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Strings In Spring:

String Quartet #1

by Robert Schumann

Nonantum Hill String QuartetDavid Hobbie

May 27, 2015

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Nonantum Hill String Quartet

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Lisa Kempskie, viola

Jennifer Minnich, cello

David Hobbie, violin

Matthew Liebendorfer, violin

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What is a String Quartet?

2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello

Covers range of human voices

Everything necessary with nothing extra

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Why String Quartets?

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http://viz.runningwithdata.com/quartet_composers/

By Jason Sundram

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Dead White European Men & The String Quartet

Composer Rank (NYT critic) Number of Quartets

Beethoven 2 16

Mozart 3 23

Schubert 4 15

(Debussy) 5 1

Brahms 7 3

(Verdi) 8 1

Bartok 10 6

Haydn N/A 68

Shostakovich N/A 15

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Who’s #1?

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When is this piece from?

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1842, Schumann First String Quartet

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Robert Schumann’s Life

Born 1810

Fails as law student, 1828-29 (Heidelberg)

1828 Meets 8-year old Clara Wieck, child prodigy; studies with her

father Friedrich Wieck

1830: “"My whole life has been a struggle between Poetry and

Prose, or call it Music and Law.“

1835: Starts relationship with Clara

1837: Asks for & does not receive father’s permission to marry her

1840: Clara & Robert sue her father

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Robert Schumann’s Life, Continued

12 September 1840: They marry

1840 Liederjahr (“Year of Song”), 138 songs including “Widmung”

1842 Writes piano quintet, piano quartet & 3 string quartets

including #1 in a minor.

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The Schumanns

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Robert Schumann (1839) Clara Wieck

(1838)

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Later Life

Eight children, including Elise, 1843-1928

1854, Robert has a complete breakdown

1856, Robert dies in insane asylum

1896, Clara passes away

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What’s Romantic About This Piece?

Romanticism generally--“intense emotion as an authentic source of

aesthetic experience”

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How Does The Piece Work?

I. Andante espressivo - Allegro

II. Scherzo (Presto)

III. Adagio

IV. Presto

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I. Andante

Opens in a Bach-like fashion, with a strange little fugue, apparently

ambiguous about what key the piece is in, it could be a minor, or C

major, it’s not clear at all– doesn’t start on the dominant note. Settles

eventually into an opening Allegro in the key of F Major, though

throughout the first movement the opening tension about the

ambiguous key doesn’t really resolve. Even the sweet and gentle

conclusion to the movement doesn’t “shut the door” on that tension, in

my opinion.

Listen for the way that the themes get passed around in this

movement—there are stretches when the players take turns and

overlap each other with themes, and then extended stretches where

the first violin has a gently surging melody and the others play

harmonic accompaniment. One of Schumann’s gifts is the seamless

way that he blends and elaborates these two types of music

(“homophony” and “counterpoint” to use the fancy words).

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II. Scherzo

The first movement is followed by a scherzo; the name means “joke”

but the movement is anything but. The overall style is of a dance, but

listen for offbeat rhythms and interruptions that keep this piece from

settling down and keep the listener pleasantly uncomfortable. The only

respite from this nervous energy comes in the brief middle “Moderato”

section.

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III. Adagio

The third movement is one of the great slow movements of the

romantic string quartet literature. There are amazing variations in

texture, from a rich dark cello opening to a slowly moving main theme

passed from the violin to the cello. There are many harmonic and

texture surprises—I won’t spoil it for you.

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IV. Finale / Presto

The last movement is much more assertive and energetic, at least at

first. A wonderful sprightly theme gets passed around, mostly between

the first violin and the viola, and there are dramatic contrasts in mood

as the theme gets developed. It starts out in a minor though, there’s a

bit of a clenched-jaw tenor to the whole thing, as if things are intense

and conflicted and they aren’t going to end well. Towards the end of the

movement though—and hence, towards the end of the quartet as a

whole—there is an amazing change, first to a brief “pastoral” section

with a drone, and then to a Bach-like mood—this time, instead of

feeling ambiguous and certain, there is a complete suspension of

normal rhythms; this brief hymn or choral leads back into A Major this

time. A return to a minor is interrupted, and the movement—and the

piece—ends in a major key, with what may well be the most triumphant

resolution of any string quartet.

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Youtube recordings

Indiana Conservatory student group, 2011—quite fine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ1Po0h5Bw4

Fine Arts Quartet—a little slurpy for my taste

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km0mOMyYHKE

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