display. Heinz von Loesch summarizes Bockmühl‟s criticisms of the piece as divided into three aspects: treatment of the solo instrument, questions of performability of the cello part, and virtuosity.1 Donald Tovey says the form of the concerto shows “little or no disposition to expand.”2 The structure of the last movement of the concerto has been criticized for being too fragmentary, with a single motive being repeated throughout the movement. Joseph Kerman claims the finale‟s main theme has become “an almost unbroken succession of two-bar incises, ungainly and coarse,”3 and Alfred Nieman says that this movement is where Schumann‟s invention “falters.”4 Furthermore, some musicians seem not to appreciate the light orchestration of the concerto. In 1963, Dmitri Shostakovich re-orchestrated Schumann‟s Cello Concerto with added brass instruments and harp. The concerto has also been considered musically too complex to understand. A review of the piece in 1855 by the violinist and composer Karl Böhmer (1799-1884) points out “some rather curious harmonic progressions” found in the piece and claims that it does not work 1 Heinz von Loesch, “Eine verkannte Quelle der frühen Schumann-Rezeption. Die Breife Robert Emil Bockmühls im Spiegel von Rezeption und Werkanalyse des Cellokonzerts,” Jahrbuch des Staatliches Instituts für Musikforschung Preuβischer Kulturbessitz, 1995, ed. Günther Wagner (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1996), pp. 114-133. 2 Donald Tovey, Essays in Musical Analysis, Vol 3: Concertos (London: Oxford University Press, 1936; reprt. 1972), p. 185. 3 Joseph Kerman, “The Concertos,” Beate Perrey, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Schumann (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 185. 4 Alfred Nieman, “The Concertos,” Robert Schumann: The Man and His Music, ed. Alan Walker (London: Barrie & Jenkins Ltd, 1976), p. 266. 1 well as a “concert piece.”5 Oldenburg court Kapellmeister August Pott (1806-1883) refused to have the piece performed in the court saying the piece is “disgusting, horrible, and boring.”6 These doubts and criticisms of the piece, like those of many other late Schumann works, are further amplified when critics relate them to Schumann‟s mental illness. According to Laura Tunbridge, many have related the composer‟s illness