Next in our review stand the part songs for mixed, female or male voices.
Some of them deserve a place beside Mendelssohn's little masterpieces,
others are almost forgotten or, like the great motet for double male
chorus and organ, or the canons on Rückert's "Ritornelle," are beyond
the sphere of male chorus societies. Few have won a greater popularity
than the "Gipsy Life" with piano, triangle and tambourine. Of greater
importance, however, are several works with orchestra, undeservedly
neglected, Rückert's "Advent" and "New Year Songs," Hebbel's gloomy
"Nachtlied," and especially the touching "Requiem for Mignon" from
Gœthe's "Wilhelm Meister." Less distinction is attributed to the four
great ballads for chorus, soli and orchestra, Uhland's "Glück von
Edenhall," "des Sänger's Fluch," "der Königssohn," and Geibel's "Vom
Pagen und der Königstochter." By having these ballads arranged in a
more extended, dramatic form, Schumann impaired the work of the poet;
moreover he succeeded only partially in his musical setting, weak portions
predominating over the more effective and even fine passages, which
are by no means wanting. The Requiem and the Mass, both for chorus and
orchestra without solos, the latter acknowledged as decidedly superior,
were composed in feverish haste, and give little proof of his ability to
reveal his religious feelings by means of great choruses or to adapt his
music to the Catholic service. In these late years he tried his powers in
almost every field of composition, even applying the melodramatic form to
poems, which are recited to a pianoforte accompaniment ("Schön Hedwig,"
"die Flüchtlinge," "der Haideknabe.")
[Illustration: CLARA SCHUMANN.
From a photograph by Hanfstängl, Munich.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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