Chants of the morning

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Robert Schumann (daguerreotype, around 1850)

The Gesänge der Morgen , Op. 133, is a piano cycle by Robert Schumann , which he composed between October 15 and 18, 1853 in Düsseldorf and dedicated to Bettina von Arnim . It comprises five short pieces and is the last piano work that Schumann designed and supervised printing himself.

With his late composition, written about half a year before his suicide attempt , Schumann responded to the first works of the young Johannes Brahms , whom he shortly afterwards praised in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik under the title Neue Bahnen and presented as a called one at whose cradle Graces and heroes would have watched.

To the music

I. At a calm tempo in D major (4/4 time )

The first piece has only 39 bars and is reminiscent of a chorale .

II. Lively, not too quickly in D major (4/4)

In the second piece, which is in the same key, the right plays triplets , while the left takes on a dotted octave melody; a simple middle voice moves between the two.

III. Lively in A major (9/8)

The piano setting of the comparatively extensive and technically more demanding middle section is reminiscent of the style of the early Scriabin . A dotted “rider rhythm” pervades the composition with chords and octaves.

IV. Moved in F sharp minor (2/4)

In the fourth piece, a treble melody unfolds through fast arpeggios in different registers.

V. At the beginning a calm tempo in D major (4/4)

The short introduction to the last, standing piece is reminiscent of a chorale prelude ; the following melody is accompanied by a flowing sixteenth-note movement played in places by both hands.

Origin and background

Schumann had already planned a cycle a few years earlier, entitled Gesänge der Morgen. Should wear at Diotima . With the name he referred to the literary figure Diotima , who plays an important role in Friedrich Hölderlin's poetry and his novel Hyperion and goes back to the symposium of Plato , in which Socrates reports on her and her teachings on the nature of Eros .

Contrary to popular belief, the Gesänge der Morgen is not Schumann's last composition. The cycle was followed by some chamber music works and its variations in E flat major , which were later given the nickname Ghost Variations .

According to the title, different forms of singing can be recognized in the simple and unadorned pieces . The first and fifth are reminiscent of a chorale, the second and fourth of songs with instrumental accompaniment , the middle one with the dotted rhythm throughout , of a hunting song.

His last piano cycle was so important to him that he dealt with it while he was still in the sanatorium in Endenich . From there he asked Clara to send him the manuscript again for review. He wrote to the dedicatee Bettina von Arnim that he would be delighted if she could hear Clara's interpretation of the pieces.

Just three days before his suicide attempt, Schumann, in a letter to his publisher Friedrich Wilhelm Arnold, characterized his cycle as a collection of “pieces of music that portray the sensations as the morning approaches and grow, but more out of emotional expression than painting.” With these words he referred to Ludwig van Beethoven's remark about the pastoral : "More expression of feeling than painting."

Clara herself wrote about the composition: “Very original pieces again, but difficult to grasp, there is such a very special mood in them”, a phrase that, in Martin Demmler's opinion, indicates that she “couldn't do anything” with them. For him they are characterized by a novel and hymn-like, albeit melancholy, tone. The simple piano setting dispenses with decorative accessories and avoids virtuosity.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Joachim Draheim: Drei Fantasiestücke op.111, Gesänge der Morgen op.133 , in: Schumann-Handbuch, Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2006, p. 279
  2. ↑ Harenberg piano music guide, 600 works from the baroque to the present, Robert Schumann, Gesänge der Früh op.133 , Meyers, Mannheim 2004, p. 806
  3. ↑ Joachim Draheim: Drei Fantasiestücke op.111, Gesänge der Morgen op.133 , in: Schumann-Handbuch, Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2006, p. 280
  4. ↑ a b Martin Demmler: Robert Schumann, “I wept in my dream” , Reclam, Leipzig 2006, p. 245
  5. ↑ Quoted from: Joachim Draheim: Drei Fantasiestücke op.111, Gesänge der Morgen op.133 , in: Schumann-Handbuch, Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2006, p. 279
  6. ↑ Quoted from: Martin Demmler: Robert Schumann, "I have wept in a dream" , Reclam, Leipzig 2006, p. 244

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