Robert Schumann
Born 1810, Zwickau, Germany; died 1856, Endenich, Germany
Piano Quartet in Eb Major, Op. 47 (1842)
The 19th-century German composer, Robert Schumann, had initially planned a career as a piano soloist, until a hand injury changed the trajectory of his musical ambitions. Until 1840 his works were written solely for keyboard; after that, he began composing lieder, symphonies and chamber music. He was a co-founder and well-respected critic of the Lepzig-based publication Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (“New Journal for Music”). Schumann attempted suicide in 1854 by throwing himself into the Rhine River. He survived the ordeal and voluntarily committed himself to an asylum in Edenich, where he remained until his death.
Schumann began his Piano Quartet in Eb Major on October 24 1842, and completed it within one month’s time. The Piano Quartet, op. 47, similar to most of Schumann’s chamber music, is characteristically piano driven with the strings often echoing the piano part or acting in opposition. As with much of Schumann’s music, there are many thematic links between the movements of the quartet. Beethoven’s influence can be found throughout this work, from the arrangement of the movements (the scherzo placed second, not third), the static, non-thematic opening of the first movement, its rhythmic ambiguity through displacement of the downbeat, and its similarity to Beethoven’s String Quartet, Op. 127.
Of special note is the third movement in which Schumann directs the cello to tune its C string down a whole step to Bb, thus allowing the cello to play a Bb pedal tone beneath the violin and viola’s staccato scale passages. The Finale is considered a sonata-rondo form which opens with a fugue-like section with the viola initiating the theme, followed by the piano on the dominant, finally stated by the violin. The movement ends with a prolonged coda which uses the primary material in a developmental extension.