#davidsbundler

[mikrokosmos]

Schumann - Davidsbündlertänze

“Dances of the League of David”. I think it’s safe to crown Schumann as the quintessential Romantic composer. Growing up with music and literature [his father was a publisher and novelist himself], early on he saw no difference between the printed word and sheet music. The same emotions one can find in poetry, or the arguments one can read in an essay, can equally be expressed through music. While he went to study law in his late teens, he soon dropped it for the arts. In his mid 20s, Schumann took part in starting a music magazine, “New Journal of Music” where he published many of his essays and musical reviews. Because the lines between fiction, poetry, music, and prose are basically nonexistent in Schumann’s mind, he often would write his musical critiques and views through characters he invented. The title of this 18 movement suite, “Dance of the League of David”, refers to a fictional music society founded by Schumann’s two main characters, Florestan and Eusebius. Florestan represents more straight forward and extroverted attitudes to music, while Eusebius is more poetic and introverted. While these are called “dances”, they are more character pieces, going back and fourth between the two like a dialogue. The first edition of the score has very descriptive moments between these characters,  “Here Florestan kept silent, but his lips were quivering with emotion.”, or “Quite redundantly Eusebius added the following; but great happiness shone in his eyes all the while.”. While this is a bit of a play in the world of fantasy, it’s also a bit of a musical diary. Back to the history part: at this time, Schumann had fallen in love with Clara Wieck, who was his piano teacher’s daughter. Clara was also in love with Schumann, their childhood friendship eventually turned romantic, but her father was against their relationship and tried to keep them apart. Even more Romantic drama! Their lives are like characters in a novel of the time [all that’s missing is a Gothic castle]. When she said yes to his proposal for marriage, he wrote this suite in elation. The music shows the constant struggle and longing and bliss and fear and soothing love that comes with life, all of these emotions jumping over each other like animals, unpredictable. One last biographical note: this could reflect the unpredictability of Schumann’s own emotions, considering his bipolar disorder. Schumann embodies Romanticism and is a poster boy for the expectation of an artist in that era: a dreamer, misunderstood, emotional, always longing for something greater.

[pantalon-et-colombine]

Schumann - Carnaval, Chopin - Les Sylphides

Robert Irving Conducting The Philharmonia Orchestra

Interesting to note: the orchestrators of tracks 12-20 of Carnaval ("Chopin"-"Davidsbündler") are unknown

In ballet, as in the other arts, certain figures stand supreme, and it can be fairly argued that, among modern choreographers, Michael Fokine is the greatest. He was born at St. Petersburg in 1880, and died in New York in 1942. He took to ballet while he was still young, entering the Imperial School of Ballet, attached to the Maryinsky Theatre, when he was only nine. He started his career as a dancer, but in 1905 composed his first ballet, “Acis et Galatée”. From this time onwards he progressed from strength to strength. Not only are the best of his ballets so good that they have been included in the repertoires of every important company, but he also acquired a considerable reputation as a reformer. It will not be amiss to quote him in this connection, for herein lay his originality, and much of his strength. 

“Dancing should be interpretation. It should not degenerate into mere gymnastics. The dance should explain the spirit of the actors in the spectacle. More than that, it should express the whole epoch to which the subject of the ballet belongs.”

“Les Sylphides” and “Carnaval” are two of his most famous creations.

“Carnaval” is based on Schumann’s pianoforte work of the same name. It shares the romantic quality of “Les Sylphides”, yet does not aim at its classical balance and abstraction. It does not have a fully-fledged plot in the manner of some ballets, yet there are definite and recognisable characters, ranging from the forlorn figure of Pierrot to the high-spirited, mischievous Harlequin.

Schumann based the work on the four notes, A, E flat, C and B, which, in German nomenclature, make up the name Asch (A, S, C, H) a village where his friend, Ernestine von Fricken, lived.

It will perhaps be as well to give a brief summary of the action of the ballet. Various dancing couples cross the stage, to be followed by Pierrot, wandering alone, aimless and forlorn. Harlequin then bounds on to the stage, capers around Pierrot, and flicks at him so that he loses his balance and falls over.

After further dancing, Eusebius is seen dreaming of his mistress, who suddenly appears, followed by Estrella, escorted by her admirer, Florestan. These flit away arm-in-arm, and there follows a “pas de deux” between Eusebius and Chiarina. Papillon then comes on to the stage; Pierrot tries to catch her with his conical hat, but dismally fails. 

Further dances follow, with Chiarina and two friends, all masked, and Florestan, in quest of Estrella. To the section Reconnaissance, Columbine and Harlequin dance on to the stage, followed by the pompous Pantalon, who is foiled and offended by these two, but immediately soothed by Columbine. More dancers enter, to congratulate the two lovers, Columbine and Harlequin. Pantolan and Pierrot are entangled together, and all ends in happiness and jollity.

The ballet was first produced at St. Petersburg in Lent, 1910. It has undergone several changes since then, though it remains essentially the same. Its effervescent gaiety has deservedly acquired for it an exceptional populraity, which shows no signs of diminishing.

Note by JOHN SEARCHFIELD

[pantalon-et-colombine]

On ne peut douter de l’intention malicieuse dont se réclame, sous le titre de Pause -c’est-à-dire de repos- l’emprunt fait au Préambule avec le vif épisode qui sert ici d'introduction effervescente au dernier morceau de la série. Plaisante contradiction entre le sens littéral du vocable et son appropriation paradoxale au caractère d’une musique évoquant tout un bouillonnement de jeunesse ardente.

Alfred Cortot, ed., Éditions de Travail Des OEuvres de Schumann: Carnaval (Scènes Mignonnes Sur Quatre Notes), Op. 9, Salabert, Édition Nationale de Musique Classique 5447 (Paris: Salabert, 1946), 37.

[pantalon-et-colombine]

20. Pause & Marche des Davidsbundler Contre Les Philistins

After a brief introductory interlude, Schumann presents the Davidsbundler. In addition to being an exceptional composer, Schumann was also a noted and often severe music critic. He enthusiastically applauded the music he found exceptional and just as enthusiastically denounced the music he found elementary and trite.

The Davidsbundler was an imaginary band of musicians that Schumann used in his music critiques to fight for the cause of good music (Eusebius, Florestan, Chopin, and Paganini were all members of the Davidsbundler). This movement is a kind of music-criticism-in-sound as we hear the members of the Davidsbundler march against the Philistins (any and all those who produce or promote poor music) to finally defeat them in a climax of ever-increasing energy.

[pantalon-et-colombine]

In the Davidsbündler (League of David); Chiara is the pseudonym of Clara Wieck.

Ernst Herttrich and Robert Schumann, “Comments,” in Carnaval, op. 9, ed. Ernst Herttrich, Urtext, Schumann (Remagen: G. Henle Verlag, 2004), 42.

[pantalon-et-colombine]

Dans cette page, qui termine le cycle en un irrésistible élan d’audacieux enthousiasme, Schumann entendait symboliser le mouvement de conviction révolutionnaire qui l’entrainait, lui et ses amis, compagnons de cette imaginaire confrérie de David, créée de toutes pièces par son esprit inventif, contre les représentants de la tradition, ironiquement personnifiés par le thème du “Gross Vater Tanz” ou “Danse du Grand-Père” déjà utilisé dans la scène finale des Papillons, et qui n’est autre qu’un refrain irrévérencieux par lequel, sur le coup de minuit, dans les réunions joyeuses d’outre-Rhin, la coutume voulait que les jeunes gens signifient aux personnes d’un certain âge qu’il était temps pour eux de s’aller coucher…. Transparente allusion à l’endroit de la routine, tournée ici en dérision sous les aspects des Philistins. On se gardera d’un mouvement trop rapide dans l’exposition du thème fièrement accusé par lequel, non sans une certaine solennité fanfaronne, les compagnons de David semblent porter défi aux conservateurs des formules surannées.

Alfred Cortot, ed., Éditions de Travail Des OEuvres de Schumann: Carnaval (Scènes Mignonnes Sur Quatre Notes), Op. 9, Salabert, Édition Nationale de Musique Classique 5447 (Paris: Salabert, 1946), 38.