Widmung

                              Widmung

Robert Schumann, a German composer and influential music critic, is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Having a great flair for both music and literature, Schumann was an avant-garde composer at that time whose literary sensibility and introspective nature lead him to imbue his music with personality. It is this unique characteristic that enabled him to write a special song cycle, Myrthen (Op.25, 1840) as a wedding gift for Clara, his beloved fiancée. The title itself explains the message of music found within it. A Myrthe is a wreath made out of myrtle leaves and white flowers, which German brides usually wear on their wedding day. Schumann, however, felt that Clara deserved a more symbolic and unique wreath. In this musical wreath, Schumann combined both feelings of love towards a wife and devotion associated with a god.

Widmung is the first Lied in Myrthen, through which the composer confesses his love and express his gratitude passionately and directly. By 1839 Schumann’s personal life and career had come to a complex crisis. Not only did he fail to gain wide acceptance with his music, but his prospective father-in-law, Friedrich Wieck opposed the match due to Schumann’s lack of success as a composer. Nevertheless, Clara was determined to accompany and support him as his artistic collaborator and champion, who was initially enjoying far more renown than he. As Schumann gradually gained a reputation throughout Europe, “he eventually schemed with his future bride in lawsuit to circumvent the necessity of her father’s consent”^[1] and was able to marry Clara. In Widmung, Schumann uses Friedrich Rückert’s poem Du Meine Seele to express his excited yet complex feeling.

The meter of Widmung is 3/2, which is an uncommon pattern among Lieder. A three-beat rhythm often conveys a feeling of flowing and swaying, and one half note as a unit allows a Lied to be expansively arioso. This combination of these elements, therefore, sets the tone of soulfulness and romance throughout the whole song.

While providing the foundation for the song, the well-organized structure of Widmung is worthy of attention. The song begins with a one-measure introduction, which creates a “heartful, lively” ambience as the marking shows. After the introduction, Schumann uses a single ternary form which consists of A (mm.2-13), B (mm.14-29), A’ (mm.30-39) to develop this moving love poem. Instead of simply adhering to the original from of two poetic stanzas, he blends most of the text of the first stanza and the last sentence of the second stanza together to make a new third strophe, followed by a tranquil coda. (mm.40-44).

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