john daverio: schumann legendenton & schlegel arabesque

Schumann's "Im Legendenton" and Friedrich Schlegel's "Arabeske"Author(s): John DaverioSource: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Autumn, 1987), pp. 150-163Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746728 .Accessed: 27/12/2014 00:34

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Schumann's "Im Legendenton" and Friedrich Schlegel's Arabeske

JOHN DAVERIO

"Uberhaupt hingen die verdammten Dinger so zusammen." -Friedrich Schlegel;

letter to A. W. Schlegel, March 1798 References to Friedrich Schlegel, arguably the chief early Romantic critic/philosopher, are few in discussions of music. Yet Schlegel was an in- triguing figure: at once the architect of the theory of Universalpoesie, crusader for the Roman, writer of enigmatic fragments that number in the thousands, and author of Lucinde, a little book of evil repute that is itself a fragment. Per- haps the noted Germanist Erich Heller has described him best, as a "complex simpleton and profoundly prophetic fool."' Less polished and lucid an author than his brother August Wilhelm, and not as anxious to embrace music as Novalis, Tieck, Wackenroder, or Hoffmann, Friedrich Schlegel has been consigned to a pass- ing reference in the introductory chapters of

monographs on Romanticism, or to specialized studies by literary scholars. It is true that Schle- gel was reluctant to view music as a "progressive" art in the same sense that poetry might as- pire to that ideal; while he was certain that music could embody a "sentimental theme," he was less convinced that this might be cast in a "fantastic form," his other requisite for the Ro- mantic artwork.2 Still, he addressed a number of

19th-Century Music XI/2 (Fall 1987). O by the Regents of the University of California.

'Erich Heller, Thomas Mann: The Ironic German (South Bend, Ind., 1958), p. 158.

2Schlegel defined the Romantic artwork as that which presents "einen sentimentalen Stoff in einer fantastischen Form" in his "Gesprich uiber die Poesie" (1799-1800), Kritische Friedrich Schlegel Ausgabe [hereafter KFSA], vol. II, Charakteristiken und Kritiken I (1796-1801), ed. Hans Eichner (Wien, Ziurich, 1967), p. 333. Schlegel best expressed his doubts on music in Frag. 230 of his Fragmente zur Literatur und Poesie (1797): "Kann es wohl progressive Musik geben, oder ist diese eine rein sentimentale Kunst, wie die Plastik eine classische, die Poesie eine progressive?" KFSA, vol. XVI, Fragmente zur Poesie und Literatur I, ed. Hans Eichner (Munich, 1981), p. 104. References to music as a sentimental art which appeals to us where "spiritual feel- ing" prevails, are numerous in Schlegel's writings. See

150


musical issues that are usually associated with the younger generation of Romantics. E. T. A. Hoffmann's glorification of pure instrumental music (in "Beethovens Instrumentalmusik," 1813), his association of Romantic opera and the "marvelous" (in "Der Dichter und der Kom- ponist," 1813-19), Weber's concerns with the form that German opera should take (expressed in his 1817 review of Hoffmann's Undine)-all of these points have precedents in Schlegel's writings.3

I am less concerned here, however, with Schlegel's thoughts on music than with those aspects of his literary theory that might be use- ful in assessing the more disruptive qualities of nineteenth-century musical form. We are com- ing to realize that form remains a perplexing issue in studies of Romantic music because of our tendency to conceptualize it in architectural terms--an analogical mode of thought more appropriate to music of the late eighteenth century. Schlegel supplies us with a painterly anal- ogy better suited to artworks, both literary and musical, of the succeeding century. This essay, then, focusses on a concept that played an important part in the critical ideas that Schlegel began to formulate around the turn of the nineteenth century: the Arabeske (arabesque). In a limited sense, the arabesque refers to humor- ous, witty, or sentimental digressions that in- tentionally disturb the chronological flow of a narrative. But as a total form, the arabesque tempers a seemingly chaotic diversity through a deliberately concealed logical process.

By way of demonstration, this twofold principle is applied here to the first movement of Ro- bert Schumann's C-Major Fantasy for Piano, op. 17 (revised version, 1838), a seminal work for musical Romanticism, the formal processes of which can be illuminated by turning to Schle- gel's ideas. This choice, however, raises the

question of the degree to which Schumann was familiar with Schlegel's writings. It is certain that he was acquainted with some of Schlegel's poems, and interestingly enough, with Schu- bert's settings of them. The motto which heads the first movement of the Fantasy ("Durch alle Tone t6net / Im bunten Erdentraum / Ein leiser Ton gezogen / FUr den der heimlich lauschet") is the closing quatrain of Schlegel's Die Ge- biische,4 a poem which Schubert set in its entirety (D. 646). The undulating sextuplet ac- companimental figure that runs through Schu- bert's setting is called up in the last movement of Schumann's Fantasy, which, in addition, begins with a variant of the harmonic progression that opens Schubert's song. The Fantasy finale also evokes another of Schubert's Schlegel settings, Der Fluss, D. 693. The opening of this song, in turn, makes melodic reference to Wo die Berge so blau, the second song from Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte, the last song of which plays such an important role in the first movement of Schumann's Fantasy. Thus, the Schlegel motto at the beginning of the Fan- tasy is not merely a fanciful poetic citation-it is the key to a dense web of musical allusions.5

Of Schumann's familiarity with Schlegel the critic there is less direct evidence. His own Ara- beske, op. 18, for instance, cannot be clearly linked with Schlegel's critical category.6 Still, it was Friedrich Schlegel who first fashioned the complex of ideas that were to form the philo- sophical underpinnings of German Romanti- cism-ideas that were widely disseminated through the Vorlesungen iiber dramatische Kunst und Literatur (1808-09) of his brother August Wilhelm.7 And although it cannot be

JOHN DAVERIO Schumann and Schlegel

"Gespriich iber die Poesie," KFSA, vol. II, p. 333; Fragmente zur Literatur und Poesie, Frag. 231 and 404, KFSA, vol. XVI, pp. 104, 118; Zur Poesie 1 (1802), Frag. 148, KFSA, vol. XVI, p. 266. 3For Schlegel's views on instrumental music, see Frag. 1130 of the Fragmente zur Literatur und Poesie (KFSA, vol. XVI, p. 178): "Alle reine Musik muss philosophisch und instrumental sein (Musik fiirs Denken)." He associates opera and das Wunderbare in Frag. 48 of the same collection (KFSA, vol. XVI, p. 89) and treats the problem of operatic form in his Geschichte der Europdischen Literatur (1803-04), KFSA, vol. XI, Wissenschaft der Europiiischen Literatur (1795- 1804), ed. Ernst Behler (Zurich, 1958), pp. 81-82.

4KFSA, vol. V, Dichtungen, ed. H. Eichner (Munich, 1962), pp. 190-91. SIn an often quoted letter of 9 June 1839, Schumann iden- tified Clara as the "Ton" in the motto. See Jugendbriefe von Robert Schumann, ed. Clara Schumann (3rd edn. Leipzig, 1898), p. 303. But aren't there really several "leise T6ne" that run through the Fantasy, that point to Beethoven and Schubert as well? 6But cf. n. 48, below. 70On the transmission of Friedrich's ideas through the writings of August Wilhelm, see Hans Eichner, "Germany / Ro- mantisch--Romantik--Romantiker," in Romantic and its Cognates-The European History of a Word, ed. H. Eich- ner (Toronto, 1972), p. 136. For a general discussion of the young Schumann's intense preoccupation with literary Ro- manticism, see Leon B. Plantinga, Schumann as Critic (New Haven, 1967), pp. 61-69.

151


19TH CENTURY MUSIC

shown that Schumann was directly influenced by the critical theories of Friedrich Schlegel, we can be sure that their artistic and intellectual dispositions revolved about the same spiritual center.

Charles Rosen has aptly characterized the Fantasy as "the monument that commemo- rates the death of the Classical style."8 Under- standably enough, critical attention has cen- tered on the first movement, generally considered a highwater mark in the young Schumann's creative handling of the sonata form.9 The point to which most commentators have drawn attention, as a sign of Schumann's imaginative formal approach, is the evocative "Im Legendenton," a self-contained Charakter- stiick in its own right, which Schumann placed more or less at the midpoint of the movement. "Im Legendenton" is thus usually designated as an interlude, or episode that either substitutes for the more usual development section,'1 or oc- curs within the developmental process initiated at the Im Tempo of m. 82.11 For Rosen, the placement of "Im Legendenton" imparts to the first movement an overall ternary design somewhat akin to the eighteenth-century da capo aria. 12

In my view, these descriptions of the position of "Im Legendenton" within the total design are curiously mistaken. It is misleading to characterize the interlude as part of a development section, for it is preceded by two clear references to the opening material in the tonic (mm. 97- 105 and 119-28). In other words, the recapitulation would appear to have begun before it. Like- wise, a ternary view of the movement is problematic, for the third form-part (mm. 226ff.) would correspond not to the opening of the movement, but to the passage beginning at m. 29. Thus, "Im Legendenton" can only be de-

scribed as an interlude within the recapitulation-a by no means small or insignificant dif- ference. Although the Im Tempo at m. 82 commences with all the rhetorical posturing and tonal instability of a development section, it soon becomes clear that this was just so much false motion; with the reappearance of a variant of the opening material at its original pitch level (m. 97), the recapitulation is already under way. (It is true that the point of recapitulation is somewhat understated, as indeed it must be, for the movement begins, in medias res, over a V9 pedal. Still, the motivic correspondences between mm. 97-128 and the opening, and more important, the establishment of C major, make it clear that m. 97 marks the initiation of the recapitulation.) That "Im Legendenton" inter- rupts the recapitulatory process is further cla- rified by a simple comparison: the point at which the recapitulation is resumed following "Im Legendenton," m. 226, proceeds from mm. 126-28, where the recapitulation breaks down just before it, just as m. 29 (with its upbeat) proceeded from mm. 27-28 in the exposition. The correspondences are aligned for comparison in ex. 1.

An awareness of this shift in position-from developmental interlude to recapitulatory digression-is crucial in understanding the unique formal process in the first movement of the Fantasy. Of course, we might view "Im Le- gendenton" as yet another anomalous feature of Schumann's early essays in the sonata form (in which case this study would rapidly draw to a close). Or we might attempt an evaluation of the movement in more positive terms, as a manifestation of "Romantic form." Although I will try to define and develop the second alter- native, it is not without its problematic aspects. For how are we to define that ideal form that Schumann hoped to create when he proclaimed the piano sonata an outmoded genre: "and this is, to be sure, in the order of things, for we cannot repeat the same formulas for another hundred years and at the same time concern our- selves with fashioning something new? "'3 And if the sonata-allegro is no longer the single for-

sCharles Rosen, The Classical Style (New York, 1972), p. 451. 'See Arnfried Edler, Robert Schumann und seine Zeit (Laaber, 1982), p. 144; also, the similar assessment in Joan Chissell, Schumann Piano Music (Seattle, 1972), p. 36. 'oSee Edler, Schumann, p. 142; Thomas A. Brown, The Aes- thetics of Robert Schumann (New York, 1968), p. 157; Kathleen Dale, "The Piano Music," in Schumann: A Sym- posium, ed. Gerald Abraham (London, 1952), p. 47; Ronald Taylor, Robert Schumann: His Life and Work (New York, 1982), p. 143. "Chissell, Schumann Piano Music, p. 36. '2Rosen, Classical Style, p. 453.

'3Robert Schumann, Gesammelten Schriften [hereafter GSI (Leipzig, 1914), I, 395. All translations are mine unless oth- erwise noted.

152


Expo.: m. 27

_____ i? 1 etc.

Recap.: m. 126 Erstes Tempo 1

"IM m. 226

"

B- J I Legendenton" ma . E mp --d

Example 1


mal criterion for movements such as the first of the Fantasy, to what other formal concept can we turn?14 It is here that Schlegel's Arabeske-- the notion through which he projected his views on fantastiche Form-might be helpful, in particular in assessing the formal anomalies called up by Schumann's "Im Legendenton," and in general, by providing us with a positive statement of Romantic form.

The arabesque was first used as a critical term in Germany during the late eighteenth century, where it was applied to literature by way of its association with the pictorial arts and architec- ture. Indeed, the period saw a revival of interest in the arabesques of ancient Pompeii--fanciful but symmetrically arranged patterns depicting tenuous, plant-like shapes or fabulous creatures that were used as a framing device to finish off a wall that had a small picture in the middle (see plate 1). Raphael had applied similar decorative paintings, around 1515, to the pillars of the pa-

pal loggias. In the early nineteenth century, it was Philipp Otto Runge who attempted to raise the arabesque from a purely ornamental art form to one with serious allegorical implica- tions. In Der kleine Morgen, one of Runge's several representations of the times of day (see plate 2), the arabesque frame is an integral part of the painting itself. Likewise, the complexly symmetrical arrangement of fantastic figures about a central point marks an attempt to trans- form ornamental patterning into the very substance of the painting."s

Goethe, in his essay "Von Arabesken" (1789), spoke of "eine willkilrliche und geschmack- volle Zusammenstellung der mannigfalltigsten Gegenstdinde,"'6 each of which defining characteristics-arbitrariness, tasteful juxtaposition, infinite variety-was taken up in the critical theories of Friedrich Schlegel. Schlegel contin- ued to associate the arabesque and the pictur- esque,'7 but began to apply the term, analogically, to fanciful qualities of literary form. The novels of Laurence Sterne, for instance, which Schlegel found attractive for their departure from strict chronological narration through the

14See Charles Rosen, Sonata Forms (New York, 1980), p. 315. Rosen, in his discussion of Schumann's F#t-Minor Pi- ano Sonata, op. 11, concludes that the anomalous aspects of Schumann's sonata-form movements require the discussion of "similar effects" in Kreisleriana, Carnaval, Dichter- liebe, and so on--a tantalizing thought upon which he does not elaborate.

Anthony Newcomb alludes to the same problem in his analysis of the last movement of Schumann's Second Sym- phony, op. 61, "Once More 'Between Absolute and Program Music': Schumann's Second Symphony," this journal 7 (1984), 240: "As regards form, the mistake comes in wanting to claim that the finale is in any single form. "

'0"On the pictorial arabesque, see Wolfgang Kayser, The Gro- tesque in Art and Literature, trans. Ulrich Weisstein (New York, 1981), p. 21, originally published as Das Groteske (O1- denburg, 1957); and Marshall Brown, The Shape of German Romanticism (Ithaca, 1979), pp. 90-91. 16Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Gedenkausgabe der Werke, Briefe und Gespriiche, Vol. 13, Schriften zur Kunst (Ziirich, 1954), pp. 62-66. '7See KFSA, vol. XVI, p. 319, Frag. 787: "Der urspriingliche Form der Pictur ist Arabeske

..."; p. 167, Frag. 986: "Ara- besken sind die absolute fantastische Mahlerei."

153


19TH CENTURY

MUSIC ~---a R~i99 :i~~ ~S~li~~~~ --~:~;-im~'~-=::-- -::_ -:::::~'~

,-, =: ~~~ I~~ii~~s~~~ ~_ -"=:: -'j::::::j::::' ~n:~i~_l:~-~:~=~-e

- '""'c;--? --'-:--': '::--:-~-:::::-Xi

--

~::i::-: : :

~~~,~~- ~~~ :;I~~~:~~ ,,~,,,,,i~

r;B~a~

~-aca i

~ ;----; ~~

-?:c~ "~ ::::;: ;-

Plate 1: Wall painting with surrounding arabesques from the home of Sulpicius Rufus, Pompeii (Nederlands Instituut, Rome).

introduction of digressive elements," reminded him of "those witty wall-paintings ... that are called arabesques."'19

Between 1797 and 1801, Schlegel fashioned the arabesque into an all-embracing literary critical category in his various collections of fragments, and perhaps most notably, in the "Gesprich fiber die Poesie" of 1799. In one

sense, Schlegel intended the arabesque as a specific genre of "modern" literature of roughly the same scope as the Novelle, Miirchen, Legende, Idyll, Romanze, and Elegie. Diderot's satiric Jacques le fataliste, with its ironically inclined narrator, frequent digressions, and complex narrative structure, is the example that he fastens upon in the "Gesprich."20 More important for our purposes, however, is Schlegel's dual-na- tured concept of the arabesque as a category of literary form. In its more limited application,

'8Cf. Eric Blackall, The Novels of the German Romantics (Ithaca, 1983), pp. 54-55, for a discussion of these qualities in Sterne's Tristram Shandy, and their influence on Schle- gel's theories. 19KFSA, vol. II, pp. 330-31. 20Ibid., p. 331.

154


'Ma-i-iii~i:s Jl,?':~:'';~iiiiiiii~i

:Rf

15M f i::-:':-'~i;- 4

IM , : : j~::ii;::i~ i~; If:.:::'i~~iii~~i-:::: iii'i~ciiii-i~ ::_ . -:-~::::j:.-::_:_:::::i~_:'Am.'

iiiffi.?-iziiiiii: ::i ~ .41l

::ii~::::: ::'i-ii:~:ii'ii~iii~i-ii-iiliii:. ...... .. .. :::: "_:: :_: .-:i :::-,:: ::-::... ......._'.

: ::::::::-::.::-::-:i :-: -::-? iiiiii iiiiii-iiiii~iiiii:::::ii;:-:i:ii.... ......:?.'

Plate 2: Philipp Otto Runge, Der kleine Morgen (1808). By permission of the Hamburger Kunsthalle.


the arabesque might refer specifically to those digressive interpolations or ornamental varia- tions that interrupt the chronological flow of a conventional narrative. Thus, in no. 421 of the Atheniium Fragmente (1797-98), Schlegel commented, somewhat disapprovingly, on the frequent digressions in Jean Paul's Siebenkcis, labeling them "leaden arabesques in the Niirn- berg style."21 He felt that Tieck handled the arabesque element, in this case a series of interpo- lated Mairchen, more successfully in his Franz

Sternbalds Wanderungen.22 At the same time, Schlegel conceived the arabesque as the formal principle that governed the whole of the Ro- mantic artwork. As a category of total form, the arabesque plays on the balance of the most varied profusion of diverse elements by way of an artfully designed constructive logic, and thus mediates chaotic disarray and symmetrical order.23 In the "Rede iiber Mythologie," from his

21Ibid., p. 247. The digressive arabesque, in other words, was not necessarily a positive feature. As Marshall Brown has noted (Shape of German Romanticism, p. 93), it rather rep- resented a beginning step toward a perfected Romantic poetry.

22KFSA, vol. II, p. 245 (Atheniium Frag. 418). 23See also Karl Konrad Polheim, Die Arabeske (Munich, 1966), pp. 12-14. Blackall, in The Novels of the German Ro- mantics (p. 272), questions Polheim's formulation of the Schlegelian arabesque as a total form; however, most of Schlegel's references to the term are understandable only when the arabesque is considered in its broadest sense.

155


19TH CENTURY

MUSIC "Gesprich," Schlegel put forth a particularly colorful metaphor for the arabesque as all-en- compassing form: the whole of classical my- thology, with its "motley throng of ancient gods,"24 formed an arabesque in this larger sense.

From the inception of its use as a critical term, the arabesque was applied metaphori- cally. A term from painting was applied to literature; why not also apply it to music? Schlegel himself suggested as much in the query posed by no. 15 of his Fragmente zur Poesie und Li- teratur II (1800-01): "Does not the arabesque relate to the pictorial arts as the fantasy does to music?"25 Indeed, the concept of the arabesque is especially apt for a discussion of the "fantastic form" of the first movement of Schumann's Fantasy. In its more limited sense, the arabesque manifests itself as a local event in the dreamy "Im Legendenton," but in a larger sense, the arabesque as total form is called up by the effect that Schumann's evocative interlude has on the design of the movement as a whole. Although the focus of this study is the "Im Le- gendenton" section, we should begin with a brief consideration of its surroundings.

II The opening thematic material of the first

movement is presented in three "waves" (la- beled A', A2, and A3 in ex. 2) that, through a process of phrase-length compression (17 + 9 + 4 mm.) and diminution (cf. A2 and A') suggest a kind of metric crescendo. The harmonic/melodic background for the first theme group is supplied by an underlying periodic con- struction. A' (mm. 2-10, and by extension, mm. 10-19) is fashioned as a double antecedent, its first phrase cadencing on V, its second (if only briefly), in V. A2 (mm. 19-28) more or less rein- terprets the opening eighteen measures in diminution (an event prepared in the rhythmic diminution at the close of A': cf. mm. 14-17, and 17-19), but it too fails to bring harmonic closure. Thus, what amounts to a gigantic "question" (mm. 1-28) is answered by A3, but a minor

third higher, in Eb. At first, we might interpret the harmonic displacement as a sign that the transition has begun, but in fact the juxtaposition of keys removed by a minor third (here, C/ Eb) emerges as a fundamental feature of thematic presentation in the movement as a whole (see fig. 1, p. 158).26

With the appearance of B (m. 33), the transition is under way. It proceeds in two sequential units, each rising by fifth: the first (mm. 34-37) from C minor to G minor, the second (mm. 37- 41) from G minor to D minor. The tonal layout of the second theme group (C' and C2 in ex. 2) is dependent on the coupling of D minor and F; the material presented in mm. 41-52 recurs (after a figurational transition) in mm. 61-72 at the re- move of a minor third, complementing the C/EI tonal juxtaposition of the first theme group. Thus, less crucial than the tonal endpoints of the exposition (tonic and subdominant), is the recognition of two parallel tonal pairings-C/ Eb and Dm/F-each hinging on the minor third, and separated by the two rising fifths of the transition.27

Thus far the outlines of the general design are quite clear, in spite of what are admittedly

24KFSA, vol. II, p. 319. 25KFSA, vol. XVI, p. 342.

26In the largest sense, the appearance of Eb here and else- where throughout the movement prefigures the Eb tonality of the second movement. 27Cf. Rosen, Classical Style, p. 452. Rosen interprets the move from C to F as a lowering of tension. But while it would be difficult to claim anything else for an overall I-IV harmonic progression, we should not overlook the illusion of tension which Schumann suggests through the process of modulation up fifths. The move from the C/Eb pair to the Dm/F pair is indeed a move in the upward direction: the as- cent is clearly emphasized by the rising fifths of mm. 34- 41.

In any event, the minor third tonal pair was something of an obsession in Schumann's larger piano works of the 1830s. Third pairs govern the tonal plans of the outer movements of the F#-Minor Sonata, op. 11, and the first movement of the F-minor Concert sans Orchestre, op. 14. In addition, the third tonal pair figures prominently in the second and particularly the third movement of the Fantasy, where third chains govern practically the whole of the tonal scheme. Might this perhaps represent an early nineteenth-century manifestation of the technique of tonal pairing that Robert Bailey has defined as the primary harmonic unifying factor in Wagner's music dramas? See Robert Bailey, "The Struc- ture of the Ring and its Evolution," this journal 1 (1977), 59-61; and The Genesis of Tristan und Isolde and a Study of Wagner's Sketches and Drafts for the First Act (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1969), pp. 149-59.

156


Al (m. 2) 6 " , etc.

A2 (m. 19)

A3 (m. 28) B

A4 (m.119)

"Im Legendenton" (m. 129)

A2 Al cont'd. (m. 14)

Cl (m. 41). 49

C2 (m. 61) m. 157

r1 m. 296 ("Beethoven")

A2 (m. 287)

A2 (m.291) A

in II

Example 2: Schumann, Fantasy, 1st movt., motivic connections.


157


19TH CENTURY MUSIC

DIGRESSION

.ExPO. FALSE DEVT. RECAP. CODA

1st th. tr. 2nd th. 1st th.--------- Legendenton" --.

tr. 2nd th. on gr. gr. gr. (Cm) gr. false & A2 &Beethoven

Devt. quot. A' A2 A3 B C1 C2 A2 A4 A3 B C1 C2 C / E Dm/F C / E Cm/E6 C C 2 19 29 33 41 61 82 97 119 129 226 230 234 254 275 287 296

Figure 1: Schumann, Fantasy, 1st movt., overview of form.

unusual features of the movement up to this point, namely, the tonal pairings in both of the theme groups, and the avoidance of definitive closing gestures. (The final cadence of the exposition arrives on a solitary, unharmonized F, the second element of a relatively weak vii?7-I progression.) Likewise, the development appears to begin with the Im Tempo at m. 82; but as previ- ously noted, we recognize it as a sham at m. 97, when the opening theme recurs in the form of A2. Although the passage starting with the upbeat to m. 106 (an outgrowth of the sigh figure from the close of A2) suggests a return to developmental procedures, the gestural flurry is again deceptive. The appearance in m. 119 of A4 (which combines the grandiosity of A' with the melodic/rhythmic shape of A2) reconfirms the notion that the recapitulation is in progress. But within the space of ten measures, "Im Legen- denton" proceeds to interrupt the natural flow of the form.

It is decisive for an understanding of the special character of Schumann's "Im Legenden- ton" to make note of the degree to which it dif- fers from the central section of an A B A form; for the B of a Bogen form does not so much dis- rupt an ongoing process as it presents another block in a series of alternating, self-contained musical units. "Im Legendenton" has been in- tentionally placed to disturb what would other- wise have been an absolutely symmetrical form: exposition-"Im Legendenton"-recapitulation. It is rather positioned between the two tonal elements of the first theme group in the recapitulation, C/Eb (see fig. 1), while its own tonality, C minor, acts as a mediating force between those that surround it.

The designation of "Im Legendenton" as digression or interruption, however, does not suf- ficiently characterize its highly individual prop- erties. We might get at these better by linking them, analogically, to the characteristics of the literary arabesque, each one of which can now be considered in turn.

The concept of the arabesque in its limited application, as digression, was best formulated by Schlegel in his discussion of the episodic elements in Greek comedy ("Charakteristik der griechischen Kombdie," 1803-04). Here Schle- gel used the Greek term Parekbasis, which oc- cupies a position in his critical theory of Greek comedy similar to that of the arabesque in his theory of the contemporary Roman.28 Schlegel defined the Parekbasis as "a speech occurring in the course of a play, spoken by the chorus (in the name of the poet) to the audience. It indeed rep- resented a total interruption and brought the action to a halt.""9 At the same time, the conse- quent structural irregularity was only apparent; it was not a sign of any lack of artfulness on the author's part. The link with Schumann's digressive interlude is clear, for in "Im Legendenton" the composer steps out of the "real time" of the movement (that is, the interrupted sonata form), and spins out a dreamy legend in sound. But whereas Schlegel's Parekbasis is directed outward, to the audience, Schumann's "Im Le- gendenton" is marked by a certain Innigkeit.

A recurrent theme in Schlegel's broader formulation of the arabesque is the notion that it

28See Polheim, Arabeske, p. 220. 29KFSA, vol. XI, p. 88.

158


projects a random or arbitrary quality. In no. 389 of the Athenaum Fragmente, he characterized the grotesque (often used interchangeably with the arabesque up to about 1800)30 as "that com- pletely arbitrary or random connection of form and matter."31 In the first movement of Schu- mann's Fantasy, it is the placement of "Im Le- gendenton" within the total form that appears random, capricious, whimsical; almost by chance is it wedged between the two tonal com- ponents of the first theme group. Yet its position there is necessary if we are to perceive it as a musical daydream, a narrative aside. The designation itself, "Im Legendenton," is rich in narrative connotations; but we can now recognize it as more than a private indication, shared only by composer and performer. The Legende, as a removal into a level of time different from that of the surrounding movement, is clearly manifested in the form itself.32

Yet another of the categories of the Schlege- lian arabesque touches on the apparent juxtaposition of the most fiercely varied elements. In no. 418 of the Athendum Fragmente, Schlegel commented on the "intentional diversity" of the arabesques in Tieck's novels.33 This quality manifests itself in the first movement of the Fantasy through the absolute contrasts which the rhetorical character of "Im Legendenton" sets up with its surroundings. While Schu- mann's sonata form tends toward extravagantly

extended phrase lengths and eschews harmonic closure, the phrases of "Im Legendenton" are ar- rayed as brief, clearly articulated blocks, and harmonic closure arrives already in the interlude's eleventh measure with a full cadence in C minor.

Still, the powerful contrasts of the Schlege- lian arabesque are justified, perhaps balanced, by a tempering force. The arabesque's confusion is at once "constructed in an orderly and symmetrical fashion," and "artfully designed"; its caprice is an "educated caprice," its formlessness is no "poorly formed monstrosity," but rather an "intentional formlessness," its chaos is an "artful chaos."34 But in order for the creative mind to fashion such an artfully ordered chaos, and for the listener to perceive the underlying logic amidst apparent confusion, we must have recourse to the mental faculty which Schlegel called "Witz."35 It is the power whereby one may detect connections between elements that are seemingly independent, to- tally contrasted and varied.

Certainly, Schumann's musical arabesque shows signs of what Schlegel would have termed "witzige Konstruktion,"36 most clearly in its motivic connections with the surrounding sonata form. Here, however, we must distin- guish between two types of motivic links. The first might be called "logical," and refers to those connections unfolded as part of an ongoing organic process. Beethoven's developmental procedure and Brahms's Verkniipfungstechnik are paradigmatic for this type. Examples are also at hand in the first movement of Schumann's Fantasy, e.g., the successively varied presenta- tions of the opening material (A', A2, A3; see ex. 2), or the outgrowth of the bass-line of B from the cadential tail of A3. The motivic associa- tions of "Im Legendenton" are of a different order, and might better be thought of as "witty."


301n the version of Frag. 389 that appeared in Charakteristi- ken und Kritiken von A. W. Schlegel und Fr. Schlegel (K6nigsberg, 1801), "Grotesken" is replaced by "Ara- besken" (KFSA, vol. II, p. 238). See also Karl K. Polheim, "Studien zu Friedrich Schlegels poetischen Begriffen," Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift fiir Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 35 (1961), 377. 31KFSA, vol. II, p. 238; along the same lines, see Atheniium Frag. 305 (KFSA, vol. II, p. 217) and Fragmente zur Literatur und Poesie (1797), Frag. 1075, where the association with the Arabeske, as opposed to Groteske, is specifically made (KFSA, vol. XVI, p. 174). 32One further narrative designation attaches to the movement as a whole. In a letter to Clara (14 April 1838), Schu- mann indicated that he had at long last fastened on an overall title for the Fantasy: Dichtungen. See Robert und Clara Schumann, Briefe einer Liebe, ed. Hanns-Josef Ortheil (Re- gensburg, 1982), pp. 103-04. The title appeared in the revised manuscript (signed and dated 19 December 1838) but was crossed out in favor of Phantasie at some point before the work was published in April 1839. See Alan Walker, "Schumann, Liszt, and the C-Major Fantasie, op. 17: A De- clining Relationship," Music & Letters 60 (1979), 156-57. 33KFSA, vol. II, p. 245.

34See KFSA, vol. II, p. 238 (Athendum Frag. 389); p. 318 ("Gespr~ich iiber die Poesie"); p. 234 ("Ober Goethes Meis- ter," 1798); KFSA, vol. III, Charakteristiken und Kritiken III (1802-1829), ed. Hans Eichner (Ziirich, 1975), p. 84 ("Lessings Gedanken und Meinungen," 1804); and KFSA, vol. II, p. 238 (Atheniium Frag. 389). 35Schlegel makes the connection between Arabeske and Witz specific in "Lessings Gedanken," KFSA, vol. III, pp. 84-85. 36KFSA, vol. XVI, p. 267.

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MUSIC The derivation of the opening of "Im Legenden- ton" from the transitional motive (B), for instance, is just such a hidden connection. The two phrases are far enough removed in time (by nearly one hundred measures) that their relationship is not immediately apparent-nor is it intended to be. The transitional motive does not seem to offer any possibilities as a theme on first hearing. We must, at one level, "forget" it by the time that "Im Legendenton" begins. Likewise, the appearance of material in mm. 157-61 prefiguring the An die ferne Geliebte quotation at the close of the movement, and the reference to the second theme (C) in mm. 182- 93 have less to do with the process of development than with the evocative gestures of a musical daydream. The first is a premonition that can be understood only in retrospect, the second a vague reminiscence (appropriately enough, in the vaguely remote key of D1).

There remains but one aspect of the arabesque as total form to consider, its association with the notion of Mannigfaltigkeit or Fiille, that is, abundance, richness, infinite variety. And as this category requires a comprehensive view of the artwork in its entirety, a few com- ments on the conclusion of the movement will be necessary.

Following on the completion of "Im Legen- denton," the recapitulatory process is resumed as if it had never been interrupted. A3 (mm. 226ff.) gives way to the transitional motive (B), which is recomposed in accordance with the mechanics of sonata-allegro procedure. Only the first of the two sequential phrases appears; and while it had cadenced on G minor in the exposition (m. 37), it cadences here (m. 234) on G major (V/C), thus preparing for the lengthy parallel statement of the second theme group in the tonic tonal pair, Cm/Eb.

The Im Tempo beginning at m. 275, however, brings yet another unusual twist to the proceed- ings. Schumann repeats the same pattern that followed from the exposition: a pseudo-developmental passage (mm. 275-86) gives way to a restatement of the opening material in the form of A2. In a very real sense, the form is made to turn back on itself.37 The move confirms the no-

tion of circularity that was suggested at the very beginning of the movement. The vague wash of sound that Schumann makes of the opening V9 is intended to suggest that we are tuning in to the middle of a piece already in progress. Thus, the movement has not so much a vague beginning, as no real beginning, while the circles that the form describes imply that it will have no real end. Of course, Schumann does bring the movement to a close, but this closure is im- posed from without by means of the famous quotation of the last song from Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte. That the movement as a whole is end-directed, that all points toward the closing Lied quotation, seems clear enough. In- deed, Schumann withholds a firm cadence in the tonic, C, until this very moment. The high- lighting of the Beethoven reference is not difficult to account for-after all, when Schu- mann first began work on the Fantasy in 1836, he intended the proceeds from its sale to go toward the erection of a Beethoven monument. In addition, the original version of the Fantasy in- cluded a full recapitulation of the Beethoven material at the conclusion of the last movement.38 (The idea was ultimately rejected, perhaps because it seemed too facile a means of binding the whole work together.) But as far as the first movement is concerned, it is important to recognize that the concluding reference is cir- cuitously reached; musical time must over- come the circularity of Schumann's sonata- allegro pattern, as well as the digressive interruption provided by "Im Legendenton."

Insofar as the Beethoven quotation is per- ceived as such (and Schumann surely meant to be), it too is an arabesque of sorts. The quotation establishes a dialectical relationship with its real surroundings, in the Fantasy, as well as with its imaginary surroundings, in

37Again, the procedure is characteristic of the early Schu- mann sonata-allegro. The form of the first movement of the

op. 14 Concert sans Orchestre (where the recapitulation merges with a recomposed presentation of material from the development) is likewise circular. In the second movement of the Fantasy, the impression of circularity is ensured by more sophisticated means. It opens with a closed A B A' unit. This is followed by a trio-like middle section (Etwas langsam), that gives way to a fragmentary statement of the opening ternary unit (B' A"). But here, the form circles back, with the appearance of material from B, before all is brought to a close in the virtuosic coda (Viel bewegter). 38See Walker, "Schumann," pp. 156-57.

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Beethoven's Liederkreis. In terms of its actual placement, the quotation is developed both "logically" and "wittily." It can be taken as a logical outgrowth of A2 and its continuation (mm. 287ff.; see ex. 2), with which it shares the same shape and rhythmic/gestural quality (cf. the appoggiatura figure in mm. 289, 293, and 298). But in another sense, it has been wittily prepared. Bits and pieces of the quotation, seemingly placed at random, have pervaded much of the movement: the continuation of A' (mm. 14ff.), the closing measures of C (mm. 49, 69, 242, and 262ff.), and the phrase beginning at m. 157 of "Im Legendenton." The profusion of witty connections forces us to ask what does in fact serve as the primary material of the movement. Is it the opening thematic complex, out of which most of the subsequent motivic material is generated (see ex. 2), or is it the Beethoven quotation, toward which all of the previous material aspires? Perhaps Schumann's motivic network was fashioned to produce the general impression that everything is related to everything else, both forward and backward in time, but that much like the Leitmotive and Leitmo- tiv families in Wagner's music dramas, it is not possible to pinpoint an Ur-motivic form.

The dialectic is intensified when the quotation is compared with its imagined surroundings in Beethoven's song cycle. Schumann's melodic reference comes in C major, in a movement where Eb is the subsidiary key. Con- versely, the last song of An die ferne Geliebte is in Eb (the key of the cycle), but is approached from the C tonality of the previous song. Beethoven's melody ("Nimm Sie hin denn, diese Lieder") is ultimately left "open"; the last song is completed by its extended reminiscence-in fact, a "witty" development-of the first. Schumann, on the other hand, imparts closure to the melody (by fashioning its cadential phrase anew), and thus to the whole of the Fan- tasy's first movement.

We may now turn to one further manifestation of the arabesque as total form: the arabesque as an expression of infinite richness and variety. Schlegel elaborated on the notion of Mannigfaltigkeit or Fiille in his theory of the Roman, which was not so much a genre as a ro- mantisches Buch, an ideal artwork in which the various literary forms and genres were at once

brought together but ultimately surpassed.39 We would claim too much in suggesting that the first movement of Schumann's Fantasy ex- emplified such a grand mixture. Nonetheless, the combinative element is much in evidence. In formal terms, the movement combines an interrupted sonata-allegro (without a true development, and leaning toward the rondo given the three-fold recurrence of the opening thematic material) with a self-contained rondo structure ("Im Legendenton," which is organized as an A B A' C A" unit). As to genre, Schumann suggests the weighty first movement of a piano sonata, the Charakterstiick ("Im Legendenton"), and finally, through the Beethoven quotation, the Lied.

Most important, however, is the opposition between sonata (and by implication, sonata-allegro form) and Charakterstiick, the two genres that best represent the young Schumann's poles of creative activity. His critical writings point up a certain ambivalence to both genres. Al- though Schumann admitted the importance of the Charakterstiick as a "concentrated composition,"40 he ultimately viewed it as a means of preparing for the composition of "higher forms": concerto, symphony, sonata.41 At the same time, he realized that the "higher forms"-the sonata in particular-were somewhat out of date. The modern composer had to find a way to create a new class of higher forms. In part, the dialectic between sonata and Charakterstiick is played out in the first movement of the Fantasy, where the two genres are not so much synthesized as they are fancifully juxtaposed in the overall arabesque structure.

III The analogical use of the literary arabesque

as a formal category that I have suggested car- ries with it no extra-musical connotations. Yet we might well ask to what extent Schumann's


39Schlegel's critical theory of the novel was expounded most clearly in the "Brief fiber den Roman" (from "Gesprich iiber die Poesie"), Athenium Frag. 116 (KFSA, vol. II, pp. 182- 83), and in his lecture, "Die Spanisch-Portugiesische Litera- tur," 1803-04, KFSA, vol. XI, pp. 159-62. For a summary account, see Hans Eichner, Friedrich Schlegel (New York, 1970), pp. 53- 83, passim. 41Schumann, GS, vol. II, p. 64. 41Plantinga, Schumann as Critic, pp. 180-81.

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MUSIC form is purely musical. The novels of his be- loved Jean Paul, noted by literary critics for their digressive arabesques and largely unread- able today because of them, come to mind as possible models.42 In Flegeliahre, the novel which Schumann described as "a book that ap- proaches the Bible in kind, "43 the digressive elements cluster around Hoppelpoppel, the novel within a novel on which the brothers Walt and Vult are at work. (To complicate matters, Hop- pelpoppel itself is conceived as an arabesque, with Walt providing the substance and Vult the digressions.44) The young Schumann was well acquainted with a broad spectrum of contemporary literature, in which the digressive arabesque played an important part; it was not the sole property of the novels of Jean Paul, but a standard feature in those of Tieck, Novalis, Arnim, Brentano, and E. T. A. Hoffmann.45 Thus, it might be better to assert that musical/ literary formal similarities represent distinct, but culturally related manifestations of one and the same Romantic form.

This is probably true of the handling of time in the Romantic artwork as well. The circularity that is such a vital aspect of the first movement of Schumann's Fantasy has an analogue in the early nineteenth-century novelists' retreat from the strictly chronological narrative. Fried- rich Schlegel's own Lucinde, for instance, has been described as a purely circular form. Its central section, "Lehrjahre der Mainnlichkeit," a traditional narrative account of the hero's development up to the point at which the novel begins, is flanked on either side by six shorter arabesques, each in a different literary form, and each circling about the all-pervasive but un- spoken theme of love.46 In a letter to Clara of 29 January 1839, Schumann spoke in remarkably similar terms of a work that he had recently completed. It consisted of "Variationen, aber uiber kein Thema," and he planned to call it Guirlande.47 (If only we could be certain that Schumann was in fact referring to his Arabeske,

op. 18!48) In any event, both the break with traditional narrative modes, and the capricious play with musical time are again but parallel aspects of an overriding Romantic formal concep- tion.

Lastly, the notion that an underlying similar- ity existed between early nineteenth-century music and literature, at least as far as their aspi- rations toward an ideal Romantic form are concerned, emerges from a brief comparison of Schumann and Schlegel as critical thinkers. Schumann's beautiful characterization of Chopin's Preludes, op. 28, as "Skizzen, Etii- denanfinge, oder will man, Ruinen"49 conveys much the same sense as Schlegel's listing of the fundamental literary products of his contempo- raries: "poetischen Skizzen, Studien, Fragmen- ten, Tendenzen, Ruinen, und Materielen."50 The most striking word is, of course, "Ruinen," for it leads us back to the Fantasy. In December of 1836, Schumann wrote to Kistner, a prospec- tive publisher, of his plans to write a Grosse So- nate (which we now know as the Fantasy, op. 17), the movements of which he would call "Ruinen, Trophaen, Palmen."5' Upon the completion of the Fantasy in 1838, the title of the first movement remained, as "Ruine," while the last two movements were renamed "Sieges- bogen" and "Sternbild."52 Although all of the ti- tles were later suppressed, we may draw some inferences from the original designation of the first movement as "Ruinen" or "Ruine," for it implies that Schumann was doing rather more than merely "commemorating the death of the Classical style." More importantly, he was suggesting that the fragment, the ruin, was the ba- sis of the Romantic notion of form.

For both Schumann and Schlegel, the fragment-an arabesque in its most limited sense-was the point from which the ideal Ro-

42Cf. Newcomb, "Schumann's Second Symphony," p. 240, n. 17. 43Schumann, Briefe einer Liebe, p. 95. 44See Blackall, Novels of the German Romantics, pp. 92- 94. 45Ibid., pp. 164-201, passim. 4Ibid., pp. 39-41. 47Schumann, Briefe einer Liebe, p. 171.

48From the standpoint of form, Schumann's Arabeske, op. 18, has little to do with Schlegel's critical concept; it is constructed as a conventional rondo with a brief coda. The thematic material of the two episodes, it is true, is related to the main theme both "logically" and "wittily," but we would press the point too far in trying to search for further characteristics of Schlegel's Arabeske. 49Schumann, GS, vol. I, p. 418. SoKFSA, vol. II, p. 147 (Kritische Fragmente, 1797, Frag. 4). S5Quoted in Herman Erler, Robert Schumanns Leben und Werke, aus seinen Briefen geschildert, vol. I (Leipzig, 1887), p. 102. 52Schumann, Briefe einer Liebe, p. 103-04.

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mantic form was built up. Not only are Schle- gel's ideas often transmitted in the form of fragments or aphorisms, but his writings point up a fascination with the very idea of the fragment as an expression of the transcendental element in the world spirit. The new philosophy which he hoped for would take the form of a series of fragmentary glosses on Kantian idealism; biogra- phy he viewed as an historical fragment, and the as yet non-existent German nation as a geopo- litical fragment.53 Schlegel's approach to literary forms was also strongly colored by this dias- paractive Weltanschauung. In no. 77 of the Atheniium Fragmente, Schlegel proceeded upward from the fragment, which would generate a dialogue (a chain of fragments), an exchange of letters (a large-scale dialogue), then a set of memoirs (a system of fragments), and finally would produce a genre "fragmentary in both form and content."54

Schumann never proposed such a scheme, but had he done so, he surely would have taken as his point of departure the category which rep- resented his equivalent of Schlegel's arabesque, in its narrower and broader sense. What I have in mind is the papillon--that deceptively inno- cent image for which Schumann had somewhat of an obsession. Although it frequently appears in his letters as a metaphor for the process of metamorphosis that directs the creative psyche,15 more significant is the manifestation of the concept in his music.

The Papillons, op. 2, which probably first comes to mind, is more than a set of charming little pieces, fragments at once delightful but slight. The work rather displays a dense web of melodic and tonal connections, both logical and witty; it is, in short, an arabesque. The melodic

links between nos. 1 and 12, 6 and 10, or 9 and 10, are obvious enough, as is the tonal symme- try which Schumann achieves by centering the beginning, midpoint, and end of the set on D. But the horn calls that sound in nos. 4, 11, and 12, just like the subtle play of relative major and minor in nos. 4 and 7, are animated by Schlege- lian Witz. So too is the formal pattern which binds nos. 8 and 9. Oddly enough (although not so oddly for an arabesque), none of the other pieces are cast in quite the same form, so that this little group stands out almost like varia- tions on an unstated theme.

Similar relationships might be pointed out in the Davidsbiindlertiinze, op. 6, Carnaval, op. 9, and Kreisleriana, op. 16, works which Schu- mann would have thought of as a "higher kind of Papillons.1"56 Thus it is in these sets of character pieces that Schumann approached Schlegel's structural ideal-the form that is fragmentary in form and content. They represent a musical equivalent of an artfully contrived collection of aphorisms like Schlegel's Ideen of 1800.57 Taken as individuals, many of the fragments are not very impressive; some even fail to make much sense. They only take on a special mean- ing when related to other fragments in Schle- gel's cosmos of miniatures.

One last aphorism seems appropriate at this point, no. 24 of Schlegel's Atheniium Fragmente. "Many of the works of the ancients have become fragments. Many of the works of the moderns are fragments as soon as they are written."58 There is no precise equivalent for this formulation in Schumann's writings, but the composer of Papillons and the Fantasy would have understood #. ,: it well.


53See KFSA, vol. II, pp. 168-69, 201, 209 (Atheniium Fragmente, nos. 22, 26, 225, 259). 54KFSA, vol. II, p. 176. 55See Edward A. Lippman, "Theory and Practice in Schu- mann's Aesthetics," Journal of the American Musicological Society 17 (1964), 319-20.

56Schumann made specific reference to Carnaval in this way. The op. 4 Intermezzi were "extended Papillons." See Dale, "Piano Music," pp. 33, 49. 57KFSA, vol. II, pp. 256- 72. 58"Viele Werke der Alten sind Fragmente geworden. Viele Werke der Neuern sind es gleich bei der Entstehung." KFSA, vol. II, p. 169.

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Article Contentsp. 150p. 151p. 152p. 153p. 154p. 155p. 156p. 157p. 158p. 159p. 160p. 161p. 162p. 163

Issue Table of Contents19th-Century Music, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Autumn, 1987), pp. 107-198Front MatterPreparationsGradus ad Parnassum: Beethoven, Schubert, and the Romance of Counterpoint [pp. 107-120]Bach's "Erbe": The Chorale in the German Oratorio of the Early Nineteenth Century [pp. 121-149]

Two Essays on Schumann and the Forms of Early RomanticismSchumann's "Im Legendenton" and Friedrich Schlegel's "Arabeske" [pp. 150-163]Schumann and Late Eighteenth-Century Narrative Strategies [pp. 164-174]

ViewpointTo Understand Verdi and Wagner We Must Understand Mozart [pp. 175-193]

ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 194-196]

Comment & Chronicle [pp. 197-198]Back Matter

john daverio: schumann legendenton & schlegel arabesque

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