Schumann’s autograph of the Waldszenen affords us an unobstructed insight into the composer’s working methods. It is namely not a final, fair version of the piano work but an autograph which bears numerous traces of the composition’s development, enabling us to reconstruct the work’s genesis. In the end the manuscript, which is always legible and beautifully written despite crossings out, changes and insertions, was even considered suitable to be used as the model for the engraving by the original publisher. Thus as well as Schumann’s numerous comments there are also notes made by the engraver. The French collector Charles Malherbe once owned the 16-page autograph, which is now in the music department of the French National Library. Schumann is within our reach in this facsimile reproduction, which truly does look extremely similar to the original, with comprehensive comments by the Canadian Schumann expert Margit L. McCorkle.
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- Forest Scenes op. 82
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Preface
The revolutionary year 1848 was for Robert Schumann a time of compositional extremes. From the beginning of the year throughout the summer he was occupied with his opera Genoveva, Opus 81. Sandwiched between the opera and composition of another weighty, emotion fraught work, the melodrama on Lord Byron’s Manfred, Opus 115, he took time out to write several dozen children’s … more
About the composer
Robert Schumann
Connected with his oeuvre is the term he coined, Poetic Music, with which he strove for a fusion of literature and music, a paradigm particularly seen in his lyric piano pieces prior to 1839. Thereafter he devoted himself to other genres (song, symphony, chamber music, among others).
| 1810 | Born in Zwickau on June 8, the son of a bookdealer. |
| from 1828 | Studies law in Leipzig, piano with Friedrich Wieck. Decision to pursue a career in music. |
| 1830–39 | He exclusively composes piano works, mostly cycles, including “Papillons,” Op. 2 (1829–32); “Carnaval,” Op 9 (1834/35); “Davidsbündlertänze,” Op. 6 (1837); “Kinderszenen” (“Scenes from Childhood”), Op. 15 (1837/38); “Kreisleriana,” Op. 16 (1838); “Noveletten,” Op. 21 (1838). |
| 1832 | A paralysis of a finger in his right hand makes a career as a pianist impossible. Founding in 1833 of the fantasy brotherhood the “Davidsbund” (“League of David”). |
| 1835–44 | Editor of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal of Music). |
| 1840 | Marriage to Clara Wieck; 138 songs, including the Eichendorff Liederkreis, Op. 39; the song cycle “Dichterliebe,” Op. 48 |
| 1841 | Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major (“Spring” Symphony), Op. 38, and Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120. |
| 1842 | Three string quartets, Op. 41; further chamber music. |
| 1843 | Teacher of composition at the Leipzig Conservatory. Oratorio “Paradise and the Peri,” Op. 50. |
| 1845 | He settles in Dresden. Journey to Russia. |
| 1845 | Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61. |
| 1850 | City music director in Düsseldorf. Premiere in Leipzig of his opera “Genoveva,” Op. 81. Symphony in E-flat major (“Rhenish”), Op. 97; Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129. |
| 1853 | Beginning of his friendship with Brahms. Completion of the Scenes from Faust. Violin Concerto in D minor for Joseph Joachim. |
| 1854 | Suicide attempt and admission to the psychiatric institution in Endenich, near Bonn. |
| 1856 | Death in Endenich on July 29. |
About the authors
Margit L. McCorkle (Epilogue)
The musical career of Margit L. McCorkle, who was born in America but is Canadian by choice, began with the piano, fortepiano and harpsichord at the University of Maryland. After completing her doctorate in musicology, she married Donald M. McCorkle, Professor of Musicology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada (whose research focus was the music bibliography of Johannes Brahms). Together they began work on a Brahms Catalogue of Works. Following Donald McCorkle’s death in 1978, Margit McCorkle carried on the project alone, which was published by G. Henle Publishers in 1984 as Brahms’ “Thematisch-Bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis”.
In the late 1980s McCorkle was commissioned to prepare the “Thematisch-Bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis” for Robert Schumann together with the Robert Schumann Research Centre in Düsseldorf; this catalogue was published in 2003 as part of the New Schumann Complete Edition (Akio Mayeda and Klaus Wolfgang Niemöller) by G. Henle Publishers and Schott Music. Over the past few years Margit McCorkle has increasingly engaged in doing translations of musicological texts, including ones for the Robert Schumann and the Carl Maria von Weber Complete Editions.
L’interesse del manoscritto autografo riprodotto e pubblicato da Henle sta nella possibilità di rintracciarvi tutte le fasi di composizione, dall’inizio alle correzioni destinate alla stampa. … Accompagnato da un commento molto interessante di Margit L. McCorkle, il fac-simile è pubblicato da Henle in fascicolo cartonato riproducente le rilegature d’epoca …
Es ist spannend, zu sehen, welche Dinge Schumann später für die Druckvorlage strich, welche Ideen er verwarf. Es ist ein lebendiges Zeugnis, das da vor uns liegt. Da kann man dem Henle-Verlag dankbar sein, dass er uns zu einem akzeptablen Preis einen solchen Einblick in den Charakter und die Arbeitsweise von Schumann gibt. Denn nicht nur für den Profi, sondern auch für den Laien ist dieser Faksimile-Druck eine Inspiration für das Spiel der „Waldszenen“.