A Poet's Love

Heine would not understand Schumann's setting of "Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen," as it is born of love for Clara. The poet seems to have come to terms with matters, but the piano still mourns.²⁷ A shift in focus occurs as the poet begins thinking of forgiveness rather than concentration on his circumstances, with the piano's weird arpeggios in the prelude the wind-stirred tall flowers speaking comfort.. After experimenting with other tonalities, the postlude finds itself firmly back in tonic as the music moves from forgiveness through reconciliation to undying love.²⁸

Three dreams constitute "Ich hab' im Traum geweinet:" one of the beloved's death, another of her infidelity, a third of her fidelity. The poet wakes up in sobs after each dream, so the effect is the same. The voice begins solo in the darkest of keys, E minor. Drum beats are heard, then the sharp chords in bar s 8 and 19 indicate waking.

"Allnächtlich im Traume," also a dream song, is "musically one of the cycle's more ambiguous movements,"²⁹ but so is the poem. Just as it seems the poet will have good dream about his beloved, just as she whispers sweetly to him, he wakes up and can't remember what she said. The idea of "falling" at the beloved's feet in this two-four song is illustrated in stuttering, metrically uneven three-four bars 9 and 22. Also depicted are the tears in bars 11­13 and 24­26, and the moment of waking in bars 35­36.

The text for "Aus alten Märchen" was revised in Heine's second edition of Buch der Lieder, but Schumann probably used the earlier one.³⁰ Additionally, Schumann pulled it out of order to heighten the contrast between the last two songs.³¹ Like "Allnächtlich im Traume," this song has hardly any hint of darker harmony or minor key. There is an abrupt deceleration at "ach könnt ich dort hinkommen," but its purpose is to demonstrate the confinements of the earthbound, "too slow to reach the enchanted land promised"³² by the melody at the beginning.