Week 1: A New Hope

I believe the Wandererfantasie actually inspired Schumann's Fantasie. 

Doug 

• What piece did you choose?
• Why this piece?
• Is there a musical challenge or goal you hope to work through this month?

And so I picked the piece and I may as well address the other questions.  Why?  I have been fascinated with this piece (and Robert Schumann) as of late and for many years technically I wasn't ready or able.  Time is a thief and so if not now, when?

At the top of the score is a short poem by Friedrich Schlegel:

Durch alle Töne tönet / Im bunten Erdentraum / Ein leiser Ton gezogen / Für den der heimlich lauschet 

Resounding through all the notes / In the earth's colourful dream / There sounds a faint long-drawn note / For the one who listens in secret.

[Thanks to Maria and some other online translation help I came to this interpretation.]

I also learned that initially Schumann intended to title this work:  Große Sonate von Florestan und Eusebius [Grand Sonata of Florestan and Eusebius].

I'm sure most everyone here must already know about Florestan and Eusebius?  This is all par for the course for most of the big works of Schumann and so I intend to spend the rest of my life trying to find those faint long-drawn notes conveyed in secret amongst the contrasting themes between these two alter-egos of Schumann, himself.  I can also guarantee that there are plenty of secret messages conveyed to Clara Wieck, his future wife, through these two characters. 

The middle contrasting section (Im Legendenton) from bars 129 and ending at 224 including the climax at bar 204 is very profound (to me). 

I am going to enjoy the many details and trying to discover all the little buried treasure along the way.  If I only discover 20% of what's here I'll be quite happy. 

The initial difficulties are many but I'll focus on just a couple here now.  First, I have to work on my trills.  Bars 22 to 27 give me grief because I want them to be pianissimo (and even) so this is one of the first challenges.

Second challenge and maybe one of the greatest key moments in this movement is in bars 41 - 48.  Left hand articulation is quite hard (for me) and so I think most of the work will be here.  A similar moment comes again in bars 233 to 240.  Intuitively I know that these two short sections will get more attention alone than many pages of music before and after because these sections especially key and rather important and so I'll always be worried about messing them up (which of course with Murphy's Law will be the challenge not to).

Overall, the majority of the challenge seems to be in the left hand and I'm ready to face this head on. 

By the way, this Fantasie is dedicated to Franz Liszt!  Apparently, when Schumann presented this work to him, Liszt just sight read through perfectly and praised it quite highly.

Doug Well, here is a bad sign.  I just spent a little more time with a post explaining why I chose the piece and few difficulties and Tonebase locked the post Pending Review.  So, for anyone interested check back in a week for yesterday's news :-(

Doug It's obvious that all my passion for the piece overheated all the AI circuits !

 ;-)

Doug The bot filter is highly annoying. For example, in addition to Der Staatstadt an der Donau, no one can mention Mrs. Hensel (I can't type her first name or initial).

Maria Two Fantasies in C major ?

No, my life is just One big Fantasy I guess - lately. ;-)

Actually, something has gone wrong with my longstanding preference for playing only music in a minor key (I normally avoid music in major keys).  So isn't it strange that on my plate in addition to those most days I practice Chopin Prelude Op. 28 No. 1 in C major, Etude Op. 10, No. 1 in C major, & Op. 10, No. 7 in C major.  What have I become?

Doug I hear you, and I am quite in agreement - I, too, have always much preferred music in a minor key, ever since I was a child. However, the Schumann Fantasie is quite often suffused with minor key “flavor” and iridescent tonal ambiguity in the first and last movement (less so in the brilliantly affirmative second, of course).  Maybe that’s why you’re drawn to it in a particular way? 

Alexander Weymann Very well said Alexander (minor key “flavor” and iridescent tonal ambiguity).  Language is often tricky, for me, to explain what I really want to mean.  I guess I made a general statement which is true for me on so many levels.  If I would list all my favourite pieces I believe the majority would easily be mostly in a minor key.  My guess would be that two-thirds clearly minor in nature and one-third major keys.  This is the conservative minimum.

The key though is that any of the major key works I would spend time with generally 'feel' like a minor key work and you might say they are closer to sitting on the fence, yet still leaning toward a more complex minor key world. 

The pieces that are all sunshine and roses seem to me too light and insincere in order to avoid risk and reality.  It is not that I focus on tension, death, loss, turmoil, struggle, and the like, it is that I find comfort in the truth.  I also feel like I am sharing a bond and getting closer to this composer because they are sharing something meaningful and consequential in their life with me.

Not great major key works remind me of when someone says "Hi, how are you?"  What follows is small talk and usually begins or ends with talking about the weather.  In most cases, no one cares how you actually are.  So regardless of the predominant key, I need a hint that this work I'm investing in is more than just small talk.  I need something that hooks me in for a long relationship that becomes deeper over time.

The Schumann Fantasie Op. 17 in C major (1st movement) definitely has adventure, nobility, tension and struggle at it core.  We do know that at the time he wrote this piece there was much anxiety in his struggle with Clara Wieck's father who was opposing his bid for Clara.  So, while this is in C major this piece is about something real.  It is a clear autobiographical missive putting everything on the line for her.  You may not need to know this but when you do it helps to understand what any human might understand under those same circumstances.

So a few great works in major keys will happily co-exist with the majority of the greatest works ever to exist due to them being exclusively in a minor key for me!  Ha Ha Ha.  Luckily, I have to go now but otherwise I may have started in on my thoughts about the meaning of each key and why a composer may have chosen d-minor as opposed to c-minor and so on.  :-)

Doug This is not relevant to the challenge, but does "great works in major keys" include Chopin's Ballade no. 3 in A-flat Major? 

Doug I listened to the whole Schumann Fantasie earlier and my favorite part of the first movement is definitely the Im Legendenton section. 

Doug I think Schumann suffered a lot indeed. I just got a new book by Christine Eichel — Clara. Well, poor Clara didn’t have it easy, to say the least, after their much struggled for wedding. Robert was a troubled man. But it’s not a topic here. Just wanted to mention.

Maria  My favorite parts are those two brief passionate circles of fifths.

Astrida Quote: Robert was a troubled man.

Who knows?  In many cases, 100 or 200 years later, stories about famous people carry on and I am mostly cautious and usually skeptical of the veracity of many since it takes only one corrupt or misinformed person with a pen to write some unfounded bit of gossip or hearsay and it then tends to live forever.  

So I read or hear these stories on one hand and I also am spending a lot of my time going forward playing and studying his music.  In my opinion, this is not the legacy of a mad man but of a pure genius.

Yes, I may be biased.  Did he walk on water?  No, as is also the case with every one that also breaths.  Perhaps he was simply misunderstood by many in the world?

Again, who knows.  I simply base my opinion on the man solely on the record of his musical legacy.  And there are only a small group of people in history to belong to this club. 

Noel Nguyen RE:    My favorite parts are those two brief passionate circles of fifths.

I don't get it?  😳🧐

Maria RE: does "great works in major keys" include Chopin's Ballade no. 3 in A-flat Major? 

Yes!

But...

For my money I'm learning these Ballades first:

1) Op. 52 in f-minor

2) Tie between Op 23 in g-minor and Op. 38 in F-major

3) Then I will learn the A-flat major

And so, in my opinion, when you have A-flat major vs F-major my choice defaults to the F-major first because it is just more evocative and deep.  Yet, both are still the best of the best.

Astrida Thanks for mentioning this book! I looked it up and. Would love to read this one ... but my limited ability to read German would make that a big undertaking (though maybe worthwhile for the effort!)

I have read Nancy Reich's book about Clara though and yes, Clara was hardcore.

Doug A-flat major is my favorite of them (and definitely in my top 5 Chopin pieces). 

Dustin Anderson I hope the book gets translated soon. It’s really worth being read more widely.

Astrida 

Astrida said:
I just got a new book by Christine Eichel — Clara.

 I haven't read that book yet, but I will!