A Poet's Love

Schumann had been having jealous fantasies of Clara's marriage to another; perhaps his emotions manifested themselves in "Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen." The motive in the introduction, representing a wild wedding dance, is basically the desolate postlude of the previous movement. Inelegant terms like "blowing of flutes," "scraping of fiddles" and "blaring trumpets" are not cheerful descriptions of a wedding feast, and the piano manifests the poet's jealous rage with a repeated, stomping base note. Accents at the bass notes indicate a waking rage at the "Herzallerliebste mein" in bar 25, and the grating harmonies in the postlude engender even more rage as the wedding music and its meaning rise "like bile in the mouth." ²⁵ This truly is the low point of the cycle.

In a style indicative of a later Hugo Wolf, "Hör' ich das Liedchen klingen"is the poet's "true love song," ever in the sorrowful thoughts. The figure in the right hand at the beginning bears the longing memories, and is reiterated in the vocal line. The piano, unable to restrain itself, moans the theme again, even before the focal line is finished. Pain over Clara can be perceived by her tune X running on into the end of the other in the postlude.

"Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen," the longest text used in Dichterliebe, is your typical "boy loves girl­girl loves boy­boy marries another­girl marries another out of spite­boy takes it badly" story. This may have happened to Heine, but it did not to Schumann.²⁶ The song is cheery and high-spirited until we hear "der Jünkling is übel d'ran" and "und wem sie just passieret." A sudden change in musical texture reminds us of an awkward impression of "Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube."