remarks. Schumann’s pianoforte style is compounded of two
factors: first, his intensely subjective and varied imagination
which, nourished by the love of Romantic literature, craved an
individual mode of expression; second, a power of concentration
and of organic structure which was largely derived from a study
of Bach and of the later works of Beethoven. Schumann saw
that the regularity of abstract form, found in the purely classi-
cal writers, was not suited to the full expression of his moods
and so he worked out a style of his own, although in many cases
this was simply a logical amplification or modification of former
practice. In his pianoforte compositions, then, we find a striking
freedom in the choice of subject, which is generally indicated by
some poetically descriptive title,e.g.,Waldscenen,Nachtstücke,
Fantasiestücke,Novelletten,Kreisleriana,Humoreske,etc. The
danger in this form of subject matter is that it often degenerates
into sentimentality coupled with a corresponding spinelessness
of structure. This danger Schumann avoids by a style notice-
able for terseness and structural solidity. His effort was to give
significance to every note; all verbiage, meaningless scale pas-
sages and monotonous arpeggios were swept away, while the
imagination was aroused by the bold use of dissonances and by
the variety of tone-color. A thoroughly novel feature was the
flexibility of the rhythm, which breaks from the old “sing-song”
metres and abounds in syncopations, in contrasted accents, and
in subtle combinations of metrical groups; every effort being
made to avoid the tyranny of the bar-line.
[Footnote 190: Because of an unfortunate accident to one of his
fingers this ambition, however, had to be abandoned. The world
thereby gained a great composer.]
Schumann’s career was peculiar in that, beginning as a pianoforte
composer, he tried successively every other form as well—the
song, chamber music, works for orchestra, and for orchestra with
solo voices and chorus—and won distinction to a greater or less
degree in every field save that of the opera. Notwithstanding the
beauty of poetic inspiration enshrined in the four symphonies,
a grave defect is the quality of orchestral tone which greets the
ear, especially the modern ear accustomed to the many-hued
sonority of Wagner, Tchaikowsky, Debussy and others. These
symphonies have been called “huge pieces for four hands” which
were afterwards orchestrated, and the allegation is not without
truth, as real orchestral glow and brilliancy is so often lacking.