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Novelettes" (Op. 21, 1838),' but they are of more general nature, being based upon the supreme essence of romantic emotion.

Polished and severely characteristic of Schumann as even the beginning may seem in its retarded, syncopated bass, and fully as the rest of the work may seem to be the result of his peculiar mode of expressing emotion, yet this composition also attains to objective truth in its conception and execution. The various moods stand in such strong contrast one with the other, that they mutually heighten and illustrate each other, and new light is again thrown upon each, from the point of both form and idea, by interludes and intermezzi, by episodical and contrasted passages. The various numbers do not, indeed, display the strictly organic evolution of the rondo-form-their ethical meaning is too variegated and too highly coloured -but still they have the vigorous terseness of that form.

The same opinion may be pronounced in regard to two other works of the same year, the "Arabesque" (Op. 18, 1838), and the "Blumenstück" (Op. 19, 1839), while the "Humoresque" (Op. 20, 1839), on the contrary, as well as the "Novelettes" (Op. 21), apparently require for their comprehension a knowledge of events which we do not possess, and which would be difficult of attainment. The Humoresque" carries us at once to the very heart of the composer's mood, by a chord which presupposes another:

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1 No. 3 Intermezzo appeared in May, 1838, in a "Collection of Old and New Music," a supplement to the "New Journal of Music " (vol. ii.), with the motto from Macbeth :

"When shall we three meet again,
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"

Einfach.

Ped.

dim.

and as the work proceeds, we see that this is a serious occasion which the master regards humorously, flooding it with the magic of wit and fancy, that it may shine out in a poetic light; but all this cannot atone to us for the missing unity of form; it cannot combine the separate and well-executed pictures into a whole. Schumann does indeed attempt to establish a connection by a constant recurrence to individual motives, but this only makes the general impression more evident. The detached pictures are too elaborately finished to allow their intrinsic relations to be made clear by so purely external a method, or by the separate titles. We cannot quite say the same of the "Novelettes" and the "Faschingsschwank aus Wien" (Op. 26, 1839), written at nearly the same time. It is hard to recognize the outward influences at work in the Faschingsschwank," certain emotions being even expressed in the firmly-fixed forms of the "Romance,"

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Scherzino," and "Finale in Rondo form." In the "Novelettes" the composer's own personality is again displayed in its pristine simplicity; we have long known it and found it attractive, and it helps to produce unity. But even this personality is far more truthfully and clearly given in those works in which Schumann subjected form to his desire to infuse a meaning into it, than it is here, where he wishes to put into music moods which require words to make them wholly intelligible. This composition, therefore, forms an important boundary line in Schumann's progress, not only by its Opus number, but also by its thoroughly characteristic contents. One of his next works (Op. 24) contains his first songs. We have taken frequent occasion to point out the powerful influence which the study of vocal music exercised upon Schumann's development, and more especially the great change in his instrumental style which it entailed. Before turning to consider this new phase, let us draw attention to a passage in the "Humoresque," which forms another distinguishing feature of the new piano style:

Schumann himself makes the following interesting allusion to the peculiar nature of this mode of writing in a letter to Moscheles (Sept. 22, 1837): "You must pardon many things in my manner of setting down the notes," he says; "I really did not know how to write the three A's above each other:

or

produces a

different effect; the high A's should only create a faint lingering echo, and so I could not think of any way to

write it but

This strange method of notation

springs from the effort to win novel effects from the piano, such as we have already seen in the preface to the "Studies" (Op. 3), an effort of decisive importance to the whole romantic school, which devoted SO much thought and attentive study to obtaining especial qualities of tone. Schumann especially attained most marvellous effects from this way of writing in certain of his piano accompaniments to songs.

AS

CHAPTER IV.

BETROTHAL. SONGS.

S we have already hinted, Schumann's struggle to win Clara, dating from the year 1836, had a large share in those of his works which were written during that period. In January, 1836, his relations with Ernestine, which had grown constantly less intimate, wholly ceased, and when he lost his mother (Feb. 4), he felt more strongly drawn to that noble woman who had already gained such profound and lasting power over his entire mind and soul. It is well known that the two hearts soon contrived to form an indissoluble bond, and also that the lady's father showed a stubborn opposition to the marriage.

The year passed amid grief and sorrow, and towards its close the prospect grew so dark that Schumann made the following confession to his sister-in-law, Theresa, in the postcript to a letter dated Nov. 15: "Clara loves me as fondly as ever; yet I have resigned her for ever."

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The future looked brighter to him again the next year, and in September, 1837, he asked Friedrich Wieck to give him his beloved daughter's hand; his offer was, however, refused, because," as he writes to Theresa (Dec. 15, 1837), "the old man is not yet willing to give up Clara, to whom he clings most closely. And then," he adds, "he is not altogether wrong in thinking that we ought to earn something more first, if we mean to live respectably."