Robert Schumann, "Grillen" from Fantasiestucke, Opus 12

Class one: Unity and Variety section two: The performer’s Role, featured a song titled: Deep River performed by Barbra Conrad. When listening to Deep River, the first thing noticed is the tempo. The slow speed of the melancholy piano grabs hold of the listener’s attention, and curiosity is peaked. Almost instantly, the vocalist begins to paint a picture with a deep and chilling sound. The haunting use of vibrato and lingering notes in Conrad’s voice, has a way of capturing sorrowful emotion. The listener begins to feel empathy for the artist, and soon the music fades into the background; a story begins to unfold.

In Tabuh Pisan, there are homophonic textures as well as monophonic textures because the solo instrument is not accompanied as it plays in the introduction, however the Gamelan melody later dominates it by playing the melody and is accompanied by the Kendang rhythm. In the Beethoven Symphony, the textures are monophonic, homophonic and polyphonic. Monophonic texture is seen when the melody is introduced by one instrument. It is also homophonic because there are single melody lines that are accompanied by other instruments. However, when it plays a fugue or canon, the texture is polyphonic because there are two melodies present at one time. Thus both pieces show changes of

Throughout section A there is a consistent IV-I chord progression. These are aligned with each phrase and through the use of plagal cadence it makes each phrase seem resolved before moving onto the next.

Music in the nineteenth century saw the creation and evolution of new music genres such as the piano miniature, short expressive piano pieces. During this time raw emotion and expressionism prevailed as the focus of music during this described “Romantic” movement. Robert Schumann’s “Grillen”, from Fantasiestucke, Opus 12 was written in July 1837 contains several virtues of music during his time period. Schumann’s uses various qualities in his music such as form, pitch, rhythm and meter, and texture so express different attitudes within his music. These qualities convey music that characterizes romanticism as very emotional, expressional, and dramatic. Schumann’s piano miniature remains a supreme example of the Romantic style in its uses

Section one is introduced with a pedal solo which is used to maintain the rhythm of a ¾ pattern that is consistently present throughout the entire piece and initiates the ostinato theme. A significant part of section one can be distinguished in measure 33 where the melody of both hands shifts to the swell organ manual. Also, the melody switches again to the choir organ manual in measure 49.

A) A long flowing melody that rises and falls gently. Two distinct sections- the first introductory melody, followed by another melody which has calls and responses in a minor key. These phrases are joined with a small rising then falling melody and repeated. Left hand octaves are followed by arpeggios of chords/inversions of the chords. The first section is then

Section A’’ (mm. 51-65) repeats the MT with variation mostly in rhythmic changes leading up to the PAC in A♭ major at m. 66 where the coda (m. 66-73) begins. The coda essentially acts as a tonic expansion with some added 9ths to the dominant as seen in m. 67 and m.69. The piece works the V-I in a decrescendo to the final PAC in A♭ major in m. 73.

The I chord confuses the tonal direction becasuse the listener expects the ii to be followed by V and then I. This is even more confusing because the scale that accompanies the I chord implies V (the chord the listener wants to hear). The next bar rounds off this cadential prolongation (ii-V-I) but the exposition does not yet end. The arrival to I does not occur until beat three of the bar. The first two beats create even more prolongation as they nearly modulate. And even after this, the exposition is not done. There is a two bar codetta (a one bar figure played twice, the second time with variation) before the strong V7-I cadence with a C pedal tone. This is the first very strong cadence since the start of the closing material. Since the cadence at the end of the exposition is to C without any hint of F as a tonic, the Developement begins in C. In fact, it is clearly in C as its pick-ups are a C arpeggio and the first bar looks and sounds like I and shows no indication of a ‘Bb’ or any other scale alteration. The opening of the developement is also a textural change but seems to resemble old material in its melody. Both the first theme and the second theme have similar figures to the new material. The developement starts with tonal movement in each of the first two measures, I in the first measure and ii6 in the second. In the third bar the harmonic rythym increases with a I64 for the first two beats and a V7 in

Through adding trumpets, bars 1-3 and bars 5-7 are the densest of Section A. This highlights the main repeated motif. Bars 3-5 and 7-11 are softer as these are the less important phrases of the section.

In the first song the text is reminiscent of earlier days in May, and the protagonist declares his love for a particular woman. Schumann’s ambiguous key structure gives the listener a feel that the piece never settles. Aus meinen Träuen spiressen the protagonist continues to profess his love and shows a little frustration in the phrase und meine Seufzwer warden ein Nachtigallenchor (And my sighs will be a nightingale choir). Schumann’s tonality begins to stabilize during this movement, provided by a simple chordal accompaniment allowing the vocal line to show and express the feelings of the text. The third movement relates the woman figure to beautiful images in nature such as the rose, the lily, the dove and the sun and finally professes that she is the one. The first three movements of this cycle set the initial tone and illustrate the protagonist’s love for this

The beginning of the piece, mm1-14, has longer rhythms in which notes mainly fluctuate between half note or whole note values. The only occurrence of textual and rhythmic alignment is in mm 4-5 between the bass and alto in the word “despatch”. So not only do these long notes emphasize the melancholic mood of the text, but so does the

The first movement began with a very strong texture as the music reflected a very powerful theme. It began with the heavy instrumentation from the strings including cellos, violins, and basses. The tempo was also relatively fast and generally upbeat. About a minute and half in there was a very noticeable solo by the violins which was a bit softer in terms of the texture. The melody seemed to be very upbeat and cheerful. Lasting the form of the movement was very well structured and the instruments backed each other up smoothly.

Instruments I heard during this music piece were violins, violas, and clarinets. The first theme within the music is exposition; the music begins quiet for a short amount of time. However, during the middle, the transition becomes louder. The second subject begins quiet and gets louder towards the end. The second theme, the development is loud within the middle of the music however, the music begins and ends quietly. There is dynamics that contrast within this part of the music. The dynamics in the recapitulation is similar to the exposition, where the first subject is quiet from the middle to where the transition is louder. Then the second subject begins quiet and gets louder towards the end. The first and second theme contrast in nature by there rhythmic composition. The first theme has shorter values, whereas, the second theme has longer.

This section concludes with a run or lowering pitch and a repeat of open notes of the E Major open chord created by the capo:

The tempo throughout the song varies from adagio to allegro, but favors the allegro speed in most of the piece. As most of us have agreed, this specific movement is very repetitive in texture and tone. We believe repetition is a main them in the song to help the listener get a feel for the piece and help them memorize it better. As the melody progresses, the tone and volume of the piece make a drastic change. It slows down as to show the time of year is slowing. No longer are children running and playing outside, it portrays winter being right around the corner. The tone continues to fall lower, giving the listener a feel of sorrow, as if death is in the air. The visualization of leaves falling is imprinted in the listeners mind. Then suddenly, the tempo rapidly picks up and jumps right back into the main chorus, which is abruptly cut short. The tune firmly begins to build up as it almost lullabies the listener through the composition, while the volume steadily increases. I can picture myself swaying in the wind to the cool fall breeze as the sun sets on the warm colors of the fall leaves. Just as the lullaby seems to pick up in pace, it slowly fades in to the distance. Once again the volume of the piece quickly increases and has the listener on the edge of their seat as joy fills the air. The pitch jumps from low to high between each instrument as they begin to