Schumann's Opus 39 Liederkreis - The Story of An Engagement

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Miami, Florida
SCHUMANN’S OPUS 39 LIEDERKREIS:
THE STORY OF AN ENGAGEMENT
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF MUSIC
by
Julia Dean McFadden
2003
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
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McFadden, Julia Dean
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To: Dean Arthur W. Herriott
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This thesis, written by Julia Dean McFadden, and entitled Schumann's Opus 39
Liederkreis: The Story of an Engagement, having been approved in respect to style and
intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment.
We have read this thesis and recommend that it be approved.
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Robert Dundas, Major Professor
Date of Defense: January 6, 2000
The thesis of Julia Dean McFadden is approved.
Dean Arthur W. Herriott

Colleae of Arts and Sciences
Dean QjSdglas Wartzok

University Graduate School
Florida International University, 2003
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© Copyright 2003 by Julia Dean McFadden
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ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS
SCHUMANN’S OPUS 39 LIEDERKREIS:
THE STORY OF AN ENGAGEMENT
by
Julia Dean McFadden
Florida International University, 2003
Miami, Florida
Professor Robert Dundas, Major Professor
The objective of this thesis is twofold: 1) to confirm Robert Schumann’s
selection of the twelve poems by Josef von Eichendorff for Schumann’s own purposes in
the song cycle entitled Eichendorff Liederkreis Opus 39; and 2) to establish a theme or
story line in the final order of the poems.
The methodology employed first a research into the biography of Josef von
Eichendorff, including an understanding of his use of poetic images that represented
Catholicism and nostalgia for his privileged childhood, and a contrast with Robert
Schumann’s biography and his very different motivations during his song year
(Liederjahr) of 1840: love and his traumatic 1835-1840 engagement to Clara Wieck.
The songs were then analyzed as a collection and as pairs, both musically and with regard
to textual meaning. Finally, the events of the Schumann/Wieck engagement were
weighed against the twelve song texts.
The results of the findings confirm the likely existence of a theme for the
Liederkreis, which is Robert Schumann’s 4-1/2 year engagement to Clara Wieck.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................. 1
II. JOSEF VON EICHENDORFF........................................................................... 2
III. ROBERT SCHUMANN.....................................................................................6
IV. ROBERT AND CLARA’S ENGAGEMENT................................................... 10
V. AN OVERVIEW OF THE EICHENDORFF POEMS..................................... 16
VI. THE STORY IN THE SONGS.........................................................................28

In der Fremde.................................................................................................. 30
Intermezzo....................................................................................................... 33
Waldesgesprach............................................................................................... 35
Die Stille.......................................................................................................... 38
Mondnacht....................................................................................................... 40
Schone Fremde................................................................................................ 42
Auf einer Burg................................................................................................. 44
In der Fremde II............................................................................................... 49
Wehmut............................................................................................................ 52
Zwielicht.......................................................................................................... 54
ImWalde.......................................................................................................... 57
Fruhlingsnacht.................................................................................................. 60
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................ 62
BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................ 65
INTRODUCTION
Many eminent music scholars have analyzed the Liederkreis op. 39 for the
existence of a unifying theme and have concluded that this particular song cycle has no
“story line,” as they term it. Instead, they have argued merely for a division of the twelve
songs into two sections, or “curves,” with each section representing a different overall
emotional content.1 The proposal of this thesis is, given Schumann’s chronology as
notated in his and Clara Wieck’s letters, that the final, published order of the songs
represents the composer’s harrowing and powerful story of his engagement to Clara
Wieck.
In the course of this thesis the life of Josef von Eichendorff will be detailed, his
background, and the contribution that his background made to poetic images he used.
Then Robert Schumann’s life and background and his very different reactions to those
same images, drawn from his early childhood love of literature and music, will be treated.
There will also be a discussion of Schumann’s different orderings of the songs, how the
final order represents a chronology of emotions and events from his engagement to Clara
Wieck, and how even the key signatures of the songs support the theme of engagement
and marriage. Jurgen Thym’s theory of the Stimmungen (meaning moods or
atmospheres), which he developed for analysis of poems will be explained and will be
followed with differing views, including the author’s. Finally, there will be a description,
song by song, of the engagement story as reflected in the song cycle.
1 Patrick McCreless, “Song Order in the Song Cycle: Schumann’s Liederkreis, op. 39,” Music Analysis 5,
no. 1 (1986): 12.
JOSEF VON EICHENDORFF
Josef Freiherr von Eichendorff was bom in 1788 in his ancestral home of
Lubowitz Castle in Upper Silesia. The term Freiherr literally means “freelord” or more
loosely, baron, and was a title of nobility in Eichendorff s family. Lubowitz Castle as
stated above was located in the province known as Upper Silesia, now in the
northwestern part of the Czech Republic, at that time part of the Prussian State. Maria
Theresa, Empress of Austria, had lost control of the region 25 years before Eichendorff s
birth. Despite the existence of the Prussian government, Upper Silesia still thought of
itself as Austrian and Catholic, and so did the Eichendorff family. Eichendorff expressed
these deeply patriotic and religious feelings throughout his life as recurrent themes in his
poems and novels,
Josef von Eichendorff s childhood was privileged and idyllic. He and his brother
spent their early youth studying, enjoying festivities, and rambling in the nearby forests
and mountains. His parents were wealthy and happily married. Their residence,
Lubowitz Castle, was richly furnished, and outside the luxurious interior were extensive
gardens, which contained Rococo designed flowerbeds, mythological statues, fountains,
and tree-lined alleys. These images from Eichendorff s childhood were destined to
appear in some of the poems selected by Robert Schumann.
The family’s advantaged lifestyle changed suddenly with Napoleon’s attempt to
conquer the Prussian state. Like many others of his aristocratic class, Eichendorff s
family estate existed under the feudal system, whereby peasants worked the land and paid
homage to the lord of the manor. The French Revolution, opposed to class distinctions,
was gradually permeating German society, so that by the time Eichendorff was eighteen
he was at last forced to become aware of conflicts in his social system.2 That year of
1806, he and his brother were attending the University of Halle, which Napoleon’s army
was occupying under the command of Murat.
The disruption in their lives continued as his parents gradually lost workers and
income on the ancestral estate. The two young men transferred to Heidelberg for their
second two years of study, a common practice in Germany, but while going to school,
they attempted to assist their father in saving the manor. They were struggling to assure
themselves of a future profession as gentlemen farmers. By the time Eichendorff
graduated in 1810 it was clear that the family property was in such financial straits that he
would have to pursue another profession. He spent the next three years in Vienna
studying for the civil service and writing his first novel, Ahnung und Gegenwart. A new
friend, Dorothea Schlegel, daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, supplied the title for his
novel. Thus Robert Schumann has at least an indirect social connection with Eichendorff
through his later friendship with the Mendelssohns; social ties were important to
Schumann3.
2 Egon Schwartz, Joseph von Eichendorff(New York: Tweyne Publishers, 1972), 18.
3 Schwartz, 21; Eric Sams, The Songs o f Robert Schumann (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University
Press, 1993), 4.
In 1813 the King of Prussia called for every German patriot to fight Napoleon’s
army, and Eichendorff, who had been on the point of enlisting in the service for Austria,
felt compelled to join the Prussian Army instead.4 He became an officer in the Lutzow
Corps. Napoleon abdicated and was exiled to the island of Elba, and Eichendorff
received his military dismissal. He was fortunate enough in 1815 to do two things:
marry a lady with an identical background to his, Aloysia von Larisch, and publish his
first novel. Also in 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba, and Eichendorff was forced to
re-enlist. The war against Napoleon finally ended in 1816 and Eichendorff was at last
free to seek a profession. Although it was not a job to his liking he became a civil servant
in the Prussian government in Breslau at a pitifully low salary.
However, years later in 1821 he received an appointment as a government
councilor on the affairs of the Catholic churches and schools, a position which afforded
him a more comfortable lifestyle. But despite his improved situation, he never stopped
yearning for the wealth and position of his youth. Any remaining hopes he had of
returning to the pre-Napoleonic manor of his childhood were gone forever in 1822 when
his mother died and the estates were completely lost to creditors.
Eichendorff suffered prejudice during his time in the civil service owing to his
unswerving devotion to Roman Catholicism, and by 1844 he had retired, perhaps due to
an argument with his superior regarding the Church. Throughout the span of his 28-year
career he had led two lives: that of government worker, and writer/poet. He poured out
his unrealized dreams of the past and his bitterness towards the Prussian bureaucracy in
4 Library of the World’s Best Literature 9 (1897), s.v. “Josef von Eichendorff.”
Reproduced with permission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
his written works. Anti-Napoleonic feelings also showed up in his writings, and their
expression remained strong in his literary works throughout his lifetime.5
His marriage to Aloysia von Larisch had been a happy one, sustaining him
through the difficulties he experienced in his government career, and two years after his
beloved wife passed away, he died in the home of his daughter in 1857.
5 Karen Hindenlang, “Eichendorff s Auf einer Burg and Schumann’s Liederkreis, opus 39,” The Journal of
Musicology 8, no. 4 (Fall 1990): 578.
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Robert Schumann, the youngest son of Friedrich August Schumann and Johanna
Christiana Schnabel, was born in 1810 in the town of Zwickau, Germany, and outlived all
his family although he lived only to the age of forty-six. He showed early musical talent
and was sent to study piano at the age of seven with Johann Gottfried Kuntsch, who was
the town organist for the Marienkirche in Zwickau. Unfortunately Kuntsch was a self-
taught organist and lacked teaching focus, so that the young Schumann would absorb the
basics that he taught and then would go off on his own to explore his own creativity. His
musical talents continued to grow and were recognized by many in the town. During the
next eight years, he was distinguished for his original compositions and improvisation,
and frequently organized his friends into performances of musical and dramatic works,
some of which were his own. At times his father would even take part in the festivities.
Robert Schumann became a voracious reader while very young, owing no doubt
to his father’s bookselling, writing and editing profession. Schumann’s love of both
music and literature were always very tightly linked from an early age. He began his
formal education at the age of six at a private school. Three years later he began his
“solid classical education” at the Zwickau Lyceum.
Schumann’s personal identification with literature and music was so consuming
that by the time he was seventeen it culminated in an infatuation with the writings and
person of Jean-Paul Richter. Richter’s novels were to dominate Schumann throughout
his life.6 As an instance of Schumann’s devotion to Jean-Paul, when he was seventeen he
wrote to his old Lyceum chum, Emil Flechsig, of renouncing a sweetheart simply
6 Victor Basch, Robert Schumann: A Life of Suffering (New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1931), 17.
because she did not agree that Jean-Paul was the greatest living writer. “And the lofty
image of the Ideal vanishes, when I think of the speeches she made about Jean-Paul. Let
the dead rest,” said Schumann. He wrote to Flechsig a little later in the same letter,
“When you arrive at Michaelmas, if you have still read nothing of Jean-Paul’s, I shall be
capable of doing you a damage... so I say to you, read Titan or I shall kick you.”
Schumann’s reputation as an adherent of Jean-Paul Richter became so established that
friends and family would routinely search every bit of his music to find a Jean-Paul story
in it. He would then protest their interpretation by proclaiming his own individuality,
“Don’t you think these pieces are clear by themselves”?8
It was interesting that Schumann could never perceive his own inconsistent
viewpoint. Four years later at the age of twenty-one, he asked his entire family, naming
each in a letter dated April 1S32, to read the last scene in Jean-Paul’s Flegeljahre so as to
understand his piano work, Papillons, Later on when they were engaged, Clara Wieck
was to receive the same dual message as Schumann’s family. She was willing enough to
read the Jean-Paul literary works Robert recommended, but she made the blunder of
referring to him as Jean-Paul the Second. He ordered her never to do so again, but
obviously he was unaware of his own total involvement with the literature of Jean-Paul
Richter.9
Schumann graduated at the age of eighteen from the Zwickau Lyceum and was
confronted with the reality of pursuing an education leading to a professional career. He
7 Robert Schumann, Early Letters of Robert Schumann, trans. May Herbert (London: George Bell & Sons,
1970), 9.
8 Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Robert Schumann: Words and Music, trans. Reinhard G. Pauly (Portland, OR:
Amadeus Press, 1988), 10.
9 Schumann, 160,287.
had had his father’s support of pursuing a music career until his untimely death when Robert
was just sixteen. His practical and prosaic mother, although doting on her youngest, was
determined that he should follow a more stable career than music: law. Schumann tried to
go along with her wishes. Actually he only made a pretense of doing so, because he knew
what his musical gifts were and was determined to follow them. He enrolled at the
University of Leipzig, but not only did he not attend lectures, he “rarely even approached the
buildings where the law lectures were held.”10 What he was doing with his time was
attending concerts, composing and improvising, making new friends, continuing old
friendships, and performing at little soirees.
One of Robert Schumann’s good friends, Agnes Carus, was helpful in bringing
Friedrich Wieck, his future mentor and opponent, and nine-year-old Clara Wieck, to his
notice. Schumann was impressed with Clara Wieck’s musical playing as well as her
command of technique, and therefore with Friedrich Wieck as a teacher. He approached
Wieck for some piano lessons and thus began his formal music education. It wasn’t long,
though --only eight or nine months—before Schumann was changing his plans and
attempting to convince his mother he should move to Heidelberg to continue to study law,
which was just another pretense. He succeeded in his purpose. In fact, it took two more
years of that double life to bring Schumann to the realization that, as much as he loved his
mother, he couldn’t follow her wishes anymore for his future. He confronted her in a letter
imploring her to allow him to follow his own heart and study music exclusively. Frau
Schumann turned to the only person she thought could advise her, Robert’s piano teacher,
Friedrich Wieck. She begged for his opinion concerning her son’s future. The result of this
10 Nancy B. Reich, Clara Schumann: The Artist and the Woman (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,
1985), 59.
letter writing was that Schumann returned to Leipzig to live and study with Wieck and
unknowingly to begin his lifelong relationship with Clara Wieck.11
11 Reich, 59-61; Basch, 31.
ROBERT AND CLARA’S ENGAGEMENT
Clara Wieck was more impressed with Robert Schumann than he was with her at
the beginning of their acquaintance, owing primarily to their nine-year age difference.
Eugenie Schumann, Clara Wieck’s daughter, tells her mother’s point of view and
describes the kind of light-hearted encounters with Robert Schumann that eleven-year-old
Clara looked forward to and enjoyed. He would gather all the Wieck children in his two
rooms in their house and play games, tell jokes and spin out incredible ghost stories that,
of course, she believed. Fun had been an unknown concept to the Wieck children until
Robert Schumann’s arrival in the household, so the impact on Clara Wieck with her
serious upbringing was deep and lasting. Eugenie Schumann writes, “One can imagine
how she loved him.”12
Their courtship did not begin until her sixteenth birthday party. Before that
Robert’s treatment of her was that of a loving older brother, although the brotherly role
had snags in it at times. Just as siblings are rivals, Schumann was slightly jealous of the
“little virtuosa who achieved everything so effortlessly,” while he plodded along with
finger exercises because he had gotten a late start at serious piano study. Yet he admired
her musical performance as an artist and he was also grateful to her as the foremost
interpreter of his compositions.13 He would write to Friedrich Wieck and Clara while
they were away on tour, telling them how empty his life was when he could not speak
with either of them. Schumann’s respect for Clara’s father wasn’t perfect either and
suffered from resentment, despite a good deal of flatteiy which his correspondence with
12 Reich, 63.
13 Ibid., 64.
10
Wieck shows. He called Wieck “Meister Allesgeld” (Master All-for-Money) in his
journal, and referred to him as arrogant on more than one occasion.14
Meanwhile, Schumann enjoyed his attraction to women, which had been his habit
since adolescence. In 1833 he wrote to his mother about Clara just before she turned
fourteen. He related how much he enjoyed her musical talents and company, but he
could not resist referring to the “innkeeper’s pretty daughter” later in the same letter.
After they were engaged, Schumann would also write to Clara of other women, which
caused misunderstanding.15
Clara’s sixteenth birthday party in 1835 marked the formal end of their sibling-
type relationship, as previously mentioned. Schumann had not seen her for some time,
from November 1834 until after her return in April 1835 from a concert tour in northern
Germany. She thought he hadn’t noticed her when they mingled in the same room, but
he had. Apparently, a transformation had taken place while she had been absent, and
years later he mentioned it to her: “.. .you were no longer a child.. His next letter in
August 1835 shows that his feelings were growing. “In the midst of all the autumn
festivities and other delights, an angel face is always peeping at me, and it is exactly like
a certain Clara of my acquaintance.” Next month was her birthday and Schumann bought
her a small gift. She was thrilled and wrote of her excitement to a friend. By February
1835 they clearly had made betrothal promises and were writing love-letters to each
other.16 The promises and letters were about to be suspended.
14 Schumann, 173.
15 Ibid., 185, 260, 270, 283.
16 Basch, 97; Schumann, 253-255; Reich, 70.
11
Friedrich Wieck found out about the affair and sent his daughter on tour in
November, hoping to break up what he thought was just a flirtation. He misread the
situation; Schumann simply followed her. Her tour brought her to his hometown of
Zwickau, so he had an innocent reason for going there. But Wieck found out how far
things had gone when he discovered they had been having meetings in Dresden. He
threw a fit and absolutely forbade any letter writing or engagement. He threatened to
shoot Schumann if she saw him again. Schumann had mistakenly thought, because
Wieck admired his compositions, and his editing and writing on the Neue Zeitschriftfo r
Musik, that Wieck would want him for a son-in-law. Wieck allowed no more admiration
for Schumann to show from that time forth.17
An enforced silence was now imposed on the pair. It stretched to a time period of
eighteen months and was filled with uncertainty and mistrust on both sides. Clara Wieck
was pushed into flirtations with other men, particularly Carl Banck who had been a friend
of Schumann’s. Schumann heard about the two of them, how they were carrying on, and
how Friedrich Wieck eventually scared Banck into leaving Leipzig. He saw Clara’s
actions as a betrayal and got revenge by using the Neue Zeitschrift as a place to vent his
feelings about her in a vicious little review he wrote on May 17, 1837 about one of her
concerts. He, on the other hand, was engrossed by at least one other woman who was
used as a means to forget his own misery. The misunderstandings between Schumann
and Clara Wieck continued until August 1837 when she decided to take matters into her
own hands. She approached one of his friends, Adolph Becker, one evening after giving
17 Basch, 99; Reich, 71.
12
a concert and gave him a letter for Schumann.18 The letter broke the ice and more letters
were exchanged in quick succession. The pair afterwards agreed that the date August 17,
1837 was the formal beginning of their engagement.
But the engagement could not yet be made public because, by Saxon law, all
living parents must give consent to a marriage no matter what the ages of the principals
involved. Schumann gave Clara Wieck a letter to deliver to her father containing a
request for her hand in marriage. Friedrich Wieck’s answer was not only negative but
humiliating. The now secretly affianced pair had to keep up their correspondence
surreptitiously through friends, but at least they had that correspondence.19
Schumann could see over the course of the next year and a half that Wieck was
never going to agree to their marriage and tried to convince Clara that they would have to
take their case to court. However, she wanted to believe that her father would understand
their situation if he could just be given time. It took her first independent tour to the city
of Paris to show her that she was wrong about Wieck and that she could act apart from
him. Schumann sent her the legal papers while she was still on the Paris tour, which
proved to be fortuitous timing. She had received a letter from her father the day before
stating his acquiescence to a marriage with Schumann if she would meet some ridiculous
demands. She decided she had had enough and signed the legal papers. The battle had
officially begun.20
Clara Wieck returned to Leipzig after her Paris tour in August 1839 and received
the first intimation that her life was about to change forever. She was not allowed to
18 Basch, 102-105; Reich, 75.

19 Basch, 111; Reich, 76.
20 Reich, 55, 87,95.
13
come home. She was not even permitted to retrieve her clothes and personal property.
Schumann arranged for her to live with her divorced mother, Frau Bargiel, and he paid
for her living expenses until they were married. This allowed her to re-establish an
affectionate relationship with her mother after having been estranged for fifteen years.
Friedrich Wieck, of course, had allowed almost no visitations with Clara’s mother. The
young woman now was able to understand how her father’s vitriolic temperament could
make her mother leave Wieck, against all German social custom.21
Wieck’s accusations against Robert Schumann began in court in December 1839.
The basis of the accusations against Schumann was weak: his handwriting, soft voice,
anti-social behavior, not enough income and excessive drinking. The latter two
accusations were probably the only ones that a justification could be made for, but
Schumann managed to acquire character witnesses who could attest to his sobriety and
his secure financial situation. Knowing Schumann’s background as he did, Wieck could
have attacked Robert’s womanizing and the family history of mental instability, but he
did not. Wieck could even have brought up what he probably thought of as Schumann’s
rashness and stupidity in ruining his right hand with a finger strengthener. But not a
word was said in court22
Clara Wieck did attempt a conciliatory meeting with her father at a court date on
December 14, 1839, but things got out of hand when she refused to abandon marriage
plans with Schumann. Wieck lost his temper and had to be ordered to shut up. His
response to her determined stand was to send another barrage of accusations to the courts.
21 Reich, 34, 73,87.

22 Ronald Taylor, Robert Schumann: His Life and Work (New York: Universe Books, 1982), 178;
Reich, 77.
14
Nancy B. Reich says in her biography of Clara Schumann, . .the pages still seem to
smoke with Wieck’s unreasoning fury.” Wieck stepped up the attack further by sending
defamatory letters about his daughter to towns where she was about to perform concerts,
as well as copies of his slanders to his friends in those towns. Schumann was eventually
able to refute all the claims in court and even respond with counter claims of his own, but
the process was taking a terrible emotional and physical toll on him.23
Schumann, though, was beginning to see that Wieck’s hatred was backfiring
against him. Numerous events seemed to be turning his way. Many friends, including
Mendelssohn, were ready to testify on his behalf. Schumann had just been awarded an
honorary doctorate, adding to his optimism. His first song cycle, Myrihenlieder, was
composed in February 1840, and was perhaps an outpouring of his renewed energy.
Robert and Clara spent a happy April in Berlin. And other song cycles followed,
including the Eichendorff Liederkreis which was begun on May 1, 1840. It was largely
finished by the 15th of May. This work was clearly an expression of his love for Clara,
but in my opinion the expression goes beyond mere love. Schumann wrote to her, “The
Eichendorff cycle is my most Romantic music ever, and contains much of you in it, dear
Clara.”24 Finally, it was on the July 7 that they received the news that the courts were
going to decide in favor of their marriage. The engagement was now allowed to be made
public and the marriage banns were published in August. They were married on
September 12, 1840, one day before her twenty-first birthday.
23 Basch, 158-159; Reich, 38,97.

24 Barbara Turchin, “Robert Schumann’s Song Cycles: The Cycle within the Song,” 19th Century Music 8,
no. 3 (1985): 238; J. W. Wasielewski, Life of Robert Schumann (Boston: Oliver Ditson Company, 1871),
128; Schumann, 302; Basch, 159-162; Sams, 92.
15
AN OVERVIEW OF THE EICHENDORFF LIEDERKREIS
As mentioned in the previous chapter, Eichendorff saw his poetry as a means of
expression for religious imagery and a longing for the past. However, he also believed
that poetry should be used to communicate emotion, and that its truest form of expression
was the folksong. His view was that the folksong not only brought out an individual’s
deepest feelings but also showed them honestly and in a manner that all could
understand. Eichendorff believed that song was spontaneous, a belief heard in the
statement that “a song is dormant in all things,” and that a song was the most natural part
of man. The folksong conveys man’s deepest feelings through the medium of sound.25
Eichendorff s poems have been described as acoustic. Forests rustle, birds sing,
hunting horns sound, the clouds send greetings, and even the night seems to speak! In
short, nature is not merely illustrated in an Eichendorff poem; it is vocally active.26
Jurgen Thym determined from Eichendorff s poetry that either the sounds of
nature were speaking the individual’s true feelings aloud, or the individual was motivated
from the sounds and feelings he both heard and felt from nature. Eichendorff refers to
such a feeling, whether spoken by nature or the individual, as a Stimmung, meaning
atmosphere or mood 27 Eichendorff said, “The lyric poet does not depict plants or
mountains but rather the ‘impression’ that these objects have made on the lyric subject,
i.e., the Stimmung that pervades the soul at a given moment.” 28
25Jiirgen Thym, “The Solo Song Settings of EichendorfFs Poems by Schumann and W olf’ (Ph.D. diss„
Case Western Reserve University, 1974), 40-41,84.
26 Ibid., 214 ff.
27 Ibid., 104 ff.
28 Thym, 51.
16
Schumann was the first composer to set a large number of Eichendorff s poems to
music, twenty-one of them, possibly because the concept of Stimmung attracted him.29
What a well-defined Stimmung signified to him was that listeners or performers would
not misunderstand his music, as he felt that family, friends, and others had, and he let
Eichendorff s poems speak for him.
Robert Schumann wanted people to understand his point of view and wrote to
Clara Wieck April 13, 1838, “I am affected by everything that goes on in the world, and
think it all over in my own way --politics, literature, and people— and then I long to
express my feelings and find an outlet for them in music.” He further acknowledged,
“My compositions are sometimes difficult to understand.”30 He continued with his wish
to be understood in a letter to W. H. Rieffel dated June 1840: “I was again delighted with
your remarks about my piano works. If only I could find more people who understood
my meaning! I hope I shall more easily succeed with vocal compositions.”31 Jurgen
Thym concluded, “[Schumann] implies...that a poem can help to clarify the expression
of music.”32 The Stimmungen of Eichendorff s poems gave Robert Schumann a way to
express himself clearly. There seems to be no real reason to assume that Schumann
conveyed Eichendorff s imagery and nothing besides.
Some controversy exists over the question of who selected the twelve Eichendorff
poems: Robert Schumann or Clara Wieck. It is true that Wieck copied these twelve
poems as well as others into a notebook entitled Abschriften verschiedener Gedichten zur
Composition. But there is no real confirmation that the choice of poems was hers alone.
29 Fischer-Dieskau, 71; Thym, 104.

30 Schumann, 270.
31 Fischer-Dieskau, 71.
17
It must be recollected that the literary person was Schumann; he was the acknowledged
writer and editor. He would guide Clara Wieck in her reading by recommending poems
or novels, and the selection of the Eichendorff poems would have been most natural for
him. He certainly already knew the Eichendorff poems well since he had previously
reviewed Eichendorff s poetic writing contribution to German national literature, and he
would have known which of the poems would have been most appropriate for his op. 39
collection.33 In all probability Schumann indicated his preferences to Clara Wieck, and
David Ferris’ repeated assertion that Wieck alone selected the poems seems unjustified.34
Ferris’ thinking may be based on the music copy work Clara Wieck did for
Schumann, in addition to copying his poems. For a long time it was thought that perhaps
Wieck composed the first song. In der Fremde, because the handwriting was hers, which
appears to be the biggest reason why Ferris decided that there is no story in the op. 39
group of songs.35 But copying does not necessarily equal selection. Clara Wieck often
took on the chore of copying to save Schumann the trouble. Patrick McCreless also
speaks of the selection of the songs as Schumann’s.36 The greatest likelihood is that
Schumann, with possible input from Wieck, decided which poems and how many were to
be used in the op. 39 song cycle.
The twelve poems of Eichendorff that were used in the final order of op. 39 were
not originally connected with each other in any way. Schumann first read them all
32 Thym, 94*95.
33 Thym, 96.
34 McCreless, 18; Schumann, 265, 272-274; David Ferris, Schumann’s EichendorffLiederkreis and the
Genre o f the Romantic Cycle (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000) 4,94,110,171 and 210.
35 Sams, 93.
36 McCreless, 18,23.
18
together in an 1837 publication, Gedichie, containing a collection of poems by
Eichendorff under various headings.37 It already has been noted that Schumann liked to
read poets that were known to him personally and that he had at least an indirect social
connection to Eichendorff through his friendship with the Mendelssohns. Further,
Schumann saw Eichendorff as an important contributor to the improvement and
development of German national poetry. He wrote in the Neue Zeitschrift of his
admiration for Eichendorff and of how the poet was making possible “a more artistic and
profound form of song.”38 Incidentally 1837, that year that Eichendorff s poetry
collection was published, happened to be a noteworthy one for Robert Schumann because
it coincided with his forced estrangement from Clara Wieck. Perhaps the inspiration for
this subject began even then.
Below are the poems in Schumann’s final published order on the left along with
their original Eichendorff publications on the right. Many of these poems were used as
lyric insertions in Eichendorff s novellas, while the others were published for the first
time in Gedichte:
37 Thym, 370-381; Turchin, 236.

38 Schumann, 270; Thym, 94-5; Fischer-Dieskau, 71; Thym, 96.
19
The Published Order of the Twelve Eichendorff Poems, op. 39
1. In der Fremde Viel Larmen um Nichts (1832)
2. Intermezzo Gedichte (1837)
3. Waldesgesprach Ahnung und Gegenwart (1815)
4. Die Stille Ahrnng und Gegemvart (1815)
5. Mondnacht Gedichte (1837)
6. SchOne Fremde Dichter und ihre Gesellen (1834)
7. Auf einer Burg Gedichte (1837)
8. In der Fremde II Gedichte (1837)
9. Wehmuth Ahnung und Gegenwart (1815)
10. Zwielicht Ahnung und Gegenwart (1815)
11. Im Walde Deutscher Musenalmanach (1836)
12. Fruhlingsnacht Gedichte (1837)
The information for this table is abstracted from the appendix from Jurgen Thym’s
dissertation.39
Although I have used and adhered to the final published order, Schumann did not
compose the songs in this order. It is almost impossible to determine an exact
compositional ordering because there are discrepancies in the dates of six of the songs.
Apparently Schumann w rote the songs dow n chronologically, but in tw o different
notebooks, and songs from other cycles are mixed in and the dates vary widely. For
instance, a song dated May 1840 is followed in the notebook by a song from February
20
1840. Perhaps Schumann had a general idea of the final order in mind while he
composed. Or, the final order might have occurred to him by the time he composed the
last song, A u f einer Burg, because that seems to be a song deliberately composed to
connect two other songs, a subject to be discussed later. Schumann realized that his ideas
clarified as time went on. He wrote to Clara Wieck on April 13, 1838, “I do not realize
all this while I am composing; it only comes to me afterwards.”40
Did Schumann faithfully convey the atmosphere of EichendorfFs poems? Jurgen
Thym, the one who has defined the Stimmungen of the Eichendorff poems, seems to feel
that he did. Thym analyzed Schumann’s rhythms, harmonic tempi, use of major and
minor keys, and uses of harmony as emphasis within the op. 39 song cycle and found
them consistent with his view of EichendorfFs intent.41
However, not all the researchers agree on the musical interpretation of each
Stimmung from this Liederkreis. For instance, Thym describes the Stimmung o f song
number three, Waldesgesprdch, as “uncertainty”” using the deceptive cadence to C-
major at the end of the first strophe, or verse, as part of his reasoning, but Eric Sams sees
the same C-major deceptive cadence as an indicator of “heightened awareness.” Sams
also says, “For Schumann the revelation [of the Lorelei] is not terrifying,” and “the mood
of the music is much more akin to resignation than the awe or menace of
Eichendorff.”[author’s italics]42 The C-major key change also could be a message to or
identification of Clara Wieck.
39 Thym, 370-381.
40 Schumann, 271.
41 Thym, 160 ff.
42 Sams, 96.
21
The Lorelei is unmasked after two strophes of Waldesgesprach, and her entrance
(jetzt kenn ich dich, Gott steh mir bei, du bist die Hexe Lorelei) occurs in a modulation to
G-major, the same key as the next song of op. 39, Die Stille. Die Stille is clearly
supposed to be about Clara Wieck, so the brief G-major section in Waldesgesprach easily
could be a message to her, or a preview to the world that she was about to appear in the
following song. Schumann could have planned such a preview because the two songs
were composed in that sequence.43 Another disagreement in musical interpretation is
seen in the seventh song, A uf einer Burg. Thym feels that a slow harmonic rhythm in the
song indicates timelessness and monotony. He gives the Stimmung of “melancholy” to
this song. But Charles Burkhart interprets the same song as “essentially tragic.” Barbara
Turchin goes in another direction by speaking of a “terror of isolation.” At this point
terror, tragedy and melancholy all describe the setting of one song. And Eric Sams, as he
did before in his comments on Waldesgesprach, sees the musical imagery o f A u f einer
Burg as Schumann’s, not EichendorfFs.44
However, with only two song settings inspiring differences of musical
interpretation to the op. 39 Stimmungen (those of Sams and Thym), it may be determined
that Schumann remained essentially true to EichendorfFs intentions. But Eric Sams has
raised an interesting point regarding what he sees as Schumann’s personal connection to
the poems. He deems that Schumann “adapted his choice of poem to his own need for
self-expression.” Karen Hindenlang supports Sams’ view by noting that Schumann has
been accused repeatedly of defeating the poet’s intentions with regard to A uf einer Burg.
43 Ferris, 187.
44 Thym, 182; Charles Burkhart, “Departures from the Norm in Two Schumann songs,” Schenker Studies,
ed. Hedi Siegel (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1990) 164; Turchin, 242; Sams, 100.
22
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau says that Schumann freely altered EichendorfFs texts, casting
them in a new light. And finally, Schumann himself spoke on the subject. “The
poem... must be crushed and have its juices expressed like an orange; it must wear the
music like a wreath, or yield to it like a bride.” It is therefore likely that Robert
Schumann, as Thym has said, stayed true to the poet’s intention but used the poems for
his own purposes, presenting his own version of the imagery, producing two
simultaneous viewpoints.45
Dual perceptions are part of a heavily used German nineteenth century literary
device known as “dualism,” which has as part of its definition “a system which may be
founded on a double principle.” Karen Hindenlang, in her article about A uf einer Burg,
lists some examples of how dualism may occur in German literature: two-fold structures,
framing effects, mirror images, dual perception levels, the insertion of poems into novels,
and even Doppelgdnger, a type of ghost story. Hindenlang maintains that Schumann
used dualism in op. 39 by the inclusion of the song A uf einer Burg, in the same way that
Eichendorff inserted poems into his novels. She notices that after the high emotion of the
song Schdne Fremde the momentum “comes to a halt with the demonstrably static A u f
einer B urg”46 Schumann employed dualistic strategy in other ways. His characters,
Florestan and Eusebius for example, were used as commentators in his magazine, the
Neue Zeitschrift, Florestan and Eusebius, of course, were the double entities of
Schumann who were used, among other things, to woo Clara Wieck. Please refer to the
Song Pairings in Final Ordering Chart on page twenty-nine for examples of dualism in
45 Hindenlang, 571; Fischer-Dieskau, 71; Sams, 4 If., 50.

46 Hindenlang, 585
23
op. 39. The first and twelfth (last) songs of op. 39 are musical versions of dualism in that
both have an F-sharp tonality. Although the first song, In der Fremde, is in F-sharp
minor and the last, Friihlingsnacht, is in F-sharp major, they form an arched pairing for
the entire work that acts as a frame, or bookends, through their parallel tonality. The
second and eleventh songs, Intermezzo and Im Walde, create an inner frame or another
arched pairing by both being in the key of A-major. Next, if the twelve songs are
separated into halves, a parallel position pairing is discovered in the third songs of each
half, Waldesgesprach and Wehmuth, song numbers three and nine, respectively; both are
in E-major. The next two songs of each half. Die Stille and Zwielicht, provide another
parallel position pairing in that they each have one sharp for a key signature, G-major and
E-minor, respectively. E-minor is, of course, relative to G-major. The four inner songs
of op. 39 will be considered next as having adjacent pairings.
Songs five and six, Mondnacht and Schdne Fremde, are related by key signature
(four and five sharps, respectively), by similarity of the opening vocal melody (the first
four measures and the first two measures, respectively), and by delayed statement of the
tonic chord.47 The next two songs, which begin the second half of op. 39, A uf einer Burg
and In der Fremde II, are related by A-minor tonality and also by similar opening vocal
melodies. Finally, In der Fremde and Intermezzo, the first two songs, are adjacent pairs
in having three sharps in the key signature (creating a relative minor/major) and the same
descending inner vocal line contained in the words . . .ouch, da ruhe ich auch and dein
47 Burkhart, 158.
24
Bildness Wunder..., respectively. Additionally, Eric Sams sees these descending vocal
melodies as one of many existing Clara-themes 48
48 Sams, 23.
25
SONG PAIRINGS IN FINAL ORDERING
-In der Fremde

-Key signature o f3 # ’s
-Same melodic motif
Intermezzo. -Keys of
mm
-Bookends
Waldesgesprach
First
Semi
cycle -Keys of A-
Die Stille major
-Inner arch
Mondnacht -Related key

-Delayed tonic -Keys ofE
-Same melodic major
motif -3rd in semi
Schone Fremde cycles
-Parallel arch
-Key
signatures
of one #
-4111in semi
Auf einer Burg -Keys o f A- cycles
minor -Parallel arch
-Same
melodic
motif
In der Fremde II
Wehmuth
Second
Semi
cycle
Zwielicht
Im Walde.
Fruhlingsnacht
26
As Hindenlang says, dualism was rampant in German romanticism. Years before,
Schumann had told doppelganger ghost stories to Clara when she was very young.49 He
probably would have delighted in sharing this literary device with her as an adult,
perhaps reminding her of the few, happy moments of her childhood that she had shared
with him. He would have been adept at expressing Eichendorff s and his own viewpoints
simultaneously, as two-fold literary and musical structures. It is clear that he did so in the
op. 39 Liederkreis, a belief confirmed by Patrick McCreless: “This tension between two
opposing views of love can, I think, clarity Schumann’s two orderings of the twelve
songs of op. 39 ”50 It only remains to settle what these twelve poems by Eichendorff
really might have meant to Schumann on a deeper, more personal level.
49 Robert Haven Schauffler, Florestan: The Life and Work of Robert Schumann (New York: Henry Holt
and Co., 1945) 39.
50 McCreless, 23.
27
THE STORY IN THE SONGS
There is ample evidence thus far that Robert Schumann had an overall plan in
mind for the Eichendorff Liederkreis. The evidence falls into two categories:
autobiographical and musical, and perhaps a combination of the two.
The autobiographical evidence supporting the existence of a master plan for op.
39 begins with Robert Schumann’s declaration in April 1838 that the German word Ehe
(marriage) “was a musical word and a [perfect] fifth, too.” 51 The perfect fifth that he was
referring to was the interval E-B k -E. The letter H representing B-natural has long been
accepted as part of the German musical idiom, whereas the letter B is understood to
symbolize B-flat. As further autobiographical evidence, this author has already
demonstrated Schumann’s desire for his vocal music to express himself with more
success than his piano music had done. It will be shown in the following discussion of
each song that Robert Schumann most likely did not select poems at random; rather he
selected poems that just happened to represent an account of the good and bad
experiences of his engagement, leading to the presentation of a story line for op. 39.
The musical evidence involves the pairings illustrated and described in the
previous section, in that each song of op. 39 is tied to another song by being in the same
key or related keys, and/or containing similar vocal melodies.
Further musical evidence exists in Schumann’s enjoyment of creating secret
messages, or codes, in music that people (especially Clara Wieck) had to figure out, some
of which Eric Sams has described as special greetings to her.52 One small example of
51 Schumann, 269.
52 Sams, 7.
28
such a special greeting is a descending perfect fifth. Sams has recorded an exhaustive
chart of “Clara-themes” in his book The Songs o f Robert Schumann, some of which occur
in this song cycle.53
It is entirely in keeping with Schumann’s character that he would create a work
containing the story of their engagement with all its ups and downs and leave musical
clues for Clara to find, rather than making it known to her. But the most relevant and
compelling musical evidence for the story in op.39 is that ascending and descending
perfect fifth, E-B tj-E; Schumann appears to have composed this work entirely around the
interval. When the keys of each of the songs are arranged stepwise, they compose out
(fill in) each tone of a five-note E-minor scale from E to B.
Why did Schumann choose an E-minor scheme over E-major? He would have
needed a key signature with the letter G to be the third note of a five-note scale. G-sharp
would have been preferable as the third of an E-major scale, and three of the songs are in
E-major, which includes the first song Schumann composed, Waldesgesprach. Also,
eight of the twelve songs are more closely related in key structure to E-major than E-
minor, ranging from three to six sharps in the signature. But G-sharp for a song key is
rather unwieldy with its sharps and double sharp in the key signature and is more easily
written as A-flat major. However, A-flat is not part of any five-note scale from E to B.
G flat was already spoken for in its enharmonic equivalent of F-sharp, as in the twelfth
song Friihlingsnacht. A song in composed in G-major rather than G-sharp major in all
probability made the best sense. The details of the messages to Clara Wieck and the
story of the engagement will now follow.
53 Sams, 22-23.
29
In der Fremde
Aus der Heimat hinter den Blitzen rot From my homeland behind the red lightning
Da kommen die Wolken her, the clouds are coming.
Aber Vater und Mutter sind lange tot, But father and mother are long since dead,
Es kennt mich dort keiner mehr. And I am forgotten there.
Wie bald, wie bald kommt die stille Zeit, How soon, how soon comes the peaceful
time,
Da ruhe ich auch, und iiber mir when I too shall sleep, and over me
Rauschet die scheme Waldeinsamkeit rustles the forest solitude
Und keiner kennt mich mehr hier. And no one knows me here any more.
Barbara Turchin confirms that this first song to the Liederkreis functions as an
opening statement. She paraphrases Conradin Rreutzer and speaks of the narrator of the
song as a traveller on “an emotional journey, one that progresses here from a state of
emotional and physical alienation to fulfillment in loving union.” In der Fremde begins
the first of the two halves of the 12-song cycle. Each semi-cycle consists of what is
described as emotionally expressive arches from songs 1-6 and 7-12. A u f einer Burg is
the name of the seventh song and may be viewed as an emotional parallel to In der
Fremde in terms of beginning each cycle half with a melancholy mood.54
One scholar, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, found that EichendorfFs religious imagery
was understood by Schumann and established in the setting of this first song. Fischer-
Dieskau called attention to the use of plagal cadence in the piano postlude of In der
Fremde as “a conscious attempt to establish a religious allusion.” The piano
accompaniment begins in F-sharp minor, but in the postlude progresses twice to a B-
minor IV chord and resolves to an F-sharp major tonic, surely a connection to the last
song which is in F-sharp major. But counter to Fischerl-Dieskau’s religious
54 McCreless, 13; Turchin, 233-237.
30
interpretation is Eric Sams’ view that “Schumann’s inspiration was always love, never
religion.” 55 To begin reconciling these two opposing views, this author will state that
although Schumann did not detract from religious images in EichendorfFs poetry, but
there is another explanation for Schumann’s distinctive choice of this poem.
The explanation exists in a connection with Schumann’s life to the text of In der
Fremde. There is an echo of this poem in a letter he wrote to Clara Wieck on February
13, 1836. Like EichendorfFs traveller in his poem, Schumann was also a traveller that
day, waiting for a coach that was to take him to Zwickau to settle business regarding his
mother’s estate: “Today I have been excited by various things; the opening of my
mother’s will, hearing all about her death, etc., but your radiant image shines through the
darkness and helps me to bear everything better.. ,”56 That radiant image Schumann
mentioned is the subject of the next song, Intermezzo. Schumann must have seen the
beginning of his love affair with Clara Wieck in these two poems by Eichendorff and
decided that they fit their story.
As the letter excerpt above illustrates, the melancholy mood of /« der Fremde is
easily attributed to Schumann’s loss of his last parent and his sense of missing Clara
Wieck. Also, hidden in this first song, there may be a musical greeting and message to
Clara. Descending fifths have already been suggested by Eric Sams as a greeting from
Schumann to his fiancee.57 Recalling that ehe means “marriage” and that Schumann
found the word to be musical, it can be noticed that a descending fifth, from B to E,
occurs on the telling words, “.. bald kommt...” (... soon comes...). Soon comes what?
55 Fischer-Dieskau, 74; Sams, 98.

56 Schumann, 255.
57 Sams, 22.
31
The wedding, Schumann possibly hoped, as he composed the song on May 1, 1840, just
two months before the court decided in their favor.
32
Intermezzo
Dein Bildnis wunderselig Your radiant image

Hab’ ich im Herzensgrund, I keep in the depths of my heart,
Das sieht so frisch und frohlich looking at me all the time,
Mich an zu jeder Stund. Fresh and smiling.
Mein Herz still in sich singet My heart quietly sings to itself

Ein altes, schones Lied, an old sweet song
Das in die Luft sich schwinget which wings into the air
Und zu dir eilig zieht And swiftly flies to you.
Schumann repeated the first strophe above after using the first two strophes. He
perhaps wished to stress Clara Wieck’s “radiant image” by its re-emphasis at the end of
the song, and the “radiant image,” of course, is a direct connection to Schumann’s
February 1836 letter to his beloved. The opening five notes of this song are the same
notes that were used in the previous song in the repeated phrase, “da ruhe ich auch”
(there I shall also rest). These five notes have been identified by Eric Sams as one of the
Clara-themes. Thym also agrees with what he calls a “motivic correspondence” between
the two songs. Thus the five-note theme creates a musical tie to the first song.58
The word Thym uses, “correspondence,” is interesting, since the translated words,
“radiant image,” from both poem and letter are identical. Scholars have used a variety of
terms to describe Intermezzo, such as “yearning for a distant beloved” (Turchin), “a
journey to her side” (Sams), or “the feeling of longing due to the separation of the lovers”
(Thym). All the descriptions ring true, but one’s appreciation is greater when
38 Sams, 23; Thym, 217.
33
Schumann’s actual words are read. The similarities between the first two songs of op. 39
and the February 1836 letter are too striking to be dismissed as mere coincidence.59
59 Turchin, 241; Sams, 94; Thym, 120.
34
Waldesgesprach
Es ist schon spat, es wird schon kalt It is already late and growing cold;
Was reitst du einsam durch den Wald? Why do you ride along in the woods?
Der Wald ist lang, du bist allein, The woods are wide, you are along,
Due schdne Braut! Ich fiihr dich heim! You lovely bride, I’ll lead you home!
Gross ist der Manner Trug und List, Great is the cunning and deceit of men;
Vor Schmerz mein Herz gebrochen ist, My heart is broken by pain.
Wohl irrt das Waldhom her und hin, Hunting horns sound here and there;
O flieh! Du weisst nicht, wer ich bin. Oh flee! You know not who I am.
So reich geschmuckt ist Ross und Weib, So richly adorned are steed and woman,
So wunderschon der junge Leib, so exquisite the young body,
Jetzt kenn ich dich—Gott steh mir bei! Now I know you, God be with me!
Du bist die Hexe Lorelei. You are the witch Lorelei.
Du kennst mich wohl—von hohem Stein You know me well—from the high rock
Schaut still mein Schloss tief in den Rhein. My castle looks down deep into the Rhine.
Es ist schon spat, es wird schon kalt, It is already late and growing cold,
Kommst nimmermehr aus diesem Wald! You will nevermore come out of these
woods.
Waldesgesprach is one of the songs that caused many to conclude the non
existence of a story line in the op. 39 Liederkreis. Patrick McCreless is among those who
deny a “narrative thread” within this work. Yet he comes up with his own passing story
line connecting this song and song number seven, A u f einer Burg. He describes the
Lorelei of Waldesgesprach as not being the typical schdne Braut o f A u f einer Burg,
perhaps, but since the man of Waldesgesprach is inextricably trapped by her magic, he is
not able to be present at the wedding party later in A uf einer Burg and so the bride
weeps.60 McCreless’ mention of magic may be relevant in another sense; Ronald Taylor
maintains that Schumann w as known to be attracted to m agic.61 If m agic and
60 McCreless, 12, 24.

61 Taylor, 57.
35
Schumann’s even better known attraction to women are put together, then the use of this
poem becomes apparent.
The encounter in Waldesgesprach is an erotic one and provides an outer
illustration of man’s internal drives, according to Thym.62 Furthermore, a magical
woman with an exquisite shape would have been irresistible to Schumann, even in a
poem, and it has been previously observed that Schumann wrote to Clara Wieck on
numerous occasions about his fascination with attractive women. Robert Schumann was
aware moreover that he flirted with danger in being attracted to beautiful women, and this
is confirmed in his own journal entries about prostitutes. He was well aware of the
consequences of philandering, such as the risk of syphilis.63
Consequently, Robert Schumann would not have used this poem as another
instance of his admiration of women when it hurt Clara so much. Thus, a different
motivation exists for Robert Schumann’s inclusion of this poem in op. 39, that of a
special commitment to her. It is evident that Clara minded Schumann’s attraction to, and
flirtations with, other women immeasurably. She herself was a very young woman at the
time, insecure about her own looks, and jealous of the striking and accomplished women
that engrossed his attention. “The young artist always had a lingering fear that she wasn’t
pretty enough or intelligent enough to keep Robert happy.”64 Clara Wieck’s setting of
the lied, Liebst du um Schdnheit, reveals some of her feelings as well. The woman of the
song asks the man, “Do you love for beauty; then do not love me.. .but if you love for
love, oh, yes, then love me.” Clara Wieck needed reassurance from Schumann that her
62 Thym, l l l f f .
63 Sams, 279.
64 Reich, 101.
36
hold on him was secure. He wrote to convince her of her importance to him in December
1838,
“It is from you that I receive all life, on whom I am wholly dependent. Like a
slave, I should often like to follow you from afar at a distance, and await your
slightest bidding. Ah! Let me say it once more, come what may—I will whisper
it even to whoever closes my eyes, ‘One alone has ruled my life completely,
drawn me into her inmost being, and it is she that I have ever honored and loved
above all.’” [author’s italics]65
The woman in Waldesgesprach has magically captured the man, and Eric Sams
regards Schumann’s musical treatment of this event as much less than tragic. The
likelihood of the G-major section of this song serving as a message to Clara Wieck lends
greater credence to the idea of the entire song having special meaning for her, as has been
previously discussed, and it is noteworthy that this song was the first one Robert
Schumann composed of all the twelve poems, demonstrating his fidelity to the woman he
was about to marry.
65 Reich, 101.
37
Die Stille
Es weiss und rat es doch keiner, No one knows or guesses

Wie mir so wohl ist, so wohl! How happy I am!
Ach, wiisst es nur Einer, nur Einer, If only one knew, only one
Kein Mensch es sonst wissen soil! No one else ever should!
So still ist’s nicht draussen im Schnee, How silent is the snow outside,
So stumm und verschwiegen sind So calm and secretive are not
Die Sterne nicht in der Hohe the stars above
Als meine Gedanken sind. As if they were my thoughts.
Ich wiinscht, ich ware ein Voglein I wish I were a little bird
Und zdge liber das Meer. Flying out over the sea,
Wohl uber das Meer und weiter, out over the sea and beyond
Bis dass ich im Himmel war! Until I reached Heaven.
In Schumann’s setting the first strophe is repeated at the end of the song, as he did
in Intermezzo. Schumann also omitted a third verse that Eichendorff wrote in which the
narrator wishes it were “already morning” {schon Morgen). By this strophe omission and
the repetition of the first strophe, Fischer-Dieskau said that a feeling of “uncertainty” is
introduced into a poem that otherwise would have simply been about a young girl with a
secret66
No one doubts that Clara Wieck is intended as the lady in this song, but how
clearly does Jurgen Thym perceive the situation when he says that the girl must be both
secretive and discreet67 Clara Wieck was never allowed to verbalize her feelings for
Robert Schumann once her father, Friedrich Wieck, became aware of them and expressed
his objection in terms that scared her. One can certainly understand Wieck’s protection
o f the girl w hen she w as only sixteen, but apparently he would go to any lengths to
enforce his domination. Her stepmother searched her for letters from Schumann, at
67 Thym, 120.
38
Wieck’s instigation, even when Clara had reached the somewhat mature age of nineteen.
If she so much as locked her door at night her father would get violent.68 Clara Wieck’s
sufferings were far more acute than the words of EichendorfFs verse could express them,
but the image in the poem of a girl with a secret presents a less unpleasant view to the
listener than Clara’s real situation in the latter days of living under her father’s roof.
68 Reich, 81.
39
Mondnacht
Es war, als hatt der Himmel It was as if the sky

Die Erde still gekusst had softly kissed the silent earth,
Dass sie im Blutenschimmer so that she in shimmering blossoms
Von ihm nun traumen musst. Now only must dream of him.
Die Luft ging durch die Felder, The air moved through the fields,
Die Ahren wogten sacht, the ears of com swayed gently,
Es rauschten leis’ die Walder, The woods murmured softly,
So stemklar war die Nacht. So star-clear was the night.
Und meine Seele spannte And my soul spread\

Weit ihre Fliigel aus, wide its wings out,
Flog durch die stillen Lande, and flew through the quiet land
Als floge sie nach Haus. As if flying toward home.
The kiss that begins Mondnacht was a powerful element in the engagement story.
“When you gave me that first kiss, I thought I would faint; everything went blank... ”
Clara Wieck wrote to Robert Schumann.69 In the early months of the unofficial
engagement a kiss could not be openly acknowledged, but must be kept secret. Robert
Schumann gives Mondnacht the performance direction “tenderly, secretly,” which makes
it a continuation of the need for discretion outlined in Die Stille and carries the story
forward.
The word Stille had personal significance to the engaged pair. Stille can mean
soft, but it can also refer to “silence” and it described a quality that Clara Wieck
appreciated in her fiance, especially when compared to the frenzy and restlessness of
their mutual acquaintance, Franz Liszt.70 All the sounds in this poem are soft or muted,
which continues the “silent” theme. The heaven softly kisses the earth, the com sways
gently and the woods murmur softly. Furthermore, Charles Burkhart notes that the word
69 Reich, 70.
70 Basch, 162.
40
Stille was emphasized in this song with a melisma, giving weight to the importance o f the
word71
Eric Sams calls the song “a bridal of earth and sky.” Eichendorff intended the
bridal actually to be Heaven and Earth, in the religious sense, but Schumann was not
necessarily inspired by religion as noted before. His inspiration was love and not just the
subject of love in general. It was his own love that was important to him. The repeated,
rising and falling fifths of E-B-E is the message to Clara or the repetition of the spelling
of the word ehe. This, according to Barbara Turchin, is the wedding song. The first
notes of the vocal line, C#-D#-E#-F#, are a retrograde Clara-theme. Turchin comments
upon the song’s evasion of the E-major tonic, and Burkhart says that the poem was
almost written for an auxiliary cadence, a theoretical term for delayed tonic, paralleling
the delay of the wedding taking place.72
A final sentimental detail is that Schumann gave this song to his future mother-in-
law, Frau Bargiel as a birthday gift. The Clara-theme or wedding motif continues into
the next song by the use of the same descending fifth. This motif occurs in the beginning
vocal melody of Schdne Fremde 73
71 Burkhart, 152.
72 Sams, 98; Turchin, 241; Burkhart, 147.
73 Fischer-Dieskau, 76; Burkhart, 158.
41
Schdne Fremde
Es rauschen die Wipfel und schauem, The treetops rustle and quiver
Als machten zu dieser Stund as if the old gods had returned at this hour
Um die halbversunkenen Mauern to troop around the half-ruined walls
Die alten Gotter die Rund. Of their temples.
Hier hinter den Myrtenbaumen Here under the myrtle-trees

In heimlich dammemder Pracht in the strange splendor of deep twilight,
Was sprichst du wirr wie in Traumen What are you saying to me, confused in
Zu mir, phantastische Nacht? Dreams, fantastic night?
Es funkeln auf mich alle Sterne All the stars look down on me
Mit gluhendem Liebesblick with eyes of love
Es redet trunken die Feme the distance speaks with ecstasy,
Wie von Kiinftigem, grossem Gluck! As if from some great happiness to come.
After reading the twelve Eichendorff poems for the first time, the author received
the strong impression that this song, the sixth one, represented the place where Schumann
expected the wedding to have occurred. A wedding would have been the next logical
step in most engagements, but not in Schumann’s. In musical support of this
interpretation, here again is a song with an avoided tonic, indicating that the great
happiness is to come, but not yet. The feeling of waiting is echoed in Dietrich Fischer-
Dieskau’s vivid description: “a rising feeling of happiness is suppressed.”74
Despite the suppression of the happiness, excitement is evident in the setting of
Schdne Fremde with the piano accompaniment’s fast, sixteenth-note harmonic rhythms
and various tonalities that are touched on in rapid succession.75 Nature is acting as a
Greek chorus for the spectacular feelings the man has; perhaps the thought of nature
being on his side was a big part of the attraction Schumann felt for this poem.
74 Turchin, 241; Fischer-Dieskau, 76.

75 Thym, 172-177.
42
However, there was probably a great deal of pain involved in the composing of
this song. Robert Schumann was doubtless haunted by the memory of his own happy,
naive expectations in February 1836 until Friedrich Wieck crushed them, as the next song
represents76
76 Reich, 71.
43
A uf einer Burg
Eingeschlafen auf der Lauer Asleep in the watchtower

Oben ist der alte Ritter; above is the old knight;
Driiber gehen Regenschauer, Rainstorms shower around it,
Und der Wald rauscht durch das Gitter. And the forest rustles through the portcullis.
Eingewachsen Bart und Haare, Beard and hair matted together,

Und versteinert Brust und Krause, breast and ruff turned to stone,
Sitzt er viele hundert Jahre He has sat for hundreds of years
Oben in der stillen Klause. Up there in his quiet cell.
Draussen ist es still und friedlich, Outside all is quiet and peaceful,
Alle sind ins Tal gezogen. All have gone down into the valley.
Waldesvogel einsam singen Lonely forest birds sing
In den leeren Fensterbogen. In the empty window-arches.
Eine Hochzeit fahrt da unten A wedding party sails by below

Auf dem Rhein im Sonnenscheine, on the sunlit Rhine,
Musikanten spielen munter, Musicians are playing gaily,
Und die schdne Braut die weinet. And the beautiful bride weeps.
This point in the engagement story of op. 39 is where marriage is replaced by
defeat. A uf einer Burg shows the listener that the expectant happiness of Schdne Fremde
is presentiment (Ahnung) but is not present (Gegenwart), to use EichendorfFs own
words. This poem is of course from the novella Ahnung und Gegenwart. The forward
motion of the song cycle has come suddenly to a screeching halt with the slowest
harmonic rhythm of the op. 39 song collection. Karen Hindenlang treated this song
thoroughly in her article and states that its rhythm has almost nothing in common with
the other eleven lieder, which sets song number seven apart in its importance from the
other songs.77 Barbara Turchin, too, believes A u f einer Burg to be unlike all the previous
songs or its subsequent companion song, In der Fremde II. Hindenlang considers that the
77
Thym, 171; Hindenlang, 585.
44
song’s emotional distance from the rest of op. 39 underscores its significance as an
example of the dualism discussed earlier. To her, the song is purely taking the place of a
lyric insert in a novella. But the placement of A u f einer Burg in op. 39 does more; it
illustrates what actually happened to the hoped-for marriage 78
The misery and silence of the eighteen-month period between February 1836 and
August 1837, which this poem represents, was an obsession with Schumann. Friedrich
Wieck was the forbidding, powerful character through that time, while Clara Wieck
occupied a nearly mute suffering role. Schumann may have been inspired by the legend
of A uf einer Burg, Friedrich Barbarossa, to show his bitter feelings towards Friedrich
Wieck, the villain of the piece.
Karen Hindenlang relates the tale of Friedrich I, nicknamed Barbarossa, a twelfth
century emperor, in her article, “EichendorfFs A uf einer Burg and Schumann’s
Liederkreis, Opus 39 ”79 Friedrich Barbarossa was drowned on his way to the Crusades
in Jerusalem, but is still supposed to be waiting in a lofty, secret cavern to return to
Germany in her time of need; hence the high watchtower in the poem. The ancient
emperor was expected to return at times of crisis, to fight Napoleon for instance, and
when that did not occur, he was expected at the next crisis. Eichendorff needed to
believe in a hero to help him with the long-term discrimination against the Catholic
Church that existed in the Prussian government, which was discussed previously;
Friedrich I was supposed to return to fight for the true Catholic faith. This poem shows
Eichendorff s longing for Barbarossa’s return to put things right once and for all.
78 Turchin, 242; Hindenlang, 585.

79 Hindenlang, 575 ff.
45
Two other details of the Barbarossa legend appear in this poem: the birds and the
bride. In the ancient legend blackbirds remained behind Friedrich I after he left; also he
had a virgin daughter who waited on him. Barbarossa’s daughter could be the bride who
is weeping while awaiting her father’s return. Eichendorff often used a bride to represent
the church, so in this case the daughter would be crying for Barbarossa to restore the true
faith.
This legend is so much a part of German national folklore that even as recently as
World War II Hitler used the term “Operation Barbarossa” to label a plan he had to
invade Russia. Schumann, an extremely well-read man, was certainly aware of the
legend and all its details. Jurgen Thym is also familiar with the Barbarossa myth but he
does not mention the birds and says he doesn’t understand why the bride cries. He does
say, however, that the progressive omission of perfect rhymes in the poem hints at a
“barely concealed affliction” and that perhaps the wedding party is not so idyllic. The
subject of affliction is developed further when Karen Hindenlang brings up Rolf
Ringger’s suggestion that A u f einer Burg was meant to “begin the second half [of op. 39]
as if exhausted.” Schumann echoes that same sense of exhaustion in a letter he wrote to
Clara Wieck on March 17, 1838, seven months after their reconciliation: “If he
[Friedrich] understood me better he would have saved me many worries, and would never
have written me a letter which made me two years older.”80
One of Schumann’s attractions to this poem would have been the mention of the
Rhine River. Eichendorff called it “the royal Rhine” and used the great, historical,
sacred, German river for symbolic impact. Sadly Schumann’s association with the great
80 Hindenleng 581-584; Thym, 202 ff., 116 fit; Schumann, 263.
46
river had a darker meaning shown by his attempted suicide in that river many years later
at Dusseldorf.81
But in 1840 A u f einer Burg could have had other meanings for Schumann. The
religious symbolism was not a personal concern for him, but the stony character of
Friedrich, old, hairy, and watching over a weeping bride with no seeming concern for her
suffering must have brought another Friedrich to mind. The bride would be Clara Wieck,
and this song would represent her quiet suffering while being forced to serve the demands
of her father.82 The song may contain a musical reference to Schumann’s adversary, his
future father-in-law, in the jarring harmonic playing of G-sharp and A following the
description of the stony old character up in the watchtower. It has been seen already that
Schumann was not above mocking Wieck.
There exists a musical association to agony in A u f einer Burg in the tonicization
(temporary tonic) of E-minor at the song’s beginning, connecting it with Zwielicht, a later
song in E-minor that warns of the danger of treachery. Jurgen Thym stated, “Zwielicht
may be considered an example for the eerie and tragic qualities Schumann connotes with
E-minor.”83[author’s italics] Schumann composed A uf einer Burg after Zwielicht.
There are other musical similarities between this poem and the sad events of
Schumann’s engagement. The drawn-out passage of time, one of the worst in
Schumann’s life, is illustrated in the slow harmonic rhythm, vis-a-vis the enforced
eighteen-month separation from Clara Wieck. He referred to the time period repeatedly
in his letters. Eric Sams acknowledges that there is a powerful, personal emotion
81 Hindenlang, 579 ff.; Sams, 7

82 Reich, 72.
83 Thym 168.
47
attached to that eighteen-month period. There certainly must have been. Schumann
composed piano music then that he described to Clara later as being “one long wail over
you.” 84
A Clara-theme ends each half of A uf einer Burg. Karen Hindenlang, perhaps
unconsciously, uses language that connects this song to Schumann’s situation by
describing the song as “a breakdown in the wedding of text and music” [author’s italics]
and then draws attention to the marriage which had been completed so perfectly before in
Mondnacht. 85 And there are repeated descending fifths (greetings to Clara) in this song.
They rise sequentially until the midway point of the song is reached with the previously
mentioned Clara-theme. The “Friedrich” dissonance of G-sharp and A is next.
In summary, A u f einer Burg was more than a setting by Robert Schumann for
Eichendorff s poem, but a symbol o f his wretched circumstances. As Eric Sams says, in
the end the musical imagery is Schumann’s, not Eichendorff s.86
The eighteen-month separation was over August 13, 1837, initiated by Clara
Wieck. Schumann gave Clara a letter a month later to be given to her father on
September 18, her birthday. The letter included this complaint to Friedrich Wieck: “You
have tested me for eighteen months, as severely as Fate. How angry I might justly be
with you!”87 The testing was not yet over.
84 Schumann, 266.
85 Hindenlang, 571.
86 Sams, 100.
87Basch, 111.
48
In der Fremde II
Ich hor die Bachlein rauschen I hear the streams murmur

Im Walde her und hin, in the woods here and there.
Im Walde in dem Rauschen In the rustling of the woods
Ich weiss nicht, wo ich bin. I know not where I am.
Die Nachtigallen schlagen The nightingales are calling

Hier in der Einsamkeit here in the solitude
Als wollten sie was sagen as if they were singing
Von der alten, schonen Zeit. About the lovely days of old.
Die Mondeschimmer fliegen, The moonlit shimmer dances

Als sah ich unter mir as if I saw below me
Das Schloss im Tale liegen, The castle lying in the valley,
Und ist doch so weit von hier! And yet it is so far from here.
Als musste in dem Garten As if in the garden filled

Voll Rosen weiss und rot, with white and red roses
Meine Liebste auf mich warten, my sweetheart awaits me there,
Und ist doch so lange tot. and yet she died so long ago.
Schumann’s state of mind during the eighteen-month separation is represented in
In der Fremde II by the feverishness of the piano prelude with its constant sixteenth note
rhythms. According to Eric Sams, tears are suggested by fast-repeating half steps from
the lowered sixth degree to the dominant. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau comments that the
song’s setting “depicts a state of mind” that contains constraint, searching, and
hopelessness.88
88 Sams, 12; Fischer-Dieskau, 78.
49
This was a time when Schumann thought Clara was being false to him by flirting
with an old friend of his, Carl Banck, while she had similar fears about his faithfulness.
He tried to keep himself occupied and forget his anguish: he had constant company, with
an endless stream of visitors that irritated his landlady; he cast himself into composing
piano works, two of which are considered to be masterpieces; and he complained to
everyone who would listen.89 He wrote to Clara in December 1838, “.. .1 tried to cure
myself by forcing myself to fall in love with a woman who had already half entangled
me.”90
Despite Schumann’s having many friends and comforters during that trying time
period, his sister-in-law, Therese, was his most loyal confidant. He wrote to her:
“I am in a critical situation and lack the calm and clear sight that would enable me
to pull out of it. The way it stands now is that either I can never speak with her
again or she will be mine entirely.”91
A u f einer Burg may be seen to be the eighteen-month separation as perceived
from the Wiecks’ point of view. In der Fremde II is also related to the same time period
but shows Schumann’s viewpoint. The sweetheart of the poem who has been dead so
long may symbolize the dread Schumann felt that Clara Wieck was lost to him. Nancy B.
Reich comments that he spent the year and a half tom between hoping to see Clara again
and trying to give her up. Reich said that Schumann described his own state of mind at
the time as borderline insanity. “Let but this one thing mercifully pass away, without my
going mad.” Thym described the Stimmung of In der Fremde II as uncertainty. There
89 Basch, 102-103; Reich, 72.

^Basch, 105.
91 Reich, 72.
50
must have been more than uncertainty involved in Schumann’s self-expression in this
song. 92
92 Reich, 72; Thym, 125.
51
Wehmut
Ich kann wohl manchmal singen, I can often sing

Als ob ich frolich sei, as though I were glad;
Doch Heimlich Tranen dringen, But when tears flow,
Da wird das Herz mir frei. my heart is released.
So lassen Nachtigallen, So do nightingales,

Spielt draussen Fruhlingsluft, when spring breezes blow,
Der Sehnsucht Lied erschallen sing a song of yearning
Aus ihres Kafigs Gruft. From the prison of their cage.
Da lauschen alle Herzen, All hearts listen then,

Und alles ist erfreut, and all are glad;
Doch keener fiihlt die Schmerzen, but no one feels the pain in the song,
Im Lied das tiefe Leid. The deep sorrow in it.
This song comes along to give Robert Schumann a quiet moment to reflect on his
feelings, after having attempting to escape his pain in the frenzy of the previous song. It
is a short song comprising one page of music. Despite trying to distract himself as In der
Fremde II shows, Schumann found that he was just as miserable as ever. “A sense of
grief finds relief in tears” is Fischer-Dieskau’s way of expressing the emotion Schumann
feels.93 And the person to whom he felt he could cry was his sister-in-law, Therese.
Nancy B. Reich says that to her Schumann revealed his soul.
“Oh, remain true to me. In the deadly anxiety into which I fall from time to time, I have
no one but you to turn to, you who seem to hold me in your arms and protect me.”94
Therese was the one comforting person for Robert throughout the eighteen-month
separation from Clara.
94 Reich, 72.
52
Jurgen Thym is troubled by this song in its failure to fit in with his concept of the
love theme of the other songs. He says of Wehmui: “Its stanzas contain a general
confession by the singer, i.e., his credo, so to speak.”95 The word “confession” is the key
to understanding what this song meant to Robert Schumann. Wehmut confesses
Schumann’s deep, intense agony that lay hidden during this time period, which he
confided only to Therese Schumann. Perhaps in being able to share his feelings with his
sister-in-law, he found the courage to go on.
95 Thym, 214.
53
Zwielicht
Dammerung will die Flugel spreiten Twilight will spread its wings,
Schaurig riihren sich die Baume, the trees stir and shiver,
Wolken ziehn wie schwere Traume— Clouds drift by like oppressive dreams
Was will dieses Graun bedeuten? What will all these darknesses mean?
Hast ein Reh du lieb vor andem, Have you a deer you love above all others,
Lass es nicht alleine grasen, let it not graze alone,
Jager ziehn im Wald und blasen, Hunters go in the woods blowing horns,
Stimmen hin und wieder wandern. Voice echo here and there.
Hast du einen Freund hienieden, Have you a friend in this world,

Trau ihm nicht zu dieser Stunde, trust him not at this hour,
Freundlich wohl mit Aug und Munde, his eyes and lips may be friendly,
Sinnt er Krieg im tuck’schen Frieden. He’s plotting war in treacherous peace.
Was heut miide gehet unter, What today, tired, goes under
Hebt sich morgen neugeboren. Rises tomorrow reborn.
Manches geht in Nacht verloren— Some are lost in the night—
Htite dich, bleib wach und munter! Beware, stay awake and alert!
The E-minor tonality, mentioned before in the discussion of A u f einer Burg,
resurfaces. E-minor was referred to by Eric Sams as a key that Robert Schumann would
use to express a sense of tragedy. This poem was also used in Eichendorff s novel
Ahrmng und Gegenwart as a warning against infidelity. The unstable characteristic of the
poem is emphasized by diminished and augmented intervals, and by triads and seventh
chords, every musical device which Thym thought Schumann could employ to depict an
atmosphere of uncertainty, even treachery. Fischer-Dieskau perceptively mentions this
song in conjunction with Schumann’s growing understanding of relationships and how
difficult and m isleading they could be.96 But Zwielicht w as also a song about treachery.
96 Sams, 103; Thym, 177; Fischer-Dieskau, 79.
54
The treachery in Schumann’s life had more than one source. Carl Banck, his
former friend and colleague on the Neue Zeitschrift, had, as previously discussed, not
only been romancing Clara Wieck during the eighteen-month rift, but he had been telling
her that Schumann no longer cared about her.
Nevertheless, Friedrich Wieck’s betrayal, as Schumann saw it, cut even deeper.
He had been a mentor, a friend, another collaborator on the Neue Zeitschrift, and
Schumann had longed to embrace him as a father-in-law. But in a short time Schumann
saw his mistake, and he became so frightened of Wieck’s actions by September 1837 that
he warned Clara Wieck in a manner reminiscent of the second strophe about the deer.
“You have everything to fear from him: he will compel you byforce if he does not
succeed by craft. You have everything to fear!”97 The hunting horn in this poem could
have been sounding a warning against betrayal.
Wieck’s treachery consisted of verbal and written defamation. He would make
sarcastic remarks to his daughter about Schumann not having composed an opera yet or
about nobody wanting to buy his compositions. Schumann was bitter when Clara Wieck
didn’t defend him although he tried to be sympathetic about her attachment to her father.
He complained to her on August 21, 1838, “.. .all these slanders haunt me even in my
dreams.” Sadly, there were more to come.98
Friedrich Wieck’s offenses towards his daughter were libellous. He would send
letters to towns where Clara was about to perform concerts and claim that she broke
pianos when she played them, then send copies to his friends in those towns. She was
97 Basch, 113.
98 Schumann, 294; Reich, 85
55
extremely hurt by his cruelty, but tended towards forgiveness. She wrote in her journal
on November 11, 1839, . .he is to be pitied, even though, on the other hand, he has
treated me so terribly.”99
Robert Schumann was not as forgiving as Clara. He was worn out by the
unremitting attack scenes played out in the courtroom. He wrote to her on July 7, 1839,
“I beg that you will sometimes speak my name softly before the Most High, that He may
protect me, for—I can say it to you—I can hardly pray now, I am so bowed down and
hardened by suffering.”100 Schumann had learned that ultimately he must beware, as the
poem says in the last line.
99 Reich, 100.
100 Basch, 153.
56
Im Walde
Es zog eine Hochzeit den Berg entlang, A wedding party party passed by the
hillside,
Ich horte die Vogel schlagen. I heard the birds singing.
Da blitzen viel Reiter, das Waldhom klang, Then riders flashed by, horns sounded,
Das war ein lustiges Jagen! That was a merry hunt!
Und eh ich’s gedacht, war alles verhallt, And before I had realized it, all was gone.
Die Nacht bedecked die Runde, The night adorned all around,
Nur von den Bergen noch rauschet der Wald Only forest rustling from the mountain
Und mich schauert’s im Herzensgrunde. And I shudder in the depths of my heart.
The song Im Walde seems to contain happy images and misery at the same time,
another example of dualism. Robert Schumann even expressed himself dualistically to
Clara Wieck. He wrote to her on May 10, 1840, while composing this song collection,
“...I should like to be joyful and cry at once over the happiness and misery that Heaven
has given me to bear.” Schumann had also written to Clara of wedding and funeral bells
all ringing together on March 17, 1838, not so long after their reconciliation.101 In short,
it is certain that Schumann felt both joy and grief together at this time of his life and that
this poem was a further dualistic expression of his feelings. The great, joyful event was
tantalizingly near, but he was also just beginning to recuperate from the increasingly
terrible experiences of the last four years.
Musical details in the setting of Im Walde support both the text and Schumann’s
feelings. There are ritardandos positioned at the end of each of the first two lines in the
first strophe. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau makes an interesting observation about these
ritardandos by describing them as being “positioned like question marks.” 102 It is
101 Schumann, 301, 265.

57
almost as if Schumann were seeing the cheerful scenes as an outsider and asking himself,
“Is this happiness really meant for me? Is it here, finally”?
Another possible use of the ritardandos could have been to bring the wedding
scene into sharper focus with a musical zoom lens. Clearly the wedding was the key
thing to Schumann at the end of all this long delay, so a slowing-down device would call
attention to it. Jurgen Thym confirms this emphasis by saying that Schumann “uses a
slower pace to set important lines into relief.”103 Even the birds in the second line of
verse are singing to celebrate the wedding.
Im Walde, the eleventh song, is in the key of A-major like the second song in op.
39, Intermezzo. Intermezzo is described by Thym as a song of happiness, which is
confirmed by the key of A-major. Schumann was a composer for whom major and minor
keys meant different emotional states.104 The third line of the first strophe, ...Da blitzen
viel Reiter das Waldhom klang (Then riders flashed by, horns sounded), introduces a G-
major subdominant chord approach to a D-major modulation. The G-major part of the
chord progression may be a last message to Clara Wieck although the subject is a merry
hunt. It can be recalled that this kind of communication also occurred between
Waldesgesprach and Die Stille with the preview of G-major.
103
Thym, 182.
Sams, 17.
58
The meter is six-eight, with the rhythm of a hunt heard in the quarter note/eighth
note pattern in the left hand of the piano, although this rhythm also starts the song. The
hunting rhythm becomes less pronounced in the middle of the second strophe (nur von
den Bergen noch rauschet der Wald) and is abandoned altogether by the time the vocal
melody reaches its end. The tempo gradually slows, placing the all-important
“exhausted” last phrase into contrast, which is understandable enough in light of what
Schumann has nearly overcome and what nearly overcame him.
The second strophe is approached in the key of F-sharp major (und eh ich's
gedacht war alles verhalli), the same key as the last, triumphant song, Fruhlingsnacht..
Despite this song’s final words (And I shudder in the depths of my heart), the major keys
of Im Walde indicate an overall positive outlook for Schumann, confirmed by the next
and final song.
59
Fruhlingsnacht
Ubern Garten durch die Liifte Over the garden, through the air
Hort ich Wandervogel ziehn, I heard the birds migrate,
Das bedeutet Fruhlingsdufte, that means spring scents,
Unten fangt’s schon an zu bliihn. Below blossoming is already beginning.
Jauchzen mocht ich, mochte weinen, I’d like to rejoice and cry,
Ist mir’s doch, als konnt’s nicht sein! It seems that it is not possible!
Alte Wunder wieder scheinen All old miracles shine again
Mit dem Mondesglanz herein. With the moon light herein.
Und der Mond, die Sterne sagen’s, And the moon, the stars say it,
Und in Traumen rauscht’s der Hain, And in dreams the woods rustle it,
Und die Nachtigallen schlagen’s: And the nightingales sing it:
Sie ist Deine, sie ist Dein! She is yours, she is yours!
“... And the end of it all will be a jolly wedding.. wrote Schumann on March 17,
1838. Schumann has no further need to restrain his joy with this final song,
Fruhlingsnacht. Even nature is celebrating his triumph. The moon, the stars, the woods,
and the nightingales, all are congratulating him on his achievement. Fischer-Dieskau
calls this song one that “could only be sung by someone who sees the imminent
realization of his dreams.” That someone could only be Robert Schumann. Eric Sams
says, “No composer could resist it, least of all Schumann in his wedding-year.” But no
composer that is known had ever gone through so much to win his beloved.105
105 Schumann, 265; Fischer-Dieskau, 80; Sams, 105.
60
There is a Clara-theme, which serves as a greeting to her, in the decorated piano
prelude.106 The musical setting has increased its overall excitement in this concluding
song; the sixteenth notes of Schdne Fremde have become sixteenth-note triplets here,
turning up the rhythmic intensity. As Barbara Turchin describes the finale of op. 39,
“Fulfillment in love is now within reach.”107 Now Robert Schumann was about to
celebrate the achievement of his goal and poured out all of his eagerness into this last,
short piece of music. The final word of the story should be Victor Basch’s for having the
best insight into this glorious moment:
“And we may pause and look upon this sunlit episode in our hero’s suffering
progress through life, without casting a gloom over it by looking forward...”108
106 Sams, 105.

107 Turchin, 242.
108Basch, 164.
61
CONCLUSION
The reasons against there being a story line in the op. 39 Liederkreis look
daunting. Patrick McCreless has argued against an overall theme in this work, one reason
being the lack of a single, original source for the poems, which leaves an ostensibly
random selection. He writes, “There is no ‘narrative thread’ or posing o f ‘enigmas’ to be
solved.” McCreless interprets Schumann’s two to three different orderings of the
Eichendorff poems to mean that there is no real story, because Schumann was free to
arrange them in any way he found most effective, “in a way that would not have been the
case in a narrative cycle.” McCreless allows there to be, at the most, “a web of nature
symbolism, imagery, and language...”109
Barbara Turchin says that some researchers suppose there to be a lack of poetic
coherence or chronological events without really divulging her own viewpoint.110
However, Karen Hindenlang declares straightforwardly:
The poems, as selected and organized by Schumann, do not outline a story.

Efforts to isolate a continuous narrative thread running through the Liederkreis
have been defeated by the lack of a single consistent viewpoint or a chronological
order of events.”111
And David Ferris, as discussed previously, concludes that Clara Wieck selected the
poetry, making it unlikely that Schumann had any story line in mind.
The previous rationales for no theme in op. 39 may seem discouraging at first, but
when the Eichendorff poems that Schumann selected are compared with the events of his
far-from -idyllic engagem ent, all the p ieces o f the puzzle fall into place. U pon a closer
109 McCreless, 5.
1,0 Turchin, 237.
111 Hindenlang, 569.
62
R eprod u ced with permission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
inspection of the composer’s personal life and emotional upheaval, as well as his
fiancee’s, the Eichendorff poems seem to have been chosen as chronological scenes from
that four-year engagement. The following chart compares the op. 39 songs to the
documented events of 1836-1840.
In der Fremde The Farewell

Autobiography
Intermezzo Clara’s Image
Waldesgesprdch. Dedication to Clara Autobiography
Die Stillc. Reich confirms

The Secret Love
M ondnachr The Imagined Union

Analysts
confirm
Schone Fremde - - The Anticipated Wedding
A u f einer Burg------- The Silent Separation Autobiography
In der Fremde IF — Basch confirms

The Frantic Activity
Wehmuthr Tearful Confession Autobiography
Zwielicht. Treachery Autobiography
Im Walde
Exhausted Hope Autobiography
12. Friihlingsnacht- She is Yours! Autobiography
63
From the beginning of the journey that the traveler takes, through the intervening images
of the description of his beloved’s radiant image, his promise that she alone has captured
him, her silence about her secret love, the wedding song, the wedding that almost
happened, the eighteen-month silence and Schumann’s by turns depressed and
tumultuous reactions to the break, the warning against treachery, the light at the end of
the tunnel, to the triumphant finale, Schumann’s betrothal story is told in these songs.
64
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Basch, Victor. Schumann: A Life o f Suffering. Translated by Catherine Alison Philips.

Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970.
Bent, Ian. Analysis. London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1987.
Burkhart, Charles. “Departures from the Norm in Two Songs from Schumann’s
Liederkreis. ” Schenker Studies, ed. Hedi Siegel. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Ferris, David. Schumann’s EichendorffLiederkreis and the Genre o f the Romantic

Cycle. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich. Robert Schumann: Words and Music. Translated by

Reinhard G. Pauly. Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1988.
Hindenlang, Karen A. “Eichendorff s A u f einer Burg and Schumann’s Liederkreis,

op. 39.” The Journal o f Musicology 7, no. 4 (Fall 1990): 569-587.
McCreless, Patrick. “Song Order in the Song Cycle: Schumann’s Liederkreis op. 39.”
Music Analysis 5, no. 1 (1986): 5-28.
Reich, Nancy B. Clara Schumann: The Artist and the Woman. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 1985.
Sams, Eric. The Songs o f Robert Schumann. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University
Press, 1993.
Schauffler, Robert Haven. Florestan: The Life and Work o f Robert Schumann.
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1945.
Schumann, Robert. Early Letters o f Robert Schumann, Originally Published by his Wife.
Translated by May Herbert. Covent Garden, London: George Bell & Sons, 1970.
Schwartz, Egon. Joseph von Eichendorff. New York: Tweyne Publishers, Inc., 1972.
Taylor, Ronald. Robert Schumann: His Life and Work. New York: Universe Books,
1982.
Thym, Jurgen. “The Solo Song Settings of Eichendorff s Poems by Schumann and
Wolf.” Ph.D. diss., Case Western Reserve University, 1974.
Turchin, Barbara. “Robert Schumann’s Song Cycles: The Cycle Within the Song.”
P fh Century Music 8, no. 3 (1985): 231-244.
65

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FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

SCHUMANN’S OPUS 39 LIEDERKREIS:

THE STORY OF AN ENGAGEMENT

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

Julia Dean McFadden

All rights reserved.

ProQuest Information and Learning Company

We have read this thesis and recommend that it be approved.

Robert Dundas, Major Professor

Date of Defense: January 6, 2000

The thesis of Julia Dean McFadden is approved.

Dean Arthur W. Herriott

Dean QjSdglas Wartzok

Florida International University, 2003

All rights reserved.

SCHUMANN’S OPUS 39 LIEDERKREIS:

THE STORY OF AN ENGAGEMENT

Julia Dean McFadden

Florida International University, 2003

Professor Robert Dundas, Major Professor

The objective of this thesis is twofold: 1) to confirm Robert Schumann’s

story line in the final order of the poems.

Eichendorff, including an understanding of his use of poetic images that represented

to textual meaning. Finally, the events of the Schumann/Wieck engagement were

weighed against the twelve song texts.

Liederkreis, which is Robert Schumann’s 4-1/2 year engagement to Clara Wieck.

II. JOSEF VON EICHENDORFF........................................................................... 2

III. ROBERT SCHUMANN.....................................................................................6

IV. ROBERT AND CLARA’S ENGAGEMENT................................................... 10

V. AN OVERVIEW OF THE EICHENDORFF POEMS..................................... 16

VI. THE STORY IN THE SONGS.........................................................................28

and marriage. Jurgen Thym’s theory of the Stimmungen (meaning moods or

song by song, of the engagement story as reflected in the song cycle.

poems and novels,

gardens, which contained Rococo designed flowerbeds, mythological statues, fountains,

appear in some of the poems selected by Robert Schumann.

The family’s advantaged lifestyle changed suddenly with Napoleon’s attempt to

was occupying under the command of Murat.

themselves of a future profession as gentlemen farmers. By the time Eichendorff

in the Prussian government in Breslau at a pitifully low salary.

However, years later in 1821 he received an appointment as a government

expression remained strong in his literary works throughout his lifetime.5

“solid classical education” at the Zwickau Lyceum.

Schumann’s personal identification with literature and music was so consuming

person of Jean-Paul Richter. Richter’s novels were to dominate Schumann throughout

his life.6 As an instance of Schumann’s devotion to Jean-Paul, when he was seventeen he

Schumann’s reputation as an adherent of Jean-Paul Richter became so established that

“Don’t you think these pieces are clear by themselves”?8

confronted with the reality of pursuing an education leading to a professional career. He

friendships, and performing at little soirees.

command of technique, and therefore with Friedrich Wieck as a teacher. He approached

unknowingly to begin his lifelong relationship with Clara Wieck.11

11 Reich, 59-61; Basch, 31.

how she loved him.”12

journal, and referred to him as arrogant on more than one occasion.14

other.16 The promises and letters were about to be suspended.

for Schumann to show from that time forth.17

17 Basch, 99; Reich, 71.

1837 was the formal beginning of their engagement.

surreptitiously through friends, but at least they had that correspondence.19

18 Basch, 102-105; Reich, 75.

Wieck’s accusations against Robert Schumann began in court in December 1839.