Quintet in E flat major op.44 (Schumann)

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The quintet in E flat major for 2 violins, viola, violoncello and piano op.44 was written by Robert Schumann between September 23 and October 16, 1842.

The piano quintet is dedicated to his wife Clara Schumann , but originally the following dedication was planned by the composer: "Quintet for pianoforte, two violins, viola and cello, reverently dedicated to Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Maria Paulowna of Saxony-Weimar by Robert Schumann."

The work was first published as part of a by R. and Cl. Sch. Musical morning entertainment performed publicly on January 8, 1843 by Clara Schumann, Ferdinand David , Moritz Gotthold Klengel, HO Hunger and Carl Wittmann.

It was published on September 13, 1843, Clara's 24th birthday, by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig .

Sources

There are three sources for the quintet op.44:

  1. The complete draft, entitled “Sketch” by Schumann (Carpentras, Bibliothèque Inguimbertine). The final fugato of the finale is missing; it was only added after the individual movements had been worked out. In the sketch there is also a fragment of another slow movement.
  2. The autograph (Bonn, UB, Schumann 5).
  3. The engraving model for the piano part (Krefeld, city library). Title page and various changes were made by Schumann.

History of origin

The Schumanns budget book contains the following data for the creation:

September 23, 1842 - "run-up to a quintet."
September 24, 1842 - "finished first sentence of the quintet."
September 25, 1842 - . "On working quintet"
- September 26, 1842 "Hardworking at Quintet."
Sept. 27 1842 - "Very hardworking and happy with the quintet."
September 28, 1842 - "Pretty much finished with the quintet."
October 5, 1842 - "Started writing the quintet." October
12, 1842 - "My quintet finished."

The sketch itself indicates the period from 23 to 28 September 1842 on the cover sheet. In addition to the Marcia, it contains a sentence fragment entitled “Scena” which was not included in the autograph. The final fugato is missing, however, and it was only added after the autograph was completed. This shows the final dates for the elaborated sentences:

1st sentence “6 October 1842.”
2nd sentence “8 Oct. 42. "
3rd movement " 9 Oct. 42. ”
4th movement “ 12 October 1842 Leipzig Rob. Schumann. "

The final date for the changes or extensions in the Fugato closing of the finale is "16 October 1842" .

In the marriage diary, Clara Schumann writes: “The last week of September went on very quietly as far as our external life is concerned; but my Robert worked all the more with the spirit! he has pretty much completed a quintet which, after what I have overheard, seems splendid again - a work full of strength and freshness! - I very much hope to play it publicly here this winter. "

After Clara heard the quintet for the first time in a rehearsal on November 29th, she judged: "In the evening we tried Robert's newly completed quintet for the first time, which is a wonderful work, extremely brilliant and effective."

Schumann himself only wrote three statements on his op. 44, for example in a letter of January 3, 1843 to Franz Liszt : “I wrote a quintet; perhaps my wife should play this in B.; I would be happy if you heard it - it has a very fresh effect. "

About the first public performance on January 8, 1843, he wrote to Wilhelm Taubert (January 10, 1843): “Our matinee went off happily - I wish you had been there. Quartet [A minor] and quintet had a very lively effect, also in the concert hall ” .

He wrote to Verhulst on June 19, 1843: “You will find a lot about my quintet and quartet; it is a very busy life. "

Schumann asked his publisher R. Härtel to have the quintet appear on Clara's birthday in a letter dated March 7, 1843: “My quintet is ready for printing. It is entirely up to you when you want it to appear. I would like to have it for my wife's birthday (beginning of September)! "

Edits

On July 1, 1845, Schumann wrote a letter to Härtel asking “whether a four-handed arrangement” of his “quintet of effort” would be worthwhile ” and advised the Leipzig piano teacher A. Dörffel for this work. However, this proposal was rejected.

It was only Johannes Brahms who made such an arrangement. He wrote to Joseph Joachim on September 12, 1854 : “Tomorrow, the 13th, is her [Clara's] birthday; I fulfilled a long-standing wish for her and arranged Schumann's quintet for four hands. While she was in Ostend I secretly took the manuscript out of the cupboard so that she had no idea. I got deeper and deeper into it, like a pair of dark blue eyes (that's how it feels to me). That's why I was only able to write this letter now. "

Sentence descriptions

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1st movement: Allegro brilliant

4/4 time, key: E flat major

The first movement in sonata form begins with a latently monothematic main theme that develops an unusually large ambitus in sequences . The three-part song form on which the main movement is based deviates harmoniously in the recapitulation into the dominant . The topic evaluation is already started while the topic is being drawn up. A contradicting level of expression is assigned to the subject head in the middle part of the main clause. This serves as a sequence model in the form of a cantable spinning , the structure of which is condensed by imitating inserts. The transition to the subordinate section beginning in the mediante is continued as an evaluation of the main subject head according to the principles of kaleidoscope technology. The page set itself has a rondo-like internal structure.

2nd movement: In modo d'una Marcia

In the sketch, the slow second movement is longer. Formally, the sentence is in three parts.

After three introductory measures, the major section A follows with the subsections a - b - a 1 . This is followed by a contrasting middle section B, a kind of intermezzo, followed by the recapitulation A 1 with the sections a 2 - b 1 - a 3 :

a - Marcia in C minor (bars 1 - 29)
b - Maggiore in C major, referred to as a trio when the return is transposed (bars 30–61)
a 1 - Marcia in C minor, only the final bar changed (bars 62–84)
leading to D (bars 85–91)
B - middle part / Intermezzo in F minor, agitato (bars 92–109)

Recapitulation A 1
a 2 - Marcia in C minor: Variation with hunting triplet eighth as accompaniment (bars 110–132)
b 1 - Maggiore in F major (bars 133–164)
a 3 - Marcia in F minor, after C minor, ending in C major (bars 165–193)

3rd movement: Scherzo, Molto vivace

4th movement: Allegro ma non troppo

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodor Müller-Reuter: "Lexicon of German Concert Literature" , Leipzig (1909), p. 182
  2. ↑ Boetticher: Schumann in his writings. 1942, p. 371.
  3. ^ Eugenie Schumann : "Schumann" (1931), p. 334
  4. ^ Eugenie Schumann: "Schumann" (1931), p. 337
  5. ↑ "Letters" (1904), p. 224
  6. ↑ Boetticher: "Schumann in his writings" (1942), p. 360
  7. ↑ Boetticher: "Schumann in his writings" (1942), p. 393f.
  8. ↑ "Letters" (1904), p. 435
  9. ^ "Letters" (1904), p. 443 and p. 540
  10. ↑ Andreas Moser (ed.): "Johannes Brahms in correspondence with Joseph Joachim" , 2 volumes, Berlin (1921), I, p. 59