Études symphoniques

The "Études Symphoniques" (French - "Symphonic Etudes"), opus.13 is a set of etudes for solo piano by Robert Schumann. It began in 1834 as a theme and sixteen variations on a theme by Baron von Fricken, plus a further variation on an entirely different theme.

Composition

The first (1837) edition carried an annotation annotation that the tune was 'the compositon of an amateur': this referred to the origin of the theme, which had been sent to Schumann by Baron von Fricken, guardian of Ernestine von Fricken, the Estrella of his "Carnaval" op.9. The baron, an amateur musician, had used the melody in a "Theme with Variations" for flute. Schumann had been engaged to Ernestine in 1834, only to break abruptly with her the year after. An autobiographical element is thus interwoven in the genesis of the "Etudes symphoniques" (as in that of many other masterpieces of Schumann's). [The link would have been obvious if the composer had retained the title of the 1835 version, "Fantaisies et Finale sur un theme de M. le Baron de Fricken".]

Of the sixteen variations Schumann composed on Fricken's theme, only eleven were published by him. (An early version, completed between 1834 and January 1835, contained twelve movements). The final, twelfth, published etude was a variation on the theme from the Romance "Du stolzes England freue dich" (Proud England, rejoice!), from Heinrich Marschner's opera "Der Templer und die Jüdin", which was based on Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe". The earlier Fricken theme occasionally appears briefly during this etude. The work was first published in 1837 as "XII Etudes Symphoniques". Only nine of the twelve etudes were specifically designated as "variation". The sequence was as follows:

* Theme - "Andante"
* Etude 1 (Variation 1) - "Un poco più vivo"
* Etude II (Variation 2) - "Andante"
* Etude III - "Vivace"
* Etude IV (Variation 3) - "Allegro marcato"
* Etude V (Variation 4) - "Scherzando"
* Etude VI (Variation 5) - "Agitato"
* Etude VII (Variation 6) - "Allegro molto"
* Etude VIII (Variation 7) - "Sempre marcatissimo"
* Etude IX - "Presto possibile"
* Etude X (Variation 8) - "Allegro con energia"
* Etude XI (Variation 9) - "Andante espressivo"
* Etude XII (Finale) - "Allegro brillante" (based on Marschner's theme).

Other titles had been considered in September 1834: "Variations pathetiques" and "Etuden im Orchestercharakter von Florestan und Eusebius". In this latter case the "Etudes" would have been signed by two imaginary figures in whom Schumann personified two essential, opposite and complementary aspects of his own personality and his own poetic world. 'Florestan and Eusebius' then signed the "Davidsbündlertänze" Op.6; but only in the 1835 version of the "Etudes symphoniques" were the pieces divided so as to emphasize the alternation of more lyrical, melancholy and introvert pages (Eusebius) with those of a more excitable and dynamic nature (Florestan). In the 1837 version Florestan prevails.

Fifteen years later, in a second edition (Leipzig 1852), the 1837 title "Etudes symphoniques" became "Etudes en forme de variations", two studies (nos. 3 and 9) which did not correspond to the new title (not being exactly variations) were eliminated, and some revisions were made in the piano writing.

The entire work was dedicated to Schumann's English friend, the pianist and composer William Sterndale Bennett. Bennett played the piece frequently in England to great acclaim, but Schumann thought it was unsuitable for public performance and advised his wife Clara not to play it.

Character

Leaving aside the allusions to Florestan and Eusebius, all of Schumann's proposed titles show some of the essential character of Op.13's conception. This was of 'studies' in the sense that the term had assumed in Chopin's Op.10, that is to say, concert pieces in which the investigation of possibilities of technique and timbre in writing for the piano is carried out; they are 'symphonic etudes' through the wealth and complexity of the colours evoked -the keyboard becomes an "orchestra" capable of blending, contrasting or superimposing different timbres.

The studies are in variation form, if studies nos. 3 and 9 are excluded, where the connection with the theme is tenuous. It was not the first time that Schumann had tackled variation form. [Examples include the "Abegg Variations", op.1 (though much less complex), some incomplete youthful pages (from which stand out the Variations on the Allegretto of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, where the manner in which the variations are conceived is already completely alien to the virtuosically ornamented convention then prevalent), the "Impromptus on a theme of Clara Wieck", op.5] But here the variation principle is used more as free transformation, no longer of an actual theme, but of a musical 'cell' or cells (as for example in the same composer's "Carnaval"). The "Etudes symphoniques" learn the lesson of Beethoven's "Variations on a Waltz of Diabelli": the theme which acts as a unifying element is amplified and transformed, and becomes the basis from which blossoms inventions of divergent expressive character.

The virtuosic demands of the piano writing are frequently aimed not merely at effect but at clarification of the polyphonic complexity and at delving more deeply into keyboard experimentation.

Later publication history

In 1861, five years after Schumann's death, his father-in-law Friedrich Wieck published a third edition under the editorial pseudonym "DAS" (an acronym for "Der alte Schulmeister"). This edition attempted to reconcile the differences between the earlier two, and bore both the previous titles "XII Etudes Symphoniques" and "Études en forme de variations".

On republishing the set in 1890, Johannes Brahms restored the five variations which had been cut by Schumann. These are now often played, but in positions within the cycle which vary somewhat with each performance; there are now twelve variations and these five so-called posthumous variations which exist as a supplement.

The originally published sections (all except the last based on Fricken's theme) are as follows:

The five posthumously published sections (all based on Fricken's theme) are:
* Variation I - "Andante, Tempo del tema"
* Variation II - "Meno mosso"
* Variation III - "Allegro"
* Variation IV - "Allegretto"
* Variation V - "Moderato".

Orchestrations

Two sections, including the "Allegro brillante", were orchestrated by Tchaikovsky, and have been recorded [http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B000H4VZ4O] .

Notes

External links

* [http://classyclassical.blogspot.com/2005/10/robert-schumanns-symphonic-etudes.html Robert Schumann's Symphonic Etudes] Analysis and description of Robert Schumann's Symphonic Etudes
* [http://uk.geocities.com/robert_schumann_19980225/op13.html Analysis of the Etudes]