tion. In the middle contrasting portion it seems as if Schumann
had taken a leaf out of Chopin’s book—a beautiful, lyric melody
floating on an undercurrent of sonorous, arpeggio chords. The
theme is presented in dialogue form, first in the upper voice,
next in an inner voice and finally in the bass. (See Supplement
No. 53.)
[Footnote 192: A beautiful contrast may be made by playing
the section in F major with the “una corda” pedal throughout.]
SONG,Mondnacht.
No estimate of Schumann would be fair or comprehensive with-
out some mention of his songs; upon which, together with his
pianoforte compositions, his immortality tends more and more
to rest. Notwithstanding the many poetic and dramatic touches
in Schubert’s accompaniments, those of Schumann are on the
whole more finely wrought; for he had the advantage of Schu-
bert in being, himself, a pianist of high attainment, thoroughly
versed in pianistic effects. His imagination was also more sensi-
tive to subtle shades of meaning in the text and he was inspired
by the wonderful lyrics of Heine, Eichendorff and Chamisso who
in Schubert’s day had written very little. Special features of
Schumann’s songs are the instrumental preludes and postludes,
the prelude establishing just the right setting for the import of
the words and the postlude commenting on the beautiful mes-
sage which the voice has just delivered. InMondnacht, for ex-
ample, (as previously mentioned), note how the voice stops in
suspense and in what an eloquent revery the accompaniment
completes the picture. (See Supplement No. 54.)
OVERTURE TOManfred.
This Overture, the first of a set of incidental numbers which
Schumann composed to illustrate Byron’s dramatic poem, rep-
resents some of his most typical inspiration, and so is well worthy
of our study. The music is labored at times, especially in the De-
velopment, and the orchestration is often dry and stereotyped.
But the conception was a powerful one, and there is a genuine
correspondence between the nature of the music and the spirit of
the poem. It is evident that the subject made a deep impression
on Schumann, whose own imagination, addicted to mysterious
and even morbid broodings, was strongly akin to that of By-
ron’s fictitious character. The composition is program music
of the subjective order, comparable to Beethoven’sCoriolanus,