Papillons

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Papillons (French: butterflies) op.2 for piano two hands is a piano cycle by Robert Schumann . The work, composed between 1829 and 1832, is dedicated to Therese, Rosalie and Emilie Schumann. The Papillons were created in connection with reading the fragment of the novel Flegeljahre by Jean Paul .

background

In April 1832 Schumann wrote to Ludwig Rellstab , the poet and founder of the music magazine Iris in the field of music art : “Less for the editor of Iris than for the poet and kindred spirit Jean Paul, I allow myself a few words about the Papillons about their creation to add, since the thread that is supposed to loop them together is barely visible. Eu. Well-born remember the last scene in the boozy years — larval dance — Walt — Vult — masks — Wina — Vults dancing — the exchange of masks — confessions — anger — disclosure — sharing — final dream and then the departing brother. I often turned the last page over: because the end seemed to me just a new beginning - I was almost unconsciously at the piano and so one Papillon after the other was created. "

Schumann also used compositions that had already been created earlier. In Schumann's personal copy of the Flegeljahre there are marginal notes that assign the individual numbers of the Papillons to specific passages in the text. A letter to Henriette Voigt shows that this is not a setting for a novel: “I also mention that I have underlined the text of the music, not the other way around - otherwise it seems to me to be a 'foolish beginning'. Only the last one, which gamble chance made the answer to the first, was awakened by Jean Paul. "

The two main characters of the novel are Walt Harnisch (a rather calm poet nature) and his brother Vult (a daring flute virtuoso and brilliant dancer). Both love the same woman, namely Wina, the daughter of a Polish general. Your choice between Vult and Walt will be decided at a masked ball.

In the novel, Walt Harnisch is made aware by a piano tuner that his family name contains the tone letters A – S (Es) -CH. Schumann notes that these also appear in his last name, which prompts him to identify with the two Harnisch brothers and to establish a connection between his music and the novel. Schumann even used these tone letters explicitly in the later Carnaval piano cycle . Walt and Vult were also the models for Schumann's split alter ego ( Florestan and Eusebius ).

Interpretations

The title Papillons refers - as Schumann himself is supposed to have explained in conversation - to the colorful "fluttering around a carnival ball".

The connection with the mask festival at the end of Jean Paul's novel is beyond dispute. How concrete the references to the literary counterpart are, however, is viewed differently.

  • Reclam's piano music guide comes to the following conclusion: “The labyrinth of the ball is here a magical space in which, on the rhythms of the dances and in the veil of tones, the web of dreams condense into poetic existence. To interpret them programmatically in the sense of the literary model, however, would not be productive. "
  • Linke and Kneip comment: "Obviously Schumann shows us different moods into which a ball-goer can fall (hustle and bustle, disguise, masking, success, coarseness, melancholy, languor, surprise, humor, sudden feeling of loneliness, misery, etc.)"
  • Misha Donat comments on the marginal notes in Schumann's hand copy of the Flegeljahre : "Although one should not overestimate such parallels, there are quite clear connections here."
  • Akio Mayeda goes even further and tries a very concrete assignment of the music to the events in the novel and to the characters. In addition to Schumann's entries in his copy of the novel, he partly relies on music-analytical findings, but partly he also makes claims that are not substantiated. The core of Mayeda's interpretation is based on the observation of a motivic-thematic connection between the introduction and bars 41 to 48 of the tenth piece. Mayeda interprets the "obviously" questioning gesture of the introductory passage as a question to whom Wina will turn her favor. The decision about this will be made during the masked ball in the tenth piece, where “meaningful modifications of the introductory melody” would mark your choice.

The individual sentences

Introduzione - Moderato

The only six-bar introduction consists of an enriched with overtones rising refraction of D major - triad , with a certain resemblance to the introductory bars of Weber's Invitation to the Dance can be seen.

Mayeda interprets the questioning gesture of this passage related to the novel as a musical expression of the question to whom Wina will turn her favor.

number 1

The piece is characterized by a simple and cheerful scale theme that is already included as Waltz No. 6 in Study Book 3 and appears again in No. 12. Thus the general theme of the work is presented here.

The passage underlined by Schumann in Jean Paul reads:

As he [Walt] stepped out of the little room, he asked God that he would gladly find it again; to him it was like a hero thirsty for glory going into his first battle.

Mayeda interprets this piece as "Walt's appearance".

No. 2 - Prestissimo

Splendidly rustling E-flat major chord breaks in fortissimo are followed by a passage with a zigzag melody (first mezzoforte , then pianissimo ). A DC ( Da capo ) demands the complete repetition of this short cut.

The music corresponds very vividly to the text passage crossed out in the hand copy. This refers to the ballroom that Walt enters after going astray through other rooms:

At last, as he wanted to examine the adjoining room streaming in, he got out into the real resounding, burning hall full of flowing figures and hats in the magic smoke. What a giving birth to a northern light sky full of zigzagged figures moving against each other!

Without giving a reason, Mayeda describes this piece as "the contrasting counter-portrait of Vult, his spirited, stormy appearance in accomplished elegance."

No. 3

An energetically accentuated theme in F sharp minor , played throughout in octaves, is first introduced in unison in the bass, then the same melody appears more than two octaves higher in A major , supported by octaved bass tones and with a modified second part. In a third section (again in F sharp minor) there is a canon between the upper and lower voices. The topic can be found in Study Book V under counterpoint exercises. Mayeda thinks that Schumann's mostly misunderstood statement that he learned counterpoint from Jean Paul can be explained here.

The highlighted text is:

Most of all, what attracted him and his admiration was a slipping giant boot that had on and wore itself ...

According to Ernst Bücken, "the third piece depicts various mask trains that cross each other (in the canon)".

Reclam's piano music guide comments: "The F sharp minor octaves may mean the giant boots of the grotesque Jean Paul mask."

No. 4 - Presto

The piece is in 3/8 time and has a three-part form (ABA ' ). The A (A ' ) part that begins in A major ends in F sharp minor and alternates between these two keys. Melody and rhythm are differentiated and of smooth liveliness, the dynamic increases from piano to forte . The B-part gets u. a. due to the erratic division between right and left hand as well as the dynamics ( crescendo - subito pianissimo ) and agogic ( accelerando , ritenuto ) a decidedly capricious touch. The final part (A ' ) differs from the A-part in that in the 3rd u. 4. timing the two-stroke sustained fis 3 by the sigh gis 3  - fis 3 is replaced, as well as by the more intense final increase to fortissimo .

The text assigned in the hand copy is:

Hope [previously described as a virgin with a wreath of flowers on her head (Vult is behind the mask)] turned quickly; a shepherdess arrested and a simple nun with a half mask and a fragrant bouquet of auricles came.

Since Wina is hidden behind the nun's mask, Mayeda draws the conclusion: "The music, full of longing and graceful gestures, can be understood as a portrait of Wina."

Linke and Kneip see the character of the music slightly differently: "A harlequin who joins in teasingly."

No. 5

The music is an arrangement of the trio from No. 7 of the eight polonaises for piano four hands.

Marked text in the hand copy:

Now he stood alone for a second next to the quiet virgin ...

Mayeda says that the polonaise is about Walt's dance with Wina (the beautiful Polish woman). He also believes the music contains a portrayal of Walt's double mask as a miner and carter. From bar 9 he hears “the hard-working shovel movement” of the miner, while from bar 13 “the brisk rhythm of driving forward” stands for the work of the carter.

No. 6

This piece is formally rondo-like : a triple sounding, each slightly varied ritornello is interrupted alternately by two couplets of different characters.

Marked position in the hand copy:

Your waltzes so far, don't be offended by the news, ran through the hall as good facial imitations, partly horizontal by the carter, partly vertical by the miner.

Linke and Kneip see in this piece "a scene in the drinking room, in between (in the 2nd and 4th part) music outside in the hall ..."

Mayeda interprets this piece as a representation of the dancing Walt. "The energetic main theme - passionate without elegance -" is "the heightening of the miner's motif from No. 5". The pianissimo of the A major theme of the first couplet (from bar 7) is seen by Mayeda as the timidly awkward appearance of Walt. When the same theme reappears later in number 10 in fortissimo and transposed to G major, it represents the self-assured appearance of Vult in Walt's disguise.

No. 7 - Semplice

After eight introductory pianissimo bars in F minor with a pensive and melancholy character, there follows in A flat major “a waltz of longing in Jung-Schumann style”.

Following the entry in the hand copy, this is about Vult's idea to swap the disguise with Walt. Vult sees that Walt is in love but cannot dance well. That's why he offers to stand in for him. In the story, exchanging masks creates the problem that in the end it is not clear whether Wina's admission of love belongs to the dancer Vult or his brother Walt.

No. 8

The piece begins fortissimo with an eight-bar energetic opening in C sharp minor , which is determined by the 3/4 rhythm . The following waltz in D flat major is also characterized by the same rhythm. Eighth noteEighth noteQuarter note  Quarter note

He assigns this rhythm, which Mayeda perceived as unusual, to the extravagant Vult: “No. 8 is obviously Vult's brilliant dance. ”Walt, on the other hand, is, according to Mayeda, through the rather normal, e.g. B. in No. 6 occurring rhythm . Quarter note  Eighth noteEighth note  Quarter note

No. 9 - Prestissimo

The sketch on which the opening theme is based was originally conceived as a waltz in tempo giusto . The tempo and character change ( prestissimo ) took place (in Mayeda's opinion) “undoubtedly with the intention” to adapt the music to the plot of the novel.

The position marked in the hand copy reads:

"So make it quick," replied Vult without thinking.

Mayeda interprets the “fleeing bars” (from T.9.) As a “reflex of the hasty exchange of masks”.

No. 10 - Vivo-piu lento

The first 16 (3 / 8-) bars of the piece ( held with tension in pianissimo ) begin with a C major fanfare. Then the hasty eighth notes from No. 9 reappear, which (according to Mayeda) remind of the exchange of the masks.

Then the slightly modified first couplet from No. 6 appears in 3/4 time, but here in G major instead of in A major, instead of pianissimo in fortissimo and due to the fuller movement and the slower tempo (più lento) more weighty.

The rest of the (larger) part of the piece is filled by a waltz, which is interrupted shortly before the end by a 4-bar fortissimo throw-in and after a pause with a fermata ( ritenuto ) fades away ( ppp is mandatory from the third to last bar ).

The passage marked in the hand copy reads:

Walten felt when he entered as if everyone was looking at the larva swap [...]. Some women noticed that Hope was now wearing blonde hair behind the flowers instead of the previous black one, but attributed it to the wig. Walt's step, too, was smaller and more feminine, as befits hopes.
But soon he forgot himself and Saal and everything, since the wagoner Vult put Wina [...] at the head of the English dance without any circumstances and, to the astonishment of the dancer, now artificially designed a dance outline with her and, like some painters, as it were with his foot painted, only with larger decorative lines.

Mayeda interprets the weighty G major passage (mm. 17 ff) as "... Vult, who stepped forward with great male steps in Walt's double masks as a miner and carter: It's me, Walt, I ask for this dance!"

In the flowing dance from bar 25 (instead of the English dance in the romantic text here a waltz) Mayeda discovers a “… music-semantic function of the melody, which can be recognized as an augmentation of the introduzione melody. The question posed at the beginning is addressed here […] (bars 25-40), then expressed directly to Wina in the clear contour of the introductory melody (bars 41-44). In the expressive reflex to it (T. 45-48), Wina's love-yes can be clearly recognized, which is also confirmed by the blissful counter-melody of the night dance [...]. "

Mayeda interprets the fortissimo outburst (mm. 65 ff) as Vult's sudden awakening from his blissful dream. The “Vult rhythm” ( ) and the “Walt rhythm” ( ) appear here immediately one after the other , which signals the realization: “I, Vult […], but am Walt! […] - This yes-word belongs to him. "Vult's angry reaction to this realization in the novel is missing in the music:" ... his dance with the beloved Wina ends in the tone of noble, calm resignation. " Eighth noteEighth noteQuarter note  Quarter noteQuarter note  Eighth noteEighth note  Quarter note

No. 11

The preliminary form of this brilliantly capricious D major polonaise can be found in the youth polonaise for piano four hands, but here it has been expanded to become the longest and most effective movement of the entire cycle.

The following point is marked in the hand copy:

Late at the end of the dance, Vult let several Polish sounds slip away by shaking hands in a hurry, crossing, flying up and down - only breaths of language - only crazy butterflies from a distant island blown over the sea. This language sounded like a strange song of larks in late summer.

Mayeda states, “… that such poetic musical analogies can only be understood in the newly composed passages that are still missing in the youth polonaise. Above all, this is the extended middle section from Più lento (bar 32 ff) with the enigmatic unison passage (bar 42 ff). "

No. 12 - final

Closing bars of the finale

The finale opens in the sense of a clean sweep with a quote of the then-known grandfather dance , followed by a quick dance in 2/4-stroke. After the repetition of the grandfather dance , the theme from number 1 appears in bar 25 and is combined with the grandfather theme from bar 31. While the latter fades away, the theme from No. 1 is first rhythmically veiled, then only the scale-like beginning is repeated and with each repetition shortened by one note (from the beginning 7 to 0), so that finally only one of it Pause remains. In the notes there is the entry: “The sound of the carnival night falls silent. The tower clock strikes six. ”This is realized by an accented a 2 struck six times while the music is fading away . The fading motif is taken up again in the final bars: an arpeggiated dominant seventh chord tapers through successive dampening of the harmony tones down to the single tone. The basic design idea of ​​this finale arose when Schumann discovered by chance that the first theme (No. 1) is contrapuntal with the grandfather theme.

There is no hand copy entry for No. 12. Schumann wrote to Castelli , however , that the end corresponded to the sentence: "Even from a distance [at Paul: Gasse ] Walt was delighted to hear the fleeing tones talking, because he did not notice that his brother was escaping with them." This was the last sentence of the boozy years Schumann originally placed the motto in front of his Papillons , but the quote did not appear in the printed edition.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ quoted from Misha Donat: Commentary on the CD recording with Marc-André Hamelin on Hyperion CDA67120, online
  2. ↑ quoted from Akio Mayeda : Papillons for piano op. 2 , in: Helmut Loos (ed.): Robert Schumann, interpretations of his works , Laaber Verlag, 2005, p. 16. ISBN 3-89007-447-2
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Norbert Linke - Gustav Kneip : Robert Schumann - On topicality of his works , Wiesbaden 1978, pp. 141–145. ISBN 3-7651-0123-0 .
  4. ↑ a b Werner Oehlmann (Ed.): Reclams Piano Music Guide , Stuttgart 1967, Vol. 2, pp. 154–157
  5. ↑ Misha Donat: Commentary on the CD recording with Marc-André Hamelin on Hyperion CDA67120, online
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Akio Mayeda : Papillons for piano op. 2 , in: Helmut Loos (ed.): Robert Schumann, interpretations of his works , Laaber Verlag, 2005, p. 9 -16. ISBN 3-89007-447-2 .
  7. ^ Ernst Bücken : Robert Schumann , Cologne 1941, p. 45f

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