long notes, started by PIANO, (b) the First Subject of this last Movement, in shorter notes, started by PIANO (left hand) doubled by SECOND VIOLIN: Then the FIRST VIOLIN and 'CELLO enter with (a) and (b) respectively, the VIOLA and FIRST VIOLIN similarly, and so on. This forms the Coda (or 'Tail-piece') and the Quintet very soon comes to an end. The passage omitted from this Movement is as follows: Bars 78-250 Schumann's Piano Quintet was written in 1842, when he was thirty-two. This year was with him an active one in the composition of chamber music, for in it he composed also three String Quartets, a Piano Quartet and a Piano Trio. The Quartet was first performed in January 1843, at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig. The composer's wife played the Piano part. Berlioz was present, and was much impressed. A general criticism of the Quintet may be in place here. I quote Richard Walthew (Chamber Music Supplement of The Music Student, March, 1914), whose bold claims and discreet admissions would probably both be endorsed by every intelligent lover of the work. 'How it appeals to our "advanced friends, and believers in progress at any price, I am unable to say; possibly the jaded musical palate requires to be titillated by more pungent viands, or else by diet of a very antique and rococo flavour; but, as it is said that the exhausted voluptuary can always relish cold boiled beef, it would not be surprising if the lusty vigour of Schumann's work might still appeal to even the most. "modernistic" of our musicians and critics. For this Quintet is exceptional in many ways; it is one of the few works enjoyed equally by the musician and the man in the street; in this respect it stands almost alone so far as chamber music is concerned, although there is music like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and a great deal of Wagner which makes the same comprehensive appeal. Again, so far as the treatment of the instruments is concerned, it is by no means a perfect work; the purist can point to many instances of excessive and occasionally ineffective doubling of the parts which lends an orchestral tinge to the music at times; also the writing for the strings is not felt in the same way as the piano part is. But what is all this to weigh against the inherent vitality of the music as a whole! Grove states in his article on Schumann in the Dictionary that "musicians are still living . . . who at the time of its appearance were in the most susceptible period of youth, and who tell of the indescribable impression the work made upon them. It must have seemed like a new paradise of beauty revealed to their view." One can quite believe it. It is a work that we are inclined to wish we did not know so well, that we might follow its development with the same delighted surprise with which we read for the first time a great work of fiction. A remarkable aspect of the Quintet is its seeming and no doubt genuine spontaneity in combination with features that analysis would tend to suggest were the result of some hard thinking. The "Free Fantasia "1 section in the first movement, for instance, is mainly composed of brilliant quaver passages for the piano, arranged in a kind of extended sequence, in a way familiar to Schumann students. Now it does not strike one at once that this quaver figure is simply the third and fourth bars of the first subject treated in diminution, and with such slight alteration of detail as the changing tonality may require. Again, see the Finale, where its principal subject and the opening theme of the first movement are worked together fugally with such masterly ease; in many modern works of the Liszt school, the themes, with their various transmutations which are intended to bind the sections together, seem, as it were, dragged in by the heels and out of place in their surroundings. Not so in this instance; nothing can be more natural and at the same time more compelling than the flow of the music in this working out of an artificial device. Of the Slow Movement it is open to each of us to have his own particular interpretation. But it is undoubtedly elegiac, and the turbulent section in F minor may be taken as giving rein to a passionate revolt against a cruel destiny, whereas the long drawn melody with crotchet 1 Or 'Development'. triplet accompaniment on the piano, is expressive of the luxury of grief not untempered by a fatalistic resignation. The first Subject is hardly so introspective, and calls up a vision of a slow moving procession of mourners.' Two Large Aeolian Vocalion Records. J. 104114-5, each 4s. 6d. These are two of Napoleon's soldiers, finding their way back from the disastrous Russian campaign. They reach the frontier of France, and learn, to their sorrow, that their Emperor is captured. The words are by Heine. They embody the spirit of Napoleon's glory. Note how, at the end, as the soldier speaker's imagination is fired, the music leaves the minor and goes into the major for the rest of the piece, the excitement at last culminating in a snatch of the Marseillaise. DIE GRENADIERE. Nach Frankreich zogen zwei Grenadier', Und als sie kamen ins deutsche Quartier, Sie liessen die Köpfe hangen. Da hörten sie beide die traurige Mär': Da weinten zusammen die Grenadier' Der andre sprach: Das Lied ist aus, Auch ich möcht' mit dir sterben, Doch hab' ich Weib und Kind zu Haus, Die ohne mich verderben. Was schert mich Weib, was schert mich Kind! Ich trage weit bessres Verlangen : Lass sie betteln gehn, wenn sie hungrig sind,- Gewähr mir Bruder, eine Bitt': So nimm meine Leiche nach Frankreich mit, Das Ehrenzreuz am roten Band So will ich liegen und horchen still, Bis einst ich höre Kanonengebrüll Und wiehernder Rosse Getrabe. Denn reitet mein Kaiser wohl über mein Grab, Viel Schwerter klirren und blitzen ; Dann stieg' ich gewaffnet hervor aus dem Grab,-- THE TWO GRENADIERS. To France were marching two grenadiers, Who long had been prisoners in Russia ; They hung their heads as the news reached their ears, The day that they entered Prussia. For there the sad tidings to them were rehearsed That France was by fortune forsaken, The great army routed and all dispersed, And the Emperor, the Emperor taken. Then wept they together, those grenadiers, And one said: ' My last hour nears; |