explicating jean paul robert schumann's program for papillons, op. 2

7/18/2019 Explicating Jean Paul Robert Schumann's Program for Papillons, Op. 2

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/explicating-jean-paul-robert-schumanns-program-for-papillons-op-2 1/18

University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to 19th-Century Mu

http://www.jstor.org

Explicating Jean Paul: Robert Schumann's Program for "Papillons," Op. 2Author(s): Eric Frederick JensenSource: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Autumn, 1998), pp. 127-143Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746854Accessed: 10-07-2015 10:00 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/pa info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of contin a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarsFor more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

http://www.jstor.org/

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal

http://www.jstor.org/stable/746854

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp




http://www.jstor.org/stable/746854

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal

http://www.jstor.org/



Explicating

e a n

P a u l

o b e r t

Schumann s

rogram

o r

Papillons,

O p

ERIC FREDERICK

JENSEN

Let all that is marvelous

ly

neitheras a

birdof

the

day

nor

as one

of the

night,

but as a

butterfly

t

twilight.

-Jean

Paul,

ntroductiono Aesthetics

1804)

Few

of

Schumann's

compositions

have

enjoyed

greatercelebrity in the past century thanPapil-

ions.

It is studied

regularly,

performed

fre-

quently,

and

intimately

associated with his

early

musical

style.

Yet it is

a work

consis-

tently

misunderstood.

Schumann himself was

aware of its

enigmatic

nature

and took the un-

usual

step

not

long

after

its

creation

of

attempt-

ing

to

explain

the

work to

friends,

family,

and

influential music critics.

But-as

was

often

the

case when

he

discussed

his own

compositions-

his

reliance

on allusion and

hesitancy

to reveal

in detail

anything

of

a

personal

nature led

only

to confusion and

greater

misunderstanding.

The key to the comprehension of Papillons

lies in the work

of

his favorite

author,

Jean

Paul. The association of

Papillons

to

Jean

Paul

has been widely known since the publication

of

Schumann's

Jugendbriefe

n 1885. In letters

written not

long

after

completion

of the

work,

Schumann noted that the

masked-ball conclu-

sion of

Jean

Paul's

novel,

Flegeljahre

(Walt

and

Vult),

had

served

as his

inspiration.

But

the

exact manner in which the

novel

was connected

to

Papillons

remained

ambiguous.

Schumann's

intention

appeared

o

have been

simply

to

rep-

resent in

a

general

manner in his music

the

festivities in

Flegeljahre.

Then

in

1941 atten-

tion was drawn

to

Schumann's

personal

copy

of

Flegeljahre,

which contained

passages

marked

by him and related to individual pieces in Pap-

illons.1

19th-Century

Music

XXII/2

(Fall 1998).

?

by

The

Regents

of

the

University

of California.

'The

passages

are

listed

in

Wolfgang Boetticher,

Robert

Schumann:

Einfibhrung

n

Persbnlichkeit

und

Werk

(Ber-

lin, 1941),

pp.

611-13.

127

This content downloaded from 193.227.169.41 on Fri, 10 Jul 2015 10:00:57 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions





19TH

MUSIC

Discovery

of the

passages,

however,

only

served to confuse the matter.

The

excerpts

made

reference to

only

ten

of

the twelve

pieces

com-

prising

Papillons.

In

addition,

significant

epi-

sodes

in the

plot

of

Flegeljahre

appeared

to

have

been omitted.

Also noted

was an

apparent

discrepancybetween the music and the texts:

the

musical

representation

seemed

vague,

in-

consistent,

and at times

implausible.

Although

there

have been

numerous

at-

tempts

to determine

precisely

the

program

n-

tended

by

Schumann

for

Papillons,

none

has

been able to

take into

account

all

of the musi-

cal and

literary

correspondences

involved.2

To

do

so,

concluded

Schumann's

most recent

bi-

ographer,

is

"a futile exercise

. .

.

it

would be

a

mistake

to view

the

final

chapters [of

Flegel-

jahre]

as a

'program'

for the musical

cycle."3

The

perception

that

the

program

associated

by

Schumann with Papillons is nebulous at best

has

gained

broad

acceptance.

"Most of

[the

Flegeljahre

passages]

do not

relate

easily

to

musical

details,

let

alone account for the two

remaining

numbers

of

the

dozen

in the

cycle,"

reads

a current evaluation

in

the

Journal

of

the

American

Musicological

Society;

"moreover,

it is

unclear whether

Schumann

annotated

his

copy

beforeor after

he finished

the

work."4

Yet

the

relationship

between

the

Flegeljahre

pas-

sages

and

Papillons-as

well aswhen

they

were

marked-is

by

no means

as

perplexing

as has

been maintained.

By focusing

on

Schumann's

correspondence,

his

understanding

of

JeanPaul,

and the

music

itself,

it is

possible

to

discover

Schumann's

programmatic

ntentions.

Schumann seemed to take

a

measure

of

pride

in

acknowledging

the influence of

Jean

Paul on

his music. There is his well-known assertion

that he "learnedmore about

counterpoint"

rom

Jean

Paul than from

any

music

teacher.5

In

the

1840s, looking

back on his earlier

composi-

tions,

Schumann wrote to his friend

Carl

Kossmaly

that the two

greatest

influences

on

his

work had been

Bach

and

Jean

Paul-an

in-

fluence so obvious

in

Schumann's

mind that

he added: "which

you

would

probably

notice

without

my

pointing

it

out to

you."6

Although

Schumann had been familiar

with

Jean

Paul's

writings

for several

years

(probably

transmitted

by

Schumann's

father who

was

an

admirerof Jean Paul), Schumann's enthusiasm

for them

only began

in

the

summer

of

1827.

They

became a

preoccupation,

comparable

in

their effect to

his

discovery

that

same

year

of

the music

of Schubert.

In

his

reaction,

Schumann

was

far from

unique,

for

Jean

Paul's

work tends even

today

to

elicit a

strong

re-

sponse

from readers. It

is distinctive and

origi-

nal: full of

whimsy,

humor,

outrageous

meta-

phors,

and

overweening

sentiment,

with

abrupt

changes

in mood

and

plot.

These

were the

quali-

ties that

provided

the initial attraction

to

Schumann,

and he recommended

Jean

Paul en-

thusiastically to friends and acquaintances.

"Get

Titan

[Jean

Paul's most

famous

novel]

from the

nearest

library

so

that we

can

discuss

it

together,"

he

advised

his

closest

friend,

Emil

Flechsig,

"You will thank

me when

you

have

read

it."7

Months later

he

confessed:

"Jean

Paul

takes first

place

with

me.

I

place

him

above

everyone

else."8

A

portrait

of

Jean

Paul was

placed

in a

gilded

frame and

hung

in

a

position

of

honor

alongside

two

other

men

idolized

by

Schumann:

his father

and

Napoleon.

2Among

the

attempts

to

explain

the association

between

Flegeljahre

and

Papillons,

most

notable have

been those

by

Edward

Lippman,

"Theory

and Practice

in

Schumann's

Aesthetics,"

Journalof

the American

Musicological

Soci-

ety

17

(1964),

314-20;

Jacques

Chailley,

"Zum

Symbolismus

bei RobertSchumann

mit besonderer

Beruicksichtigung

er

Papillons

op.

2,"

in

Robert

Schumann:

Ein

romantisches

Erbe

n

neuer

Forschung

Mainz,

1984),pp.

57-66;

Gerhard

Dieter,

"Eine

neue

poetische

Zeit":

Musikanschauung

und

stilistische Tendenzen

m

Klavierwerk

RobertSchumanns

(Kassel,

1989);

and Akio

Mayeda,

Robert Schumanns

Weg

zur

Symphonie

(Zurich,

1992).

See

also

Hans-Joachim

Bracht,

"Schumanns

Papillons

und die

Asthetik

der

Friihromantik,"

Archiv

fir

Musikwissenschaft

50

(1993),

71-84;

and

Manfred

Eger,

"'Die

Triumerei'

und andere

Missverstindnisse.

Jean

Paul als

Schliissel

zur

Deutung

und

Wiedergabe

der

fruihen

Klavierwerke

Robert

Schu-

manns,

"

Neue

Zeitschrift ftir

Musik

145

(1985),

13-17.

3John

Daverio,

Robert Schumann:

Herald

of

a "New Po-

etic

Age"

(Oxford,1996),pp. 516,

85.

4Berthold

Hoeckner,

"Schumann

and

Romantic

Distance,"

Journal

of

the American

Musicological

Society

50

(1997),

63.

'Letter to Simonin de Sire of 15 March

1839,

Robert

Schumann,

Briefe:

Neue

Folge,

ed.

F.

Gustav

Jansen

(Leipzig,

1904),

p.

149.

6Letter

of 5

May

1843, ibid., p.

228.

7Letterof 29

August

1827,

Robert

Schumann,

Der

Junge

Schumann:

Dichtungen

und

Briefe,

ed.

Alfred

Schumann

(Leipzig,

1917), p.

115.

8Letter

of

17

March

1828,

ibid., p.

121.

128






At the

time,

Schumann

was

giving

serious

consideration

to

becoming

a writer

himself,

and he used

his

reading

of

Jean

Paul as a source

of imitation

for his letters

and

diary.

The

diary

often served as

a sketchbook

for

ideas

that were

later

incorporated

into letters.

The

following

example, found in both his diaryandin a letter

to

Flechsig,

is a

typical

tirade

a

la

Jean Paul,

and

representative

of

Schumann

at his most

sentimental:

"Oh friend Were

I

a

smile,

I

would

want to hover

about

her

eyes;

were

I

joy,

I

would

skip

lightly

through

her

pulses;

Yes -

were

I

a

tear,

I

would

weep

with

her;

and

if

she

then

smiled

once

again, gladly

would

I

die on

her

eyelash,

and

gladly-yes,

gladly-be

no

more."9 Schumann's

source

of

inspiration-in

this instance

he

appears

to have

surpassed

his

mentor-can

be traced

to

Flegeljahre:

"Were

a

star...

I

would shine

upon

thee;

were

I

a

rose,

I

would bloom for thee; were I a sound, I would

press

into

thy

heart;

were

I

love,

the

happiest

love,

I

would

dwell

therein."''0

Prior to

enrolling

as

a

student

of law

in

1828

at the

University

of

Leipzig,

Schumann

made a

point

of

traveling

to

Bayreuth,

the small

town

in

Bavaria where

Jean

Paul had

spent

much of

his life.

"I

am

living,"

Schumann

wrote to

his

brother

Julius,

"among

blessed

memories

of

Jean

Paul."" He

was

eager

to meet

people

who

had

known

Jean

Paul and was

delighted

to re-

ceive from his

widow the

portrait

that

later

was

hung

in his

study.

There

was also

a

visit

to

Jean

Paul's

grave:

"Profound

grief,"

Schumann

tersely

noted

in

his

diary.1'2

Although

he was one

of

the

most

popular

writers of his

generation,

by

the time

of

Schumann's interest

in him

Jean

Paul's

reputa-

tion

in

Germany

was

dwindling.

It

has contin-

ued to decline

in

the

nearly

175

years

since his

death,

despite

the occasional efforts of

vocifer-

ous

partisans.

Johann

Paul Friedrich

Richter-

Jean

Paul

was his

pen

name-was

born in

1763,

the son of a

clergyman

(who,

incidentally,

was

also

a

talented

musician).'3

From

an

early

age,

Jean

Paul

showed a

great

love for

literature,

becoming a voracious and not always discrimi-

nating

reader. At fifteen he

began keeping

a

series

of

notebooks filled with arcane material

he

had

encountered

in

books,

excerpts

from

which

invariably

later found their

way

into his

own

writing-often

as

amusing,

erudite,

and

generally

irrelevant

footnotes

to

the text.

In

1781

Jean

Paul

began

studies at the

Uni-

versity

of

Leipzig

as a student of

theology.

But

he had

little

money,

did

not

enjoy

his

course

of

study,

and

devoted

much of his time

to

reading

on his own. He remained for

only

one semes-

ter. Determined to become a

writer,

he

anony-

mously published his first book, Greenland

Lawsuits,

in

1783.

It attracted little

attention,

and it

was

not

until

ten

years

later with the

appearance

of The

Invisible

Lodge

that he be-

gan

to make a name for himself.

Widespread

fame

followed

with

Hesperus

(1795),

Siebenkis

(Flower,

Fruit,

and Thorn

Pieces) (1797),

and

Titan

(1803).

A

year

after the

publication

of

Titan,

Jean

Paul settled in

Bayreuth,

where,

despite

the rather

peculiar

nature of his writ-

ings,

he

led

by

all accounts

a

solidly

middle-

class

existence. One of the

major

attractions

Bayreuth

held for

him

was the

superior

quality

of its local beer. Before his death in

1825,

two

additional

novels

appeared

(both

unfinished):

Flegeljahre

(1805)

and The

Comet

(1822).

In the nineteenth

century,

Jean

Paul's

popu-

larity

extended

well

beyond

Germany.

The ex-

treme

sentimentality

and emotional excess

of

his

writings

were

major

attractions,

and his

unique prose style-tangled,

prolix,

and discur-

sive-had

many

admirers.

Thomas

Carlyle, Jean

9Robert

Schumann, Tagebicher:

1827-1838,

ed.

Georg

Eismann

(Leipzig,

1971), p. 69,

and letter

of

July

1827 to

Flechsig

in

Junge

Schumann,

p.

109.

'0JeanPaul, Walt and Vult, or The Twins, 2 vols. (Boston,

1846), II,

32. Because

of their

ability

to

capture

with

un-

usual success

his often convoluted

imagery

and

syntax,

I

have used

whenever

possible

nineteenth-century

transla-

tions of

Jean

Paul.

All translations

have been

compared

with

the

original,

and where

occasional

adjustments

have

been

made, they

have been

indicated

in

the footnote.

"Letter

of 25

April

1828,

Junge

Schumann,

p.

122.

'2Entry

of

25

April

1828,

Tagebiucher,

.

55.

'3There

has not been a

great

deal of

study

of

Jena

Paul

sinceWorldWar I.Helpfulbooks include:Uwe Schweikert,

Jean

Paul

(Stuttgart,

1970);

Jean

Paul

im

Urteil seiner

Kritiker,

ed. Peter S.

Sprengel

(Munich,

1980);

Giinter De

Bruyn,

Das

Leben des

Jean

Paul Friedrich

Richter

(Frank-

furt,

1978)-a

recent

biography

n a

popular style,

and the

introductory

volume in the Rowohlt series:

Hanns-Josef

Ortheil,

Jean

Paul

(Hamburg,1984).

In

English

a

good

in-

troduction is

provided

by

Dorothea

Berger, Jean

Paul

Friedrich

Richter

(New

York, 1972).

129






19TH

MUSIC

Paul's

most vocal

partisan

in

England,

charac-

terized

Jean

Paul's

prose

as "a

perfect

Indian

jungle

...

nothing

on all sides but

darkness,

dissonance,

confusion worse confounded. Then

the

style

of the whole

corresponds,

in

perplex-

ity

and

extravagance,

with that

of

the

parts....

That his manner of writing is singular, nay in

fact

a

wild,

complicated Arabesque,

no one can

deny."'14 Longfellow,

along

with Emerson

an

admirer

of

Jean Paul,

found

Jean

Paul's

strengths

to be

"his wild

imagination

and

his

playful-

ness.

He throws over

all

things

a

strange

and

magic

coloring.

You are startled at the boldness

and

beauty

of his

figures

and

illustrations,

which

are

scattered

everywhere

with

a

reckless

prodi-

gality."'15

In

France, too, Jean

Paul

had

a

strong

following,

both

for

the

grotesque,

dreamlike

quality

of some

of his

writings

and for his un-

bridled

imagination.

Philarete

Chasles,

an

early

champion of Jean Paul, wrote admiringly in

1833 of

Jean

Paul's

"extravagant

arabesques"

and the "carnival

of

thought

and

language"

found

in

his

work.16

Within

Jean

Paul's

novels,

each

typically

nearly

a thousand

pages

long,

scenes of

senti-

ment

and emotion

of

an

astonishing

extrava-

gance

are

commonplace.

The

beauties of

na-.

ture are

a

frequent

subject,

in

which

Jean

Paul

gives

free rein to

exuberant,

at times

incompre-

hensible

descriptions

teeming

with

fanciful

metaphor.

The results

are

not

easy

reading:

The first

morning

of summer

heaped

around him

the

bridal

finery

of the

earth,-it

lined the

fields

with

pearl-banks

of

dew,

and

flung

over the burrow-

ing

brooks

the

gold

tinsel

and

spangles

of the

de-

scending

flush of

morn,

and

hung upon

the bushes

the

bracelets

of

burning drops.-But

not

until it had

cloven

open

all

the

flowers,-sent

out all the

birds,

quivering

with

gladness

through

the

radiant

heav-

ens,-hid singing

voices

in

all

tree-tops,-not

till it

had sunk

the faded

moon behind the

earth,

and

set

up

the sun

like

a

god's

throne over

wreaths of clouds

just

burst nto

bloom,

and over

all

gardens

and around

all woods

had

hung

intertwined rainbows of

dew,-

and

not

till

the

blissful one

stammered in his

dream-

ing,

"All-gracious

One,

All-gracious

One,

appear

n

the

Elysium "-not

till then did the

slowly flowing

morning

wind

awaken

him

and usher him into the

thousand-voicedchoirs of creation, and set him to

reeling blindly

in

the

ringing,

blazing Elysium.-

And lo

at this

moment,

a

vast,

boundless

breath,

cool,

stirring, whispering,

overflowed the whole en-

kindled

Paradise,

and the little

flowers bowed

them-

selves down

silently,

and the

green

ears

soughing

undulated

together,

and

the

stately

trees trembled

and

murmured,-but

only

the

great

breast

of man

drank

in

streams the infinite

breath,

and

Emanuel's

heart

dissolved,

ere it could

say,

"This is

Thyself,

All-loving

One "'7

Scenes of the

night, prodigal

with

description

and rich with

emotion,

are additional

hallmarks

and

also

need

quotation

in

extenso to

give

their

flavor:

But when now her

place

of residence and

her

castle,

from which the silver rain of the moon ran

down,

gleamed

before their

eyes,-as

the moment

came

on,

darkerand

darker,

n

which the

parting (perhaps

the mask

of

death)

was to take this still

angel

from

his

side,-as

every

indifferent formula

of leave-tak-

ing

which he could

imagine

to himself lacerated

his

sick

heart,-as

he saw

how she leaned her head

on

her hand and on the

veil,

in

order,

unobserved,

to

remove or

check the first

signs

of

her

farewell,-

then did the whole cloud which had so long been

letting

fall

single

drops

into his

eyes,

rent

asunder,

rush down

upon

him

and flood

his heart.

....

Sud-

denly

he

stopped

....

He looked

with still

gushing

eyes

toward St.

Luna.....

Clotilda turned

round,

and

beheld a

colorless

face,

a browfull of

sorrows,

and a

quivering

lip,

and said

bashfully,

"Your

soul

is too

good

and too tender."

Ay,

then his over-full

heart

burst

in

twain.

Then

gushed

up

all the

depths

of

his

soul

in

which old

tears had been

so

long

accumulat-

ing,

and

lifted

up

from the roots

his

swimming

heart,

and he

sank down before

Clotilda,

radiant

with heav-

enly

love and

streaming

sorrow,-mantled

with the

flame of

virtue,-transfigured

by

the

moonlight,-

with his true, helpless breast,with his veiled eyes,-

and the

dissolving

voice could

only

utter the

words:

"Angel

of heaven the

heart breaks at

last

which

14"Jean

aul Friedrich

Richter,"

in The Works

of

Thomas

Carlyle(New York, 1897),XIV,13. Carlyle'sessay on Jean

Paul

(from

which

this

quotation

is

taken)

was

originally

published

in

the

Edinburgh

Review

in 1827.

'SHenry

Wadsworth

Longfellow,

Hyperion:

A Romance

(Philadelphia,

1892), p.

41.

16Philarete

Chasles,

Caracteres

et

paysages

(Paris,

1833),

pp.

47,

46.

It is

interesting

to note

in Chasles's

description

two

words-"arabesque"

and "carnival"-which

later

ap-

pear

as

titles of

piano compositions

by

Schumann.

'7JeanPaul,

Hesperus,

trans. Charles

T.

Brooks,

2 vols.

(Boston, 1865),II,

330.

130






loves thee

inexpressibly.

0,

long

indeed have

I

been

silent.

No,

thou noble

form,

never canst thou

pass

out of

my

soul.-O soul

from

heaven, why

have

thy

sufferings

and

thy goodness,

and

all

that thou

art,

inspired

me with an

eternal

love,

and with no

hope,

but with

an eternal sorrow?"'8

Jean Paul had studied piano as a youth and

was

particularly

fond of music. It often

plays

an

important

role

in

his

novels,

frequently

as a

means

of

transporting

his characters

beyond

themselves:

Clotilda without

any hesitating

vanity

consented to

sing.

But

for

Sebastian,

in

whom

all

tones

came

in

contact with

naked,

quivering

feelers,

and who

could

work

himself into sadness

at the

very

songs

of the

herdsmen

in

the

fields-this,

on such an

evening,

was too much for

his

heart;

under

cover of the

gen-

eral

musical

attentiveness,

he

had to steal out of the

door. ...

But

here,

under the

great night-heaven,

amidst

higher

drops,

his own can fall

unseen.

What

a

night

Here a

splendor

overwhelms

him,

which links

night

and

sky

and

earth all

together;

magic

Nature

rushes

with streams

into his

heart,

and

forciblyenlarges

it.

Overhead,

Luna fills the

floating

cloud-fleeces with

liquid

silver,

and

the

soaked

silver-wool

quivers

downward,

and

glittering

pearls

trickle

over smooth

foliage,

and are

caught

in

blossoms,

and the

heavenly

field

pearls

and

glimmers.

Through

this

Eden,

over

which a double snow-shower

of

sparks

and of

drops

played

and whirled

through

a

misty

rain

of

blossom-

fragrances,

and

wherein

Clotilda's

tones,

like

angels that had got lost, went flying about, now

sinking

and

now

soaring

through

this

magic-maze

[...]

He

glowed

through

his

whole

being,

and

night-

clouds

must cool

it. His

finger-tips

hung

down,

lightly

folded

in

one

another. Clotilda's

tones

dropped

now

like molten

silver-points

on

his

bosom,

now

they

flowed like

stray

echoes

from distant

groves

into this

still

garden

[.

.

.]

But

it

seemed to

him

as

if

his bosom

would

burst,

as

if

he should

be blest could

he at this

moment embrace

beloved

persons,

and crush

in

the

closeness of that embrace

in

a blissful

frenzy

his

bosom and his heart.

It was to

him as

if

he should be

over-blessed,

could he now

before some

being,

before

a mere shadow of the

mind,

pour

out all

his

blood,

his life, his being. It was to him as if he must scream

into

the

midst of

Clotilda's

tones,

and fold his

arms

around a

rock,

only

to stifle the

painful

yearning.'9

The

passion

and

sentiment

displayed

in

Jean

Paul's novels

appear

alongside

sinister and

fore-

boding elements,

including

the

violent

and

ex-

travagant

eroticism

evident at the

close of

the

last

quotation.

In

Titan,

the

villainous

Roquairol

assumes the

identity

of

his

best friend in

order

to seduce the

friend's

fianc6e.

He then

publicly

reveals his act

during

a

play

he has

written,

at

the

conclusion of which

he

kills himself on-

stage-the

audience

casually

dismisses it all as

an

entertaining part

of

the

drama. In

Siebenkids,

the

following

conversation

occurs

immediately

after the two main

characters,

Firmian and

Natalie,

have

confessed their love for one an-

other:

And Firmian

said,

"Are

you

as

happy

as

I?"

Involun-

tarily pressing,

not his

hand

but

his

arm,

she an-

swered, "No,

I

am

not;

for

upon

such a

night

there

must follow no

day,

but

something

much

more beau-

tiful,

something

richer,

which satisfies the

thirsty

heart,

and

stops

the

bleeding

one."

"And

what is

that?" he asked.

"Death,"

said

she, gently.20

What contributes to the

distinctiveness

of

Jean

Paul's

style-Carlyle's "perfect

Indian

jungle"-is

the

unpredictable juxtaposition

of

macabre,

often

frightening

events

alongside

scenes of bountiful sentiment and sublime emo-

tion. As an additional means of

disorienting

the

reader,

there is

Jean

Paul's

singular

sense of

humor.

He was a

great

admirer of Laurence

Sterne, through

whose fanciful

caprice

he

dis-

covered

a kindred

spirit.

From the

beginning

of

his

career, Jean

Paul's whimsical humor was

startlingly

evident.

The novel

Greenland

Law-

suits,

for

example,

has no association

either

with

Greenland

or lawsuits. Scattered

among

Jean

Paul's works

are

similar

curiosities,

in-

cluding

"The

Brewery

of

My

Gastric

Juice,"

"The

Little Considered

Danger

of

Winning

a

Lottery,"

"A Written Petition to

the Planet

Mercury,"

and

Biographical

Recreations Un-

der

the

Skull

of

a

Giantess.

Often

burlesque

and

mocking,

Jean

Paul's

sense of humor is prominently displayed in the

brief

summary

of contents with which

he

usu-

ally prefaced

each

chapter

of

his

novels, using

'8Ibid.,

,

102-03.

19Ibid., ,

118-20.

20Jean aul,

Flower,

Fruit,

and

Thorn

Pieces,

trans. Edward

Henry

Noel,

2 vols.

(Boston, 1863),

II,

164-65.

131






19TH

MUSIC

mystifyingly

clipped

and

dry

terms to describe

incidents both

significant

and

insignificant.

That for the first

chapter

of

Titan

is

typical:

Passage

o Isola Bella.-First

Day

of

Joy

n

the

Ti-

tan.-The

Pasquin-Idolater.-Integrity

f the

Empire

Eulogized.-Effervescence

of

Youth.-Luxury

of

Bleeding.-Recognitionf aFather.-Grotesque es-

tament.-German Predilection

or

Poems and the

Arts.-The

Father

of Death.-Ghost-Scene.-The

Bloody

Dream.-The

Swing

of

Fancy.21

This first

chapter

of Titan-called inciden-

tally,

a

"Jubilee"

by

Richter

(chapters

as such

rarely

exist

in

his

works)-is fifty-six pages long.

It is followed

by

what

should

have

preceded

t:

a

thirteen-page

"Introductory

Program

to Ti-

tan." After

nearly

two hundred

pages

of text

during

which a

plot

of uncommon

complexity

has been

presented,

Richter

introduces in the

"Sixth Jubilee" his "Ten Persecutions of the

Reader": ten

aphorisms

unrelated to the

tale,

the

intent

of which is to irritate

by delaying

the

unfolding

of the

plot.

It

is

this

juxtaposition

of

humor,

sentiment,

and the

bizarre,

together

with the

abrupt

and

unpredictable

movement

between

them,

that

makes

Jean

Paul's work so

disconcerting.

Coupled

with

his

numerous

asides and

footnotes,

a

dualistic structure often

results:

the

plot itself,

and the

author's

digres-

sions,

comments

on,

and reactions

to

it.

Throughout

1828 and

1829

Schumann

av-

idly

read

Jean

Paul:

novels, essays, treatises,

major

works and

works little

known,

including

Charlotte

Corday,

The

Introduction to Aes-

thetics,

The Invisible

Lodge,

Titan,

and The

Life of

the

Cheerful

Schoolmaster

Maria

Wutz,

among

others. Schumann

was

a sensitive and

impressionable

reader. His

diary

documented

the often

potent

effect

the

reading

of

Jean

Paul

had on

him.

18

January

1829:

"Bedtime read-

ing: Jean

Paul's Gianozzo

[Comic

Appendix

to

Titan]

and

his life and

death-poor sleep."22

5

January

1829:

"Bedtime

reading:

Diocha from

Nikolaus

Marggraf

The Comet]by Jean

Paul--

voluptuous sleep.""23Schumann's reaction to

Siebenkiis

bordered

on

frenzy:

"Siebenkdis s

frightful,

but

I

would

like to read

it a thousand

times more. . . .

[After

reading

it]

I

sat com-

pletely enraptured

among

the

trees and

I

heard

a

nightingale.

But

I

didn't

cry-and

I

struck out

with

my

hands

and

feet,

because

I

felt so

happy.

But on the

way

home

I

felt

as

if I

had taken

leave

of

my

senses.

I

was in

my right

mind,

but

I still

thought

I

was not.

I

was

actually

crazy."24

"If

everyone

in the

world were

to

read

Jean

Paul,"

Schumann

concluded,

"it

would become

a

better

place,

but also an

unhappier

one. Often

he

has

nearly

driven me

mad,

but

the rainbow

of

peace

and of

the human

spirit always

hovers

gently

above all

tears,

and

my

heart is won-

drously

exalted and

gently transfigured."25

At

times Schumann felt and

acted

as if he

were

living

in

a novel

by Jean

Paul. In

his

diary

he

wrote:

"[A

riend,

Moritz

Semmel,]

said

again

how much he would like to die. He was beside

himself,

and it

was like a

scene from

Jean

Paul."26

For

his

first

glimpse

of the Rhine

in

1829,

Schumann closed

his

eyes

at the

approach

of

the river in

order to

enjoy

the

magnificent

spectacle

all

at

once: "It

lay

before

me-calm,

peaceful,

stern,

and

proud,

like

an old

German

god,

and with

it the

magnificent,

green

Rheingau

with its mountains and

valleys

in

blossom

and the whole

paradise

of

vineyards."27

Schumann

was

imitating

Albano,

a character

in

Titan,

who acted

similarly

when about to

behold

the

beauty

of Isola Bella.

When later

that year Schumann visited Italy, the sight of

Isola Bella itself

was

inextricably

interwoven

with

thoughts

of Titan: "Gran

albergo

al

lago-

bliss-Albano

",

he

wrote

in

his

diary.28

As

Schumann's

interest in

Jean

Paulbecame

more

widely known-primarily

because

of fre-

quent

references

in the Neue

Zeitschrift

fir

21Jean

Paul,

Titan,

trans. Charles T.

Brooks,

2 vols.

(Bos-

ton, 1862), I,

1.

22Tagebiicher,

.

168.

23Ibid.,

.

170.

24Entry

f

29

May

1828,

Tagebiicher,

p.

83.

25Letter f

5

June

1828 to Gisbert

Rosen,

Briefe,

p.

5.

26Entry

f

July

1828,

Tagebicher,

p.

93.

27Letter

o

his mother

of

25

May

1829

in

Junge

Schumann,

p. 150.

28Entry

f 7

September

1829

in

Tagebiicher, p.

255.

See

also

the

sketch

for a letter

in Italian

(possibly

intended

for

his

brother

Eduard)

f

27

September

1829

where

Schumann

wrote

concerning

Isola Bella:

"My

young

Albano

of

Jean

Paul stood as

if alive before

me"

(Briefe

und Notizen

Rob-

ert

und

Clara

Schumanns,

ed.

Siegfried

Kross

[2nd

edn.

Bonn,

1982],pp.

23-24).

132






Musik-it

attracted

some attention.

In

1839

Stephen

Heller,

also a devoted admirer of

Jean

Paul, enthusiastically

wrote to

Schumann:

"Your

compositions

are

Jean

Paulish

Fruit,

Bloom,

and

Thorn

pieces,

and

Siebenkiis,

Schoppe-Leibgerber (Euseb-Florestan),

Lenette,

Pelzstiefel, etc. are found note for note in them.

And

because

I

love

Jean

Paul so

deeply,

I

love

you

as well.""29

To his

fianc6e,

Clara

Wieck,

Schumann

wrote

in

1838

expressing

his

delight

that she was

reading Flegeljahre.

He warned her

that on

first

reading

all

might

not be

clear:

"It

is

in

its

way

like

the

Bible."30 Within six

weeks

of

their

marriage

Schumann was

reading

Jean

Paul's

Life of

Fibel with

her so

that "for

the

first

time

she could

better understand"

Jean

Paul.31

It was

as

if

Schumann

felt that

everyone

should be

familiar with

Jean

Paul,

and he was

genuinely

astonished to learn that that was not the case.

Emilie

Steffen,

a friend of the

family

in the

1840s

and

a

piano

student of his

wife,

recalled

that "one

day

Schumann asked her if she were

studying

Shakespeare

and

Jean

Paul

diligently,

and

whether she knew

Coriolanus and

Sieben-

kias.

On

receiving

a

negative

answer,

he looked

at

her

with

such

surprise

and at the same

time

so

kindly

that

she

at once

began

to

read,

and

was

grateful

to

him

ever

after."32

The influence

of

Jean

Paul on

Schumann's

work has never

seriously

been

questioned--

primarily

because of

Schumann's

own

acknowl-

edgement

of it. Yet had Schumann himself not

pointed

it

out,

it

might

have

passed

unnoticed.

For several of the

principal stylistic

traits that

influenced Schumann are not

unique

to

Jean

Paul,

but are

characteristic

of German

literary

romanticism in

general.

The

literary

influence

on Schumann's

music is clear

enough.

But

the

specific

manner in which

Jean

Paul

affected

it

has been examined

only

cursorily.

Investigations

of

the association

between

the

work

of Schumann and

Jean

Paul

have

tended

to focus on the extent of Schumann's knowl-

edge

of

Jean

Paul's work

and the

programmatic

implications

of it on

his

music.33

Little

attempt

has

been

made

to

determine which

stylistic

characteristics

of

Jean

Paul could

have

been

adapted by

Schumann for

use in his

music-

but a

comparative

study

shows

this to

be

pre-

cisely

what

Schumann

was

referring

to

when

he

made reference to

Jean

Paul's influence.

There are four

distinctive traits in

the

music

composed by

Schumann

during

the

1830s that

appear

to owe much

to his

reading

of

Jean

Paul:

1. The propensityfor brief,almost aphoristicmusi-

cal statements.

The

essentially aphoristic

quality

of

some of

Schumann's

earlymusic,

perhaps

best seen

in

the concise

thematic

presentations (and

brief

sec-

tional

length)

of

his

opuses

1

and

2,

would at first

glance appear

o have little

resemblance to

the

pro-

lix

style

of

Jean

Paul.

But

despite Jean

Paul's

wordi-

ness,

much of

his work

reveals a fondness for

short,

pithy

statements,

whether within

the text

itself or

as asides in footnotes. This

was an

aspect

of

Jean

Paul's

style-at

times he

referred

to them as

"polymeters"-which

particularly

appealed

to

Schumann.

Schumann's

diary

and letters

frequently

contain

sentimental

and

somewhat

pretentious

apho-

risms in JeanPaul'smanner:"Feelingsare stars that

guide

us

by

the

pure

light

of heaven. But

reason is a

compass

that

guides

the

ship

even

further";

"How

often does

man

sigh

and

say:

'Oh how

empty

is the

present,

and how

beautiful was the

past.'

But he

does

not

consider that the

past

must

at one time

have been the

present."34

2. A

love for

mystery

and

concealed

meaning.

This

is a

notable characteristic of

JeanPaul,

and one fre-

quently

encountered

n

his

novels,

whether

it

be the

long-concealed

true

identity

of characters

(such

as

Albano

in

Titan)

or

mysterious

machinations

within

29Letter

of 18

September

1839,

Stephen Heller, Briefe

an

Robert

Schumann,

ed.

Ursula Kersten

(Frankfurt,

988), p.

142.

Siebenkis,

Schoppe, Leibgeber

(not

"Leibgerber"),

Lenette,

and

Pelzstiefel

are

characters

n

Siebenkids.

Heller

later wrote a work for solo

piano

inspired

by

Jean

Paul's

novel

(published

as

op.

82

and

usually

referred

o

by

the

French

title,

Nuits

blanches).

30Letter

of 20 March

1838,

Clara and Robert

Schumann,

Briefwechsel:

Kritische

Gesamtausgabe,

ed.

Eva

Weiss-

weiler,

2

vols.

(Frankfurt

m

Main, 1984,

1987),

I,

125.

3'Entry

for

25-31 October

1840,

Robert

Schumann,

Tagebiicher:

1836-1854,

ed. Gerd Nauhaus

(Leipzig,

1987),

p.

118.

32Frederick

Niecks,

Robert Schumann

(London,

1925), p.

250.

33See

Robert

L.

Jacobs,

"Schumannand

Jean Paul,"

Music

& Letters 30

(1949), 250-58;

Hans

K6tz,

Der

Einfluss Jean

Pauls

auf

Robert Schumann

(Weimar,

1933);

and Frauke

Otto,

Robert Schumann

als

Jean

Paul-Leser

(Frankfurt,

1984).

34Letter o

Flechsig

of

July

1827 and letter to his mother of

11

November

1829, Junge

Schumann,

pp. 109,

184.

133






the

plot (such

as that of the

Death's Head

Monk,

also

in

Titan).

In

Schumann's

compositions

this has

as one

counterpart,

the

enigmatic

Countess

Abegg

to

whom Schumann dedicated

his first work

and on

whose name the

ThBme

sur le nom

"Abegg"

varie

pour

le

pianoforte,

op.

1,

is based. The

countess did

not

exist,

but was associated in

Schumann's mind

with MetaAbegg (1810-34),a talentedpianistwhom

Schumann had met while

a

student

at the Univer-

sity

of

Heidelberg.

The full extent

of the

mystery

of

his

op.

1

Schumann never

explained,

but in

a friend's

album he wrote the

Abegg theme,

and

underneath t

the words:

"Je

ne suis

q'un songe" (I

am

but a

dream)35-a

quote

from

Jean

Paul's

Titan in which

Liana

obliquely

informs Albano that she is but

a

copy

of

Idoine,

the woman whom he

eventually

will

love. The influence of

Jean

Paul is

further reflected

in

Schumann's fondness for musical

puzzles,

such

as

spelling

words

with

pitches

(best

seen

in

the

Abegg

Variations and

in

the

enigmatic "Sphinxes"

in

Carnaval,

op. 9).

It is also evident

in

his "borrow-

ings" from Beethoven, ClaraWieck, and other com-

posers.

These

borrowings

often served as a

cryptic

form of communication.

3. The

quotation

of thematic material

from

previous

compositions

in new

ones.

This has been

perceived

as one of the most

baffling aspects

of Schumann's

early

musical

style.36

But

it

was

probably

a result of

his

reading

of

Jean

Paul.

There are two notable

in-

stances: the

quotation

of a theme from

Papillons

in

Carnaval

(its appearance

marked

by

Schumann

in

the

score)

and

the

quotation

of

the A-B-E-G-G theme

from

op.

1

in the

Intermezzi,

op.

4

(but

not

noted as

such in the

score).

Related

to these is the

quotation

of the "GrossvaterTanz" in ops. 2, 4, and 9 (indi-

cated

solely

in the score of

op.

9

as a "Theme

du

XVIIJme

Siecle").

Schumann

seems

to

be

taking

his

cue from

Jean

Paul

who,

in

totally

unrelated

novels,

commonly

inserts

off-handedreferences

to the

plots

and

characters of earlier

works-an

attempt,

as

it

likely

was

by

Schumann,

both to bind his ceuvre

together,

and,

by

means of Romantic

irony

to shat-

ter the

illusion of

reality

created

in

the work.

4. The

often

abrupt juxtaposition

of

grotesque

hu-

mor

with elements of

profound

sentiment.

What

Schumann

and

Jean

Paul

most

readily

share

is

a

distinct

sense of

humor.

Humor fas-

cinated

Jean

Paul;

a

substantial

part

of

his In-

troduction to

Aesthetics

(1804;

revised

edition,

1813)

was

devoted

to it. He

examined several

categories

of

humor-including

"The

Ridicu-

lous"

and

"Epic, Dramatic, and Lyric Humor,"

among

others-and

emphasized

the

importance

of

humor in

contemporary

works of art:

If

Friedrich

Schlegel

is

right

in

maintaining

that the

romantic is

not a

species

of

poetry,

but

that

poetry

must

always

be

romantic,

then the same

is even more

true of

the

comic;

all

comic

poetry

must become ro-

mantic, i.e.,

humorous. In their

burlesques,

dramas,

parodies,

and the

like,

the

students of the new aes-

thetic school show a

higher

comic world

spirit.37

Jean

Paul

explored

as well an

"annihilating

or infinite idea of

humor,"

describing

"humor

as inverse

sublimity."38

And he

pointed

out

that

such

instances of humor

were

present

in

music:

"Something

similar to the

audacity

of

annihilating humor,

an

expression

of scorn

for

the

world,

can be

perceived

in

a

good

deal of

music,

like that of

Haydn,

which

destroys

en-

tire tonal

sequences by introducing

an extrane-

ous

key

and

storms

alternately

between

pianis-

simo

and

fortissimo,

Presto

and Andante."39

Schumann

was

familiar with

Jean

Paul's

text;

his

diary

shows

he

was

reading

the

Aesthetics

in

September

1828.40

During

the

previous

month

Schumann's

diary

noted his interest

in

the

func-

tion

of

humor;

perhaps

it was this interest

that

prompted

the

reading

of

Jean

Paul's

book.

Schumann's observation was

written in

mid-

August:

"Without

a

text,

music

can

only

be

serious-definitely

not

humorous.

Only

con-

trast can create comic effects."41 The first

part

of

his

statement,

the

denial of humor

in

music

without

a

text,

is

at variance with

Jean

Paul.

Perhaps,

after

reading

the

Aesthetics,

Schumann

changed

his

mind

(Jean

Paul's

Haydn example

35Briefe,

.

492.

36Therehas been

speculation

that the

practice

was

"in-

tended

to underscore

the extramusical

similarities" be-

tween

particular

works. See R.

LarryTodd,

"On

Quotation

in

Schumann's

Music,"

in Schumann

and His

World,

ed.

R.

Larry

Todd

(Princeton,N.J.,

1994),

pp.

80-112.

37jean

Paul

Richter,

Horn of Oberon:

Jean

Paul Richter's

School

for

Aesthetics,

trans.

Margaret

R.

Hale

(Detroit,

1973),

p.

90. Hale's

work is

a

translation

of Richter's

Intro-

duction

to Aesthetics.

38Ibid., .

91.

39Ibid., .

93.

4?Entry

f 5

September

1828,

Tagebuicher,

.

124.

41Ibid.,

.

111.

134






could not have

been better

chosen;

few

com-

posers

have

used

humor

as

frequently

or

as

convincingly).

The

second

part

of

Schumann's

observation,

the association

between

contrast

and

humor,

is

in

agreement

with

Jean

Paul,

particularly

his reference to "humor

as

inverse

sublimity." In Schumann's music, humor is

often created

by contrast,

startling

and

dramatic.

Each of

these four

stylistic

characteristics

is

represented

n

Papillons

and

other

piano

compo-

sitions

of

the 1830s. But

in

Papillons

the

influ-

ence of

Jean

Paul

is

more

profound

and

not lim-

ited

just

to

elements

of

musical

style.

The

con-

ception

of the work itself can be traced

to him.

In

Schumann's

first

published work,

the

Abegg

Variations,

the

conventionality

of

the

virtuosic

piano pieces

that served

as models

remains

apparent.

With

Papillons

we enter

a

strikingly

original

world of

Schumann's

own

creation. As with the Abegg Variations, there

is

a

mystification

involved,

in

this instance

both with

the

title

and with

the

program.

On the

surface,

the title

Papillons

is innocu-

ous. It was a

common

practice

of

the

day

for

musical

compositions,

particularly

those

for

piano,

to contain in the

title

references to the

beauties and

charms of nature.

Papillons

is

a

completely undistinguished

title

in

that vein.42

At the time

Schumann's

Papillons

appeared,

two

other

piano pieces

with

nearly

identical

titles were

available: Heinrich

Marschner's Le

Papillon:

Caprice,

op.

18,

and a

very

popular

work by Daniel Steibelt, Les Papillons:

Rondeau,

op.

69.

Both are a

world

apart

from

Schumann's

Papillons,

yet

the cover of Schu-

mann's

work,

including

an

engraving

of

butter-

flies in

flight

and

the

dedication to

"Therese,

Rosalie et

Emilie"

(Schumann's

sisters-in-law),

would

seem to

suggest

that

Schumann's com-

position

was

just

another

musicopoetic depic-

tion

of

butterflies.

The

interpretation

has

lin-

gered

over the

years.

Writing

in

1925,

noted

Schumann

biographer

Frederick

Niecks

stated

that "it must

have been

for their

lightness

and

gracefulness

that Schumann

chose

the

title."43

And Ronald

Taylor,

in

his

recent

biography

of

Schumann, wrote concerning Papillons: "The

ready

associations

that the

butterfly

evokes-

delicacy,

brilliance

of

colour,

quick,

darting

movements

in the warmth and

freedom

of

sun-

lit nature-can

hardly

be other

than

those in

Schumann's own

mind."44

Yet,

although

the

musical

content

of

several

of

the

Papillons

(such

as the

second)

could

be

perceived

as

evoking

the

butterfly,

that

was

not Schumann's

intention.

To his

college

asso-

ciate Theodor

T6pken,

Schumann

sent

a

re-

view

of

Papillons

describing

it as an

accurate

depiction

of

butterflies;

but

"the

Papillons,"

Schumann informed T6pken, "are something

else

entirely.

In

my

next

letter,

you

will

receive

the

key

to their

comprehension."45

chumann's

explanation

to

T6pken,

if

sent,

has not

sur-

vived,

but he

gave

a

good

idea of his

intentions

in a letter

to another

friend,

Henriette

Voigt:

"A

bridge

to

the

Papillons:

because we

can

readily

imagine

the

psyche

floating

above

the

body

turned

to dust.-You

could learn

a

good

deal from

me about

this,

if

Jean

Paul had

not

explained

it better."46

Using

his

reading

of

Jean

Paul as a

basis,

it was Schumann's

intention

to

portray

he

butterfly

as a

symbol

of

transforma-

tion and attainment of the ideal.

Butterflies occur

in

virtually every

major

work of

Jean

Paul,

most

frequently

as

symbols

of the soul.

"Ah,

yes ,"

andas he sat

down,

he

frozen

chrysalis

of the winter

butterfly xpanded

n

joyous

upward

spirals,

"I will love

as never man

loved

before"47

(Flegeljahre).

If

Lenette,

even

out of

doors,

was a

soft,

white

butterfly

which

silently

flutteredand

hovered

over

the

bloomingpaths

of

Pelzstiefel,

n

her own

room,

to

which the Schulrath

ccompanied

er,

she be-

42Undistinguished

n that it

brings

to

mind dozens of other

pieces.

The

selection of a

title

(and

ts

programmatic

asso-

ciations)

helped

determine sales of a

composition.

The

composer

Moritz

Hauptmann

noted

with

displeasure

the

rise of

program

music and wrote of one

publisher

who

"wanted

me to

give my

sonatas an additional

title,

and

chaffingly

suggested

Charmes des Pianistes

Papillons,

etc.

He

thinks,

and

rightly too,

that another

name is an

abso-

lute

necessity,

for this is

the

age

of all that

is

characteris-

tic

[that is,

programmatic]

n

Art." Letter

of

14

January

1836,

Hauptmann,

Letters

of

a

Leipzig

Cantor,

trans.

and

ed. A. D.

Coleridge,

2

vols.

(New

York,

1972)

I,

148.

4Niecks,

Robert

Schumann,

p.

137.

"Ronald

Taylor,

Robert

Schumann:

His

Life

and Work

(New

York,

1982),p.

73.

45Letter

f

5

April 1833, Briefe,

p.

43.

46Letter

f 22

August 1834,

ibid.,

p.

54.

47Jean

aul,

Walt and

Vult,

II,

31.

I

have

altered the

trans-

lation to

reflect

the

original

more

accurately.

135






19TH

MUSIC

came

a Greek

Psyche

...

on this

evening,

alas she

seemed

to

be

nothing

but a

winged

soul,

with

its

transparent

wings

detached from the

clammy

body48

(Siebenkiis).

The

white coffin

was lifted

out,

gleaming

through

the

dusk

of

evening.

A

rose

dropping

to

pieces,

a

perforated

chrysalis,

a

butterfly

spreading

his

wings,

who had,as caterpillar, ust gnawedthrough it, were

painted

on the

coffin-chrysalis

and were

lowered

with their

two

archetypes

into the

earth49

The

In-

visible

Lodge).

Whence comes it

that these

bodily

wings

lift

us

like

spiritual

ones? .

..

Thy soul,

still

covered with

its

chrysalis

shell,

confounds as

yet

the horizon of

the

eye

with

the horizon

of the

heart,

and

outer

elements with

inner,

and

soars

through

the

physical

heaven after the

ideal one For he

same

power

which

in

the

presence

of

great

thoughts

lifts

our

head and

even our

body

and

expands

the

chest,

raises

the

body

also even with

the dark

yearning

after

greatness,

and

the

chrysalis

swells with

the

beating wings

of the

Psyche; yes, it must needs be, that by the same band

wherewith the soul draws

up

the

body,

the

body

also

can

lift

up

the

soul50

(Titan).

Like

Jean

Paul,

Schumann

associated the

metamorphosis

of the

butterfly

with

the at-

tainment of a

higher

or

purer

ideal.

But

in

a

musical

sense,

the

symbolic

butterfly

could be

transformed

literally.

Perhaps

that is

why

the

ascending

theme Schumann

introduced

in

the

first

piece

in

Papillons (mm.

1-2)

uses

all the

possible

letters associated

with the

musical

scale:

A, B,

C[#],

D, E,

F[#],

and G. Each

succeed-

ing

piece

can then be seen as

being

a transfor-

mation

(or

rearrangement)

of

the

pitches

of the

original

theme.

The same

kind

of

symbolism

is

found in

the

"Sphinxes"

of

Carnaval,

op.

9.

In

1812

Jean

Paul

published

an

essay, "Dimmerungsschmet-

terlinge

oder

Sphinxe"

(Twilight

Butterflies or

Sphinxes),s5 pondering

the German

response

to

Napol6on

in a whimsical and

often abstruse

manner.

The

text

makes reference to "three

species

of butterflies:

Day (Papilio), Evening

(Sphinx),

and

Nightbird

(Phalaena),"

associated

with

the

political

statements of

Jean

Paul.52

Jean

Paul's

differentiation

among

butterflies

was

not

limited to

this

political essay.

In

Flegeljahre

he

wrote:

"Vult

could

scarcely

wait

for the

twilight,

to

flutter

like a

twilight

but-

terfly out into the evening. Walt, also, counted

upon

the

evening

to act at

home,

but

in a

spiri-

tual

manner,

the

part

of

the

day,

the

twilight,

and the

night

butterfly."53

The idea

seems to

have first

occurred

to

Jean

Paul in The

Invis-

ible

Lodge:

Then

for

the

first

time he had

himself frizzled and

powdered,

n order

o flutter round as

a

day-butterfly

before all

toilet-mirrors;

on

the

flowery

head of the

Defaillante

(so

the

Minister's

Lady

was

called)

he

alighted.

Therehe let

himselfa second

time be frizzled

and be

plumed,

in

order

as

a

well-powdered

twilight-

and-night butterfly

to

sweep

round

among

the

counters and show-dishes and their counterparts.54

Similar

terminology

can

be found

in

Schumann's

diaries,

where the

words "Abend-

phalinen"

and

"Nachtphaline"

(evening

and

night butterflies) appear,

in

both instances

within

literary

works

created

by

Schumann in

the

style

of

Jean

Paul.55

Although

there is no

proof

that Schumann

was familiar

with

Jean

Paul's

"Diimmerungs-

schmetterlinge

oder

Sphinxe,"

his extensive

reading

of

Jean

Paul would make

it

likely.

If he

was,

he discovered an ideal

counterpart

to

the

papillons in op. 2-the evening papillon, Sphinx.

The

transformation

symbolized by

the butter-

fly

was

particularly appropriate

for

the

carnival

season

(Carnaval represents

not

merely

the

sea-

son,

but

a

masked

ball held

during

it;

Schumann

at

one

point

referred to the

pieces

in

Carnaval

as

"masked

dances").56

And like

the

papillons

in

op.

2,

the

Sphinxes

can be seen

as

providing

the musical basis for

op.

9.

If

Schumann

did

not

perceive

the

Sphinxes

in this

manner,

it is

a

remarkable coincidence that

he

placed

them

in

Carnaval

just

before the

ninth

piece-the

one

entitled

"Papillons."

48Jean

aul,

Flower,

Fruit,

and

ThornPieces,

II,

26-27.

49Jean

aul,

The Invisible

Lodge,

trans.

Charles

T. Brooks

(New

York,

1883), pp.

262-63.

s0Jean aul,

Titan,

II,

81.

s5The

essay

was

published

in book

form

in

1817.

52Jean

aul, Siimtliche

Werke,

vol.

XIV,

Politische

Schriften,

ed. Wilhelm von Schramm

(Weimar,1939), p.

252.

53Jean aul,

Walt

and

Vult,

II,

219

(trans.revised).

54Jean

aul,

The Invisible

Lodge,

p.

232.

s5Tagebiucher,

p. 91,

145.

56Letter

o

Moscheles of 23

August 1837,

Briefe,

p.

92.

136






Jean

Paul

supplied

not

only

the

title

for

Pap-

illons,

but

also,

according

to

Schumann,

the

program.

"Read as soon as

possible

the last

scene from

Jean

Paul's

Flegeliahre,"

Schumann

wrote

to his

family, "Papillons

is an

attempt

truly

to set to music this masked ball

[Larven-

tanz is the word used by Schumann, another

butterfly association].

Ask them

[his

sisters-in-

law,

to whom the work was

dedicated]

if

per-

haps

reflected

in

Papillons

there

is

not

some-

thing

of

Wina's

angelic love,

of

Walt's

poetic

soul,

and of Vult's mordant

temperament.""57

To

Ludwig

Rellstab,

Schumannwrote:

Bring

to

mind the last scene

in

Flegeljahre-the

masked ball-Walt-Vult-masks-Wina-Vult's

dancing-the exchange

f

masks-avowals-anger-

revelations-hurrying

ff-the

final

scene,

andthen

the brother

going

away.-Often

I turnedover the

last

page,

or the end seemedto me

actually

o be a

new

beginning-almost

unawareof whatI was do-

ing,

I

found

myself

at

the

piano,

and

thus one

Papil-

lon

after

another

was created.58

Jean

Paul's

Flegeljahre

was intended

by

its

author as a "comic

appendix"

to

Titan,59

but

remained

unfinished-a

major

reason

why

Schumann

felt that the

story

did

not

end,

but

had

as its

conclusion

a new

beginning.

The

novel

deals

with twin

brothers,

Walt

and

Vult,

long separated,

but

recently

reunited.

The

two

are

uncommonly

dissimilar. Walt is

poetic

by

nature, naive, thoughtful,

and

contemplative.

Vult is

passionate

and

intense,

sarcastic and

opinionated,

bearing

a

strong

resemblance

to

Hoffmann's

Johannes

Kreisler.

Like

Kreisler,

he

is

a

professional

musician

(a

flutist).

The

primary

plot

of

the novel

deals with

sixteen

outlandish

stipulations

that Walt

must

fulfill

in

order to

gain

possession

of

a

substantial

in-

heritance. His brother attempts to help him.

The

portion

of

the novel with which

Schumann

was concerned was

its conclusion: the love of

Walt

and

Vult

for Wina.

Wina

is

in

love

with

Walt,

but neither brotherhas

confessed

his love

for her. The

final scene

is

a masked

ball

at-

tended

by

all

three,

none of them

knowing

what costume the

other

will

be

wearing.

Walt

(dressed

as

a

coachman)

and

Wina

(dressed

as a

nun)

are the

first

to

recognize

one another and

dance

together.

Vult,

dressed as

a

female

per-

sonification

of

Hope,

has observed

them and

calls his

brother

away

to a

separateroom,

where

he identifies himself and asks Walt to exchange

costumes

with him.

Walt

agrees,

unaware of

his

brother's

plans

and of his love

for Wina.

The

exchange

completed,

Vult returns

to the

dance and

approaches

Wina. He

disguises

his

voice to imitate his

brother's,

and

Wina,

con-

vinced

that

she is

with

Walt,

confesses her love

for

him. His

hopes

dashed,

Vult

angrily

com-

pletes

his dance with Wina and vanishes. Re-

turning

home

after the

ball,

Walt

finds

Vult

pretending

to be

asleep.

But

Vult

has

deter-

mined to leave-not motivated

by

generosity,

but

by resignation.

He

has

already

written a

farewell letter to his brother.Inthe earlymorn-

ing

hours as

his

brother drifts off

to

sleep,

Vult

leaves,

playing

his flute as he

departs.

Walt

hears the

flute's

tones,

not

realizing

that

as the

sounds of the flute

diminish,

Vult is

vanishing

from

his life.60

57Letter f

17

April 1832, Junge

Schumann,

p.

228.

58Letter f 19

April 1832,

Robert

Schumann, Jugendbriefe,

ed. Clara

Schumann

(Leipzig,

1886),

pp.

167-68. In addi-

tion to

Rellstab,

Schumann

wrote to three other

editors,

explaining

his intentions:

GottfriedWilhelm

Fink

(27

April

1832;

according

to

the

Briefkonceptbuch [Wolfgang

Boetticher,

Robert Schumanns

Klavierwerke:

Teil

I:

Opp.

1-6

(Wilhelmshaven, 1976),

p. 50]);Ignaz

Castelli

(28

April

1832);

and Gottfried Weber

(11 January1834).

See

Briefe,

pp. 36,

46. And in a

manuscript

of

Papillons

now

in the

Bibliotheque

Nationale,

Schumann

placed

at the

head of it

the

final

sentence from

Flegeljahre:

"Noch

aus der ferne

hdrte Walt entziickt

die fliehenden

T6ne

reden:

denn er

merkte

nicht,

dass mit ihnen sein

Bruderentfliehe."

The

manuscript

has been

reproduced

n facsimile

in

the Wiener

Urtext edition

of

Papillons

(1973).

The sentences found on

the

final

page

of most current

editions

of

Papillons-"Das

gerausch

der

Faschingsnacht

verstummt.

Die Turmuhr

schlfgt

sechs"-were added after Schumann's

death and

have

no

specific

association

with

Flegeljahre.

59Schweikert, ean

Paul,

p.

45.

6oThemasked ball was an

extraordinarily

popular

form of

entertainment

during

the first half of the

nineteenth

cen-

tury.

It was beloved

by

writers both for its

symbolism

and

as

a

pretext

for

adding

complications

to the

plot.

As his

diaryattests,

Schumann was

no

stranger

o

masked balls.

He attended

a

number of them

with

obvious

enjoyment,

even

writing

a

poem

aboutone

(16 January 827,

Tagebiicher,

pp.

26-29).

Nor

is

Papillons

the

only

work of

Schumann

dealing

with balls:

there

are also the

Ballscenen,

op.

109,

the

Kinderball,

op.

130,

as

well as Carnaval.

Beyond

the

balls

themselves,

the

symbolic

nature

of

masks and

dis-

guises

fascinated

Schumann,

best

represented

perhaps

in

Carnaval and the

Faschingsschwank

aus

Wien,

op.

26.

137






19TH

MUSIC

As Schumann's letter

to

Rellstab

reveals,

Papillons

was

intended

as

a

musical

represen-

tation

of

the masked ball and

subsequent

events

in

Flegeljahre.

In his own

copy

of

Flegeljahre,

Schumann

amplified

on the

general

associa-

tion and indicated

in

the text eleven

specific

passages, assigning them

to the first ten of

the

twelve

pieces comprising Papillons. They

are

brief

excerpts,

several

only

consisting

of a sen-

tence.

The first

passage

describes Walt's de-

light

after

donning

his costume. "When

he left

his

chamber,

he

felt

like a hero

thirsting

for

glory,

who draws his sword for

the first

time;

he

besought

God that he

might

return

as

joy-

fully

as he

departed"61

Papillon

1).

The second

depicts

the confusion of

Walt's

entry

into the vibrant

ball room.

"Through

a

mistake

(characteristic

of

him)

he went first

into the

punch-room,

which

he

took for the

dancing-hall.... He looked in vain for Wina,

and

there was no

appearance

of Vult. . . . At

length,

he decided to examine the

adjoining

room filled with

people-a noisy,

burning

hall

packed

with

fluttering

forms,

an

aurora

borea-

lis filled with

figures following

one another

and

zigzagging"

(Papillon 2).

For

the

third

ex-

cerpt,

Schumann

selected

a

passage

that fo-

cused on a bizarre costume: a

gigantic

boot.

"He was fascinated

in

particular

by

a

giant

boot,

sliding

around and dressed

in

itself"

(Pap-

illon

3).

The fourth

excerpt

refers to the costumes of

Hope and the nun, Vult and Wina-their iden-

tities not

yet

revealed.

"Hope

turned

quickly

back.

A masked

shepherdess

drew

near,

and

a

simply

dressed

nun,

wearing

only

a

half-mask,

and with a

bouquet

of sweet-scented auricu-

las"

(Papillon 4).

The

fifth

describes the

meet-

ing

of Walt

and

Wina.

"He now stood a second

alone,

near the

calm maiden.

Charming

as

a

half-opened

bud beneath

its

protecting

sheath,

the half rose and

lily

of her face

was

disclosed

below the

protecting

mask.

Like

foreign

spirits

from two distant cosmic

evenings,

they

looked

at each other behind their dark

masks;

and as

stars are made visible

by

the

eclipse

of the

sun,

each soul saw

the other far

off"

(Papillon 5).

For the

next,

the

sixth,

excerpt,

Schumann de-

parted

rom the order

established

in

Flegeljahre.

It describes Walt's

delight

while

dancing

with

Wina,

but

instead of

associating

the

passage

with

Papillon

6,

Schumann

has identified it

with Papillon 8. "Like a youth who touches for

the

first time the hand of a

great,

reknowned

author,

so

he

lightly

touched-like the

wing

of

a

butterfly,

like auricula

powder-Wina's

back,

while

he

stood as faras

possible away

in order

to

gaze upon

her

life-breathing

face.

If

there be

a harvest dance

that

is in

itself a

harvest,

if

there

is

a

firewheel of

loving

enchantment,

Walt

the coachman had

both."

The

following

two marked

passages

refer to

the

exchange

of

costumes between Walt

and

Vult. The seventh relates Vult's emotional at-

tempt

to convince

his brother of the

exchange.

"He threw his mask away, and an arid and

desolate

feverheat was

revealed

in

his words

and

demeanor.

'If

thou has

ever borne

any

love

to

thy

brother,'

he

began

with a

dry

voice,

while

he threw

off his wreath and

loosened

his

dress,

'if

the

accomplishment

of the dearest wish of

his heart is of

any

value to thee-if

in

the

midst of

thy

joy

thou canst not listen

with

indifference whether he shall have the smallest

or the

greatest-in

short,

if thou will heed his

most

beseeching

prayer"' (Papillon 7).

The

eighth

refers to

Walt's hurried

agreement.

"'To

that I can

only reply:

With

joy.'

'Then

be

quick '

said Vult, without thanking him" (Papillon9).

The ninth

excerpt

is a comment

by

Vult in

which

he

humorously

refers to the

poor

danc-

ing ability

of

his brother. "Your

waltzing

hith-

erto-do

not take the information

ill-was

a

good

comic

imitation,

partly

horizontal

like

the

coachman,

partly

vertical

like the

miner"

(Papillon

6).

Two

concluding

passages

are re-

lated

by

Schumann to

Papillon

10: the

first

describes

Walt's concern that

the

change

of

costume

has been

noticed

by

others;

the sec-

ond focuses

on

aspects

of Vult's dance

with

Wina.

Walt entered the

room,

feeling

as

though

everyone

could see

the

exchange

of masks. Some

ladies re-

marked

that

Hope

now had blonde

hair behind

the

flowers instead

of the former dark. Walt's

step

was

also

smaller,

and

more

feminine,

which

was more

61The translations of this and the

following

Flegeljahre

passages

are

adapted

from

JeanPaul,

Walt

and

Vult,

II,

285-95.

138






appropriate

o

Hope's.

But he

soon

forgot

himself,

the

ball,

and

everything

round

im,

when

he coach-

manVult without hesitation edWina o the headof

the

Anglaise;

and

then,

to the astonishmentof his

partner,

e

designed

n

artistlike ketch

of

the

dance,

and,

like

some

painters,began

to

paint

it

with

his

feet-only

with

larger,

decorative trokes.

Towards he endof the dance,Vult, in the hur-

ried

passing

of

hands,

in the

crossing,

n

quickly

leading

back

and

forth,

suffered

many

Polish

words,

as a breath f

speech,

o

escape

him-like butterflies

wandering

ver the sea from

a

remote

sland,

this

language

ounded o Wina

ike

the

rare

ong

of the

lark n late summer.

The

passages

marked

by

Schumann do not

include all of

significance

to

the

plot.

Con-

spicuous by

their

absence are Wina's avowal of

love and Vult's reaction.

But those selected

offer

opportunity

for musical

contrast,

as

well

as a

way

to

represent

the different

tempera-

ments of the three

primary

characters, Walt,

Vult,

and Wina-more

particularly,

those traits

Schumann

described

to his

family:

"Wina's an-

gelic

love,

Walt's

poetic

soul,

and

Vult's mor-

dant

temperament."

Papillons,

op.

2 Marked

Passages

in

Flegeljahre

Papillon

1 1.

Walt's

delight

Papillon

2

2.

Entry

into the ball room

Papillon

3 3. The

gigantic

boot

Papillon

4

4.

Hope

and the

nun

(Vult

and

Wina)

Papillon

5

5.

Meeting

of Walt and

Wina

Papillon

8 6. Walt dances with

Wina

Papillon

7

7. Vult discusses the costume

exchange

Papillon

9

8. Walt

agrees

Papillon

6 9. Vult mocks

Walt's

dancing

Papillon

10

10.

Walt's concern

over the cos-

tume

exchange

Vult Danceswith Wina

Although

Flegeljahre

provided

the source of

inspiration

for

Papillons,

Schumann had no

in-

tention of

adhering

to

the order of

Jean

Paul's

plot

if

it meant

sacrificing

the intended

musi-

cal effect. Papillon 6 has been placed where it

can offer humorous contrast

(in

the manner

of

Jean

Paul)

to the

intensity

of the fifth and sev-

enth

pieces

of the set.

Similarly, Papillon

7-

Vult's

attempt

to convince his brother to

change

costumes

with

him-logically

would be fol-

lowed

by

the

music

associated

with

the

pas-

sage

describing

Walt's

assent.

But,

instead,

the

eighth Papillon

refers to

Walt's

dance with

Wina,

and

the ninth

Papillon

is

the one

associ-

ated with

Walt's

assent to

the

exchange. By

switching

their

order,

Schumann

has been

able

to insert a

lively

dance

(Papillon 8)

between

two

character

pieces-producing

the

abrupt

con-

trast he

often desired.

In

writing

to

Rellstab,

Schumann

informed

him

that

Papillons

had as

its basis

not

just

the

masked

ball,

but

the conclusion of

the

novel as

well: "The final

scene,

and

then

the brother

going away."

It is

significant

that

Schumann

marked

no

passages

in

his

copy

of

Flegeljahre

from these

concluding

scenes-that

is,

the

events that occur after the ball.

On the

surface,

this

would

appear

to contradict his

statement

to

Rellstab,

and in fact discussions

of Schu-

mann's Papillons generally fail to find specific

references to the novel's

conclusion. As Niecks

wrote: "Schumann had

something

in his

mind,

struggled

hard

to

express

it,

but failed."62

The

music

in

Papillons

was

composed

over

a

period

of several

years,

during

which

time

Schumann made no

reference to

a

program

for

it.

Determining

what

came

first,

the music or

the

program,

sheds

light

on

Schumann's

de-

sign.

Several

pieces

were

composed during

his

residency

in

Heidelberg

(numbers

1,

5,

6,

and

7).63

But

Papillons

5

and

11

are based on me-

lodic material from three

of

Schumann's

Polonaises for fourhands (WoO20; numbers 7,

and

4

and

3,

respectively),

which were com-

posed

in

1828. Schumann

quite

likely

had read

Flegeljahre by

that

time,

but there is

no

evi-

dence

that he

intended a

composition

based on

it. Several

years

after the

publication

of

Papil-

ions,

Schumann

provided

additional

insight

to

Henriette

Voigt:

"Please read the last

chapter

of

Flegeljahre,

where

everything

stands

in

black

and

white,

including

the

giant

boot

in

f#

minor.

...

Let me mention that I have set

[untergelegt]

the text to

music,

not the reverse

....

Only

the

62Niecks,

Robert

Schumann,

p.

136.

63According

o

Schumann;

see

Briefe,

p.

536.

Work was

completed

in

two

primary stages

in

April

1830 and

in

January1831;

numbers

1, 6,

7,

and

9

appear

as waltzes in

an

early

sketchbook

(Mayeda,

Schumanns

Weg

zur

Symphonie, p. 86).

139






19TH

MUSIC

last,

which

by playful

chance took the form of

an answer to the

first,

was

inspired

by

Jean

Paul. "64

Schumann seems to be

saying

that

Flegeljahre

provided

the direct

inspiration

only

for

the last

piece

in

Papillons (more

accurately,

Papillons

11 and 12, which are related). How, then, can

the

annotations

in

Schumann's

copy

of

Flegeljahre,

which

make no reference o the last

Papillon,

be

explained?

Although

he

chose

to

relate to Rellstab a

raptus

in

which "one

Papil-

lon after another was

created,"

the creation of

Papillons

could not have been

spontaneous.

Quite

likely inspired

by

his

reading

of the

final scenes

in

Flegeljahre,

Schumann

composed

what would become

the

conclusion

(the

elev-

enth and twelfth

pieces)

for

Papillons.65

He then

thought

of

expanding

what he had

composed,

and of

creating

a

larger

work,

using

the ball

in

Flegeljahre as its basis. Some of the pieces were

then

newly

composed

for the

occasion,

but

Schumann had been

composing

dance

music

for

years,

and little

of it had been

published.

What better

place

to use

it

than

in a

musical

depiction

of a

masked ball? At some

point,

reference was made

to

his

copy

of

Flegeljahre,

and

passages

were

marked suitable both for his

intentions and for the

music,

some of which

had

already

been created.

If

Schumann followed

this

approach,

hat

would

explain

why

the

final

two

pieces

have

no

corresponding passages

marked

in

his text. There

was no need for

him

to mark the

appropriatepassages;

they

had

pro-

vided the

inspiration

for

the

work and

Schumann

already

knew to

what scenes

they

referred:

he events

after

the masked

ball.66

The music

seems

to

support

this

interpreta-

tion.

The eleventh

and twelfth

Papillons

are

quite

distinct

from the others.

They

are the

two

longest,

the eleventh

in

many

ways setting

the scene for

the

finale. Both

are

in D

major

(the

only

two

Papillons

following

one another

in

the same

key),

and the

sixth and

seventh

measures

of the

eleventh are

closely

related to

the

primary

theme

of the

twelfth.

According

to

the

passage

marked

by

Schumann,

the

previous

Papillon, the tenth, refers to aspects of Vult's

dance with Wina.

Later

during

this dance

(in

Flegeljahre

an

Anglaise)

Vult

elicits from Wina

a confession of

love-the most

crucial

act in

the

scene,

if not in

the

entire novel.

It

is hardto

believe that Schumann would

omit it from his

music.

In

fact,

the eleventh

Papillon

probably

refers to

that

episode.

It

is

also

a

dance,

but a

Polonaise,

not an

Anglaise.

By creating

a

Polonaise,

Schumann has

revealed his

prefer-

ence for a

poetic

over

a

literal

interpretation,

for

during

the

Anglaise,

Vult

and Wina

speak

in Polish-her native

language-and

it is in

Polish that Wina makes her avowal.

Schumann's

correspondence

can be seen as

providing

the

key

to his

understanding

and

placement

of the marked

passages

in

Flegeljahre.

They

in

turn

elucidate with

sur-

prising

clarity

his

programmatic

intentions.

After

a

brief

ntroduction,

the first

piece,

a short

waltz in

D

major,

ntroduces the

primary

heme

of the

work,

which here refers to Walt and his

heroic sense

(although

in

an

insightful

reflec-

tion of

Walt's

temperament,

his heroism

is ren-

dered

"dolce").

The next

Papillon, only

twelve

measures

long,

was

intended

to describe

Walt's

confusion as he entered the ball. In the music

the

abrupt change

to

rapid

sixteenth

notes

(Prestissimo),

followed

by

the

ungainly

hesi-

tancy

created

by

the numerous sixteenth-note

rests are

an

apt

counterpart.

For

the

third

Papil-

Ion

Schumann selected

a

peculiar

image:

the

"giant

boot,

sliding

around

and dressed

in

it-

self." Schumann's

wonderful

attempt

at illus-

tration

begins

with

ponderous

octaves, cleverly

leading

to a brief canon

("dressed

n

itself").

Similar

discoveries can

be made

by

examin-

ing

each

of

the

pieces.

The fourth consists

of

two strongly contrasting melodic ideas, which

could

have been intended

to

represent

the

cos-

tumes

(and characters)

of

Hope

and the

nun.

The dance

in number five is

interrupted

by

a

series of diminished-seventh

chords

leading

to

an

unusually

intense chromatic

passage

(mm.

13-16),

which seems

to be associated with

the

64Letter of 22

August

1834,

Julius Gensel,

"Robert

Schumanns

Briefwechsel

mit

Henriette

Voigt,"

Die

Grenzboten

(1892),

274.

61Mayeda Schumanns Weg

zur

Symphonie, pp. 85-126)

offers

an

interpretation

with similarities

to

my

own.

I

reached

my

conclusions

concerning

the

interpretation

of

Papillons prior

to

reading

Mayeda's;

he resemblances be-

tween his view

and mine confirm

that we are

on the

right

track.

66In

act,

Schumann's

sketchbooks

contain a

plan

of

Papil-

ions

in

which reference

s made

to

only

ten

pieces. Dieter,

KlavierwerkRobert

Schumanns,

pp.

190,

511.

140






recognition

of Walt

and

Wina,

at which

point

the dance is

resumed-but

with

even

greater

intensity

(octave

displacement

n

the

right

hand).

Vult's

mockery

of his brother's

dancing

is

the

focus of the sixth

Papillon:

ungainly,

stum-

bling

sforzandos and

syncopation

(mm.

1-3;

15-17;

32-36)

frame

rigid,

conventional dance

tunes. Innumber

seven,

a

"semplice,"

Eusebius-

like

melody (mm. 1-8)

representative

of

Walt is

followed for

the remainder

of the

piece by

in-

sistent,

repetitive

dotted

rhythms

(Vult's

insis-

tent

plea

to his brother to

change

costumes).

The

straightforward

dance

of

the

eighth

Pap-

illon

(Walt

dancing

with

Wina)

is followed

by

the

ninth's hurried

octaves and brief

snippets

of

incessant

imitation,

probably

intended to

represent

Walt's assent to the costume

exchange

and

the hurried

exchange

itself.

The

tenth

Pap-

illon is in two distinct sections.

The first

(mm.

1-24) sets the scene for the dance that is sup-

posed

to

follow;

its

initial

part

(mm.

1-16;

Vivo)

could

be intended

as a musical

counterpart

of

Walt's

lively

concern

over the

exchange

of

cos-

tume. The

theme

associated

with

Walt's

danc-

ing

then

reappears

mm. 17-24;

also

in

Papillon

6,

mm.

7-10), reminding

us

that Vult now

ap-

pears disguised

as

Walt. Most of the remainder

of

this

Papillon

presents

a

placid

waltzlike

melody (Wina),

twice

interrupted (mm.

45-48;

65-69) by

more

lively

and

disjunct

thematic

material

(Vult).

The dramatic

change

in

register

and

tonality

in the middle of the eleventh Papillon (m. 32)

would

appear

to be a musical

counterpart

to

Wina's avowal

of

love

for

Walt.

The final

Papil-

ion

describes both Vult's reaction

and

his de-

parture.

The

piece

begins

by

quoting

the

"Grossvater

Tanz,"

a somewhat banal

melody,

square

and

predictable,

and

strikingly

different

from

Schumann's

own

music.

Although

it was

several hundred

years

old at the

time

Schumann

used

it,

the "Grossvater

Tanz,"

both text

and

music,

remained

well known. Schubert used

the tune in the fifth of his Letzten

Walzer,

op.

127,

and

in

1825

Spohr

wrote a Festmarsch

employing

it.67

Schumann used the theme on

several

other

occasions,

most

notably

in

Carnaval.

Traditionally,

the

"Grossvater

Tanz" was

performed

near

the

conclusion

of

wedding

fes-

tivities.

The

text

describes

a

grandmother

and

grandfather

transformed

and

rejuvenated

by

dance into a

youthful

bride and

groom-trans-

formed,

that

is,

until the

arrival

of

the

next

day.

Schumann has

quoted

the

melody

as a

commentary

(much

in

the

sardonic,

self-refle:-

tive manner of

Vult)

on

Vult's

hopeless pre-

dicament. Like

the

grandfather,

Vult's wishful

transformation to a

youthful

bridegroom

s dis-

placed

by

his encounter with

reality:

Wina's

true

feelings.

After the

"Grossvater"

melody

is

stated at

the

beginning

of the

finale,

the

melody

from

the first

Papillon returns;

this time

the mask

represents

Walt's twin

brother.

"By playful

chance," as he put it in his letter to Henriette

Voigt,

Schumann discovered that

the two melo-

dies

were

compatible

and

combined them. As

the clock

strikes

the

early morning

hour in

the

upperregister

of the

piano,

both the

"Grossvater

Tanz" and the

Papillon

theme

become

quieter,

and

during

the diminuendo the

melody repre-

senting

Vult's flute

playing

becomes

frag-

mented.

Silence

(one

measure

of

notated

rest,

with a

fermata)

marks the

departure

of

Vult,

followed

by

a

brief,

quiet

codetta,

concluding

pianissimo.

Schumann's

program

s

unquestionably

com-

plex. Butwith knowledgeof it, Papillons makes

greater

sense. Prior to

its

publication,

dances

were

published

in

sets,

often of

a dozen.

Typi-

cally they

were

light,

at

their best

unpreten-

tious,

and intended

as

simple

entertainment.

No

program

was

associated with

them.

Papil-

ions

is

a mixture

of

dances

and

short,

character

pieces.

Anyone

purchasing

the set at the time

could

only

have

been

perplexed

by

its

format.

But the

program

associated with it renders

Pap-

illons

more

than

just

a

conglomeration

of

charming

and,

at

times,

bizarre short

pieces.

It

was

no

doubt for that reason

that

Schumann so

broadly

hinted at its

program

to friends and

critics.

It is unfortunate that he never revealed the

program

in more

detail,

or drew attention to the

pertinent passages

from

Flegeljahre.

He

was

always

reluctant

to admit the

presence

of

pro-

67The

"GrossvaterTanz"

is discussed

in

Max

Friedlinder,

Das Deutsche Lied

im

18.

Jahrhundert:

Quellen

und

Studien,

2

vols.

(Stuttgart, 1902), II,

354-57.

141






19TH

MUSIC

grams

in his

music and

may

have

feared the

ridicule that

one as elaborate

as this

might

have

provoked.68

But

he also seemed to believe

that

anyone

familiar with

Jean

Paul would

have

little

problem

understanding

his intentions.

"I

have

a

question,"

Schumann

wrote to Henriette

Voigt,

"Aren't he

Papillons

self-evident

to

you?

I

am interested

in

learning

if

they

are."'69

Schumann

expected

a

great

deal from his friends.

In

his

diary

in

May

1832,

Schumann ex-

pressed

interest

in

creating

a

second collection

of

Papillons,

an

idea he returned

to

as late as

June

1833

in

a

letter

to

the

publisher

Friedrich

Kistner.70

But he also

must have realized that

Papillons

was

not

the

kind

of

composition

that

would boost

his career as

a

piano

virtuoso.

Its

format was too

unusual,

and from

a

technical

point

of view it offered insufficient

virtuosity.

Critics,

even those well

intentioned,

misun-

derstoodthe work. The most flatteringreview

was that

of

Ignaz Seyfried

in the 28

June

1832

issue

of the

Allgemeine

musikalischer

Anzeiger.

Seyfried

described

Papillons

as

"mostly

play-

ful, fluttering,

and

coquettish-the

mirrorim-

age

of

the

butterfly"

(it

was this review

that

Schumann had

singled

out as

having

missed

the

point

of his

composition)."1

Seyfried

noted

as

well the

"original

and bizarre"

elements in

the

work,

a remark intended

as a

compliment.

In

a similar

manner,

Gottfried

Weber

n

Ciicilie

and Ernst

Ortlepp

in

Der Komet

praised

the

new and

original

in Schumann's

music.72

But

those distinctivecharacteristicswere oftenwhat

repelled

others. While

creating Papillons,

Schumann

had felt

that a "certain

indepen-

dence"

had become

manifest, but,

he

noted,

that same

independence

"mostly

bewildered

the critics."73

Schumann

seemed

particularly

nterested

in

winning

over

Ludwig

Rellstab,

the editor of

Iris;

conservative

in

taste,

Rellstab

had a

repu-

tation

for

integrity, independence,

and

modest

discernment. Yet

despite

(or

perhaps

because

of)

his

correspondence

with

Schumann,

Rellstab

found

little

to

praise

in his

music.

Papillons

and

its

program

struck him as

unnecessary

and

pretentious,

and he made fun of

the

letters/

pitches

basis

of

the

Abegg

Variations.

By

the

time of Schumann's

Intermezzi,

op.

4,

he had

had

enough:

"We believe and in all frankness

tell

[the composer]

that he

is

following

the

completely wrong path.

... This

type

of modu-

lation,

these

chopped-up

rhythms

. .

.

all

do

violence

to the

authority

of Nature.... It is

our

wish that the

composer

not take offense

at

what we have

written,

but rather become

re-

solved to strike out on

another

path."74

Schumann had clearly hoped for the supportof

Rellstab and could

only

have been disheart-

ened

by

his

response.

His

concern

led him to

write

to his

mother,

suspecting

that

she would

learn of the review:

"Opposition

makes

one

stronger.

Every

man should follow his

own

path.

...

Certainly my

first

thought

when

I

read the

review was that

it would

distress

you."s75

Perplexity appears

to

have

been a

not un-

common

reaction to

Papillons,

even

among

those familiar with Schumann. After

a

private

performance

with Schumann's

piano

teacher

(Friedrich

Wieck), composition

teacher

(HeinrichDorn),andfriendspresent,Schumann

noted

in his

diary

that

"[they]

looked

at one

another

shocked,

andwere unable to

grasp

the

rapid

changes."76

In

creating

Papillons,

Schumann's

intention

had

been

to

produce

a

musical

composition

with

an

optional

level

of

perception.

The music became

intimately

as-

sociated in

his mind with

specific

scenes

from

Flegeljahre.

Yet no

attempt

was

made

to

in-

form the

public

of

the

program.

Even

close

friends

were

only

provided

with

a sketch

and

an

intimation.

The title itself

was another

inti-

mation,

intended

by

Schumann to

point

the

68See,

for

example,

Schumann's

repeated

assertion to

Moscheles

that for

Carnaval

the titles were selected

only

after the music had

been

completed

(letters

of 23

August

and22

September

1837,

Briefe,

pp.

92, 102).

69Gensel,

"RobertSchumanns

Briefwechsel,"

p.

274.

70Tagebiicher, .

401,

and

letter of 6

June

1833,

Briefe,

p.

415. In fact, the title pageof the first edition describesthe

set

as

"Liv[re]

."

71Quoted

n

Tagebucher,p.

427.

72See

Georg

Eismann,

RobertSchumann:

Ein

Quellenwerk

iber

sein

Leben

und

Schaffen,

2

vols.

(Leipzig,

1956),

I,

82-83.

73Letter

o his

mother of

3

May

1832, Junge

Schumann,

p.

230.

74Robert

Schumann,

Gesammelte

Schriften

uiber

Musik

und Musiker,

ed. Martin

Kreisig,

2

vols.

(Leipzig,

1914), II,

451.

75Letter

f 19March

1834, Junge

Schumann,

p.

248.

76Entry

of 28

May 1832,

Tagebucher,

p.

399.

142






way

to

Jean

Paul

in

whose

works the

symbol

of

the

butterfly

is

so

prominent.

Schumann

may

have felt

as well that

the

symbol

was

particu-

larly appropriate

for

Flegeljahre,

a

Bildungs-

roman that

emphasizes

the

spiritual

nature of

its main characters and documents their

pur-

suit of the ideal.

Nevertheless,

Schumann's

reti-

cence makes clear that

Papillons

was

not

in-

tended for a wide

public,

but

rather for a

select

few-those,

like

Stephen

Heller,

who could dis-

cover

Jean

Paul "note for note"

in

Schumann's

music.

Perhaps

there were others whom

Schumann felt

might grasp

at least his

general

intentions

or who would search for the music's

meaning prompted

by

the

correspondence

be-

tween

the

title and the

music,

or

by

the dis-

tinctive nature of the music itself.

What seems

particularly revealing

about

Schumann's

approach

was his

enjoyment

of it.

The mystification and the playfulness associ-

ated

with it were one measure of the

original-

ity

he

so

actively sought

as

a

composer.

"Never

refer

to me

again,"

Schumann

wrote to Clara

Wieck

in

1839

in

a unusual burst of

anger,

"as

a

second

Jean

Paul

or Beethoven. For the

length

of

a second

I

could

truly

hate

you.

I

am

willing

to be ten times less than these

others,

and

only

something

to

myself.

"77

Although

no

additional,

elaborate,

Jean

Paul-inspired

programs

are

known to

exist

in

Schumann's

music,

he

con-

tinued

during

the

1830s to

produce

in

works

like

Carnaval

compositions

very

much in

the

manner

of

Papillons.

The bewildered

reaction to

Papillons

that

Schumann

noted

among

his

friends

may

have

contained for him

a certain

mark of

distinc-

tion. But

by

the

1840s,

with

marriage

and con-

cern over a

stable

income,

he

was

anxious to

gain

broad

recognition

and

establish a

reputa-

tion

as a

composer-not

in

the

literary

tradi-

tion

exemplified by

Jean

Paul,

but in

the

musi-

cal tradition of

Beethoven and

Schubert. He

now

described

his

early compositions

as "too

short

and

rhapsodic,"

probably

with

Papillons

particularly

n

mind.78

nstead of

piano compo-

sitions

in

the

style

of

Papillons,

Schumann

pro-

duced

symphonies,

string quartets,

an

oratorio,

an opera, and Hausmusik. "At one time,"

Schumann

wrote

shortly

after

noting

his need

for

additional

income,

"it made

little differ-

ence to me

whether

people

concerned them-

selves with

my compositions

or

not. But with

a

wife and

children,

it's a different matter.

One

must think of the

future,

to

see

the

fruits

of

one's labors-not

the

artistic,

but

the

prosaic."79

77Letter

f 25

January

1839,

Clara and

Robert

Schumann,

Briefwechsel,

II,

368.

78Quoted

n

Wolfgang

Boetticher,

Robert Schumann in

seinen

Schriften

und

Briefen(Berlin,1942),

p.

23.

79Letter

o

Kossmaly

of 5

May 1843, Briefe,

p.

227.

143

explicating jean paul robert schumann's program for papillons, op. 2

Documents