Classical Music | Bass

Recorded on 08/11/2010, uploaded on 10/27/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

In his childhood, Robert Schumann’s attention was equally divided between music and literature. Though literature would remain a strong influence on him throughout his lifetime, music eventually became the focus of his energies. Yet even then, he initially aspired to be a concert pianist and not a composer. It was not until a damaging injury to his right hand destroyed his hopes of becoming a piano virtuoso that Schumann turned wholeheartedly to composition. At the beginning of his compositional career, Schumann composed almost exclusively for the piano. However, in 1840, the year of his long awaited marriage to Clara Wieck, Schumann turned to the composition of song. Indeed, his output was so tremendous during this solitary year that it has ubiquitously become known as his Liederjahre, or “Year of Song,” and it solidified Schumann’s place, along with Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms, as one of the greatest composers of lieder.

Composed in April and October of that year was the 3 Romanzen und Balladen, op. 45 and based on a poem by Heinrich Heine and two by Joseph Eichendorff. Though not technically a song cycle, the three songs are connected by the general theme of exploration and adventure: the first, for buried treasure; the second, for accomplishment; and finally, the third, for unknown lands. In this last song, Abends am Stram, based on Heinrich Heine’s poem, Wir saßen am Fischerhause (“We sat at the fisherman’s house”), the poet tells of him and his comrades reminiscing of the life at sea and far-off lands as they watch a distant passing ship. Once they finish, the day has grown dark and the ship is no longer visible. Schumann carefully crafts his setting with the piano, for the most part, depicting the rolling waves of the sea as the voice gives utterance to Heine’s text. The accompaniment changes, however, to depict the storms of the third stanza and the shimmering Ganges River in the fifth.       Joseph DuBose

The Steans Music Institute is the Ravinia Festival's professional studies program for young musicians.