Schumann and Counterpoint
When discussing Schumann‟s relationship with the art of counterpoint, one must begin
with his consistent reverence of JS Bach. As early as his years as a law student, Schumann met
weekly with like minded students to play chamber music and discuss musical topics;
prominently the old masters such as Bach and his Well Tempered Clavier.
According to Joseph Wilhelm von Wasielewski, the concertmaster of the dusseldorf
orchestra who was acquainted with Schumann and also his first biographer, Schumann kept a
copy of the Well Tempered Clavier on his piano at almost all times.
Soon after arriving in Leipzig in autumn 1830 he was introduced to the composer
Heinrich Dorn, who was at the time the conductor at the city theatre. In mid-July of the following
year he began theoretical studies with Dorn, from „figured bass‟ to chorale harmonization, canon
and double counterpoint.
This period of study ended soon after in 1832. Schumann had a hard time dealing with
the authoritative figure of his teacher and longed to learn according to his own methods and
principles.
He wrote:
“my entire being rebels against every external influence, and I have to discover things on my
own for the first time, in order to assimilate them and put them in their proper place.”
Despite having ended formal study with Dorn, Schumann would continue his strenuous
personal study of Bach‟s counterpoint, expanding from the Well Tempered Clavier to the Art of
the Fugue.
In 1833, Study of Bach Fugues leads to the composition of the Opus 5, Impromptus on a theme
by Clara Wieck.
-The interlocked descending fifth motive (G-C, D-G‟) appeared in the Wiede sketchbooks and
would also appear as the theme for the abandoned g minor symphony
This is the first instance of expressly fugal writing in a real piece of music. A marked departure
from the flashier keyboard style of his earlier works such as the Abbegg variations.
The tenth and final variation is a five part fugue in which the previous motive is juxtaposed with
clara‟s theme.
1837, in a period of intense study of Bach‟s Art of the Fugue and Marpurg‟s treatise,
Schumann writes a fifteen page manual titled “The History of the Fugue”
It included examples of fugal material from Bach and Marpurg, as well as his own
workings and examples based on the material.
Not only does this document provide insight into the kind of material that
Schumann saw as critical to the study of counterpoint, but also into the method
by which Schumann studied, examined, and assimilated the techniques of the
old masters.
-developmental exercises with different realizations based on the same
subject etc etc
1845 – The breakdown after Clara‟s tour in Russia.
o A return to intensive fugal and contrapuntal studies
Clara at this point writes:
Today we began contrapuntal studies that gave me much pleasure, despite all the trouble,
because I soon saw what I had not believed possible—I wrote a fugue and then several more
since we are continuing the studies on a daily basis. I cannot thank Robert enough for his
patience with me and am doubly happy when something is successful since he can view it as
his work as well. He himself is in the midst of a fugal passion.
From this study arose the Op 60 Six Fugues on the name Bach.
It is from this same period, between 1845 and 1852 that Schumann wrote the Second
and Third Symphonies.
These pieces are highly contrapuntal and are clearly influenced by his vigorous
and therapeutic study of Bach.
Furthermore, this intensive period of study inspired Schumann to change his method of
composition, which up to this point had been primarily at the piano. He began to
compose sitting away from the instrument and by working in his head.
o musicologist John Daverio states about the development in Schumann‟s style,
“the linear development of a melodic entity begins to recede in favor of a rich web
of simultaneously elaborated motivic combinations.”
In 1848 Schumann once more writes a treatise on fugue titled “a Textbook for
Composing Fugues,” in which he writes:
The fugue as we now know it, is, so to speak, the keystone of counterpoint. . . . [Cherubini
calls the fugue the] veritable archetype of all musical composition. And in truth, to the
extent that they proceed from the very deepest understanding of the art form, practically all
masterpieces—including those in a somewhat freer mode—may be traced back to the
Fugue form.
Schumann had once stated that “he had learned more about counterpoint from Jean Paul than from his
music teacher (most likely referring to Dorn).
It is from Jean Paul’s work, especially the characters Valt and Wult that Schumann derived his
dual personalities of Florestan and Eusebius.
In many ways, this duality was a living form of counterpoint within Schumann’s literary and
musical life. Thus, the study of counterpoint, and especially Bach, would have naturally appealed
to Schumann
It represented order and balance, a middle ground of sorts for the various extremes of his
personal, literary and musical characters.
