Each one, however, has notable features,e.g., the sublime Ada-
gio of the 2d, and the touching Romanza of the 4th, and each is
worthy of study; for Schumann in certain aspects furnishes the
best avenue of approach to the modern school. In the Fourth
Symphony he obliterates the pauses between the movements
and fuses them all together; calling it a Symphony “in einem
Satze” and anticipating the very same procedure that Schön-
berg follows in his String Quartet which has had recent vogue.
Schumann’s chief contribution to the development of the Ger-
man Song lay in the pianoforte part, which with Schubert and
Mendelssohn might properly be called an accompaniment, how-
ever rich and varied. But in Schumann the pianoforte attains
to a real independence of style, intensifying in the most subtle
and delicate way every shade of poetic feeling in the text. In
fact, it is often used to reveal some deep meaning beyond the
expressive power of words. This is seen in the closing measures
of “Moonlight” where the voice ceases in suspense, and the in-
strument completes the eloquence of the message. Schumann’s
great achievement as a literary man was his founding, in 1834, of
theNeue Zeitschrift für Musik, to which he himself contributed
many stimulating and suggestive essays, opposing with might
and main the Philistinism which so pervaded the music of his
time. He even established an imaginary club, called the Davids-
bund, to storm the citadel of Philistia.
The best eulogy of Schumann is the recognition that many of
the tendencies in modern music, which we now take for granted,
date from him: the exaltation of freedom and fancy over mere
formal presentation, the union of broad culture with musical
technique, and the recognition of music as the art closest in
touch with the aspirations of humanity. He was an idealist with
such perseverance and clearness of aim that his more character-
istic work can never die.