Analysis for Pianists, #3: Schumann's Aufschwung

When I read a book, I read the thoughts of the author. The thoughts are expressed in words; the words are expressed in letters.

In a great performance, I hear the composer’s thoughts. The thoughts are expressed in harmonies; the harmonies are expressed in notes.

A piece may contain a million notes; to read the composer’s thoughts, perceive the harmonies.

A good way to begin is to make a harmonic reduction.

Below is my reduction of Schumann’s Aufschwung, the second of his Phantasiestücke, op. 12. It includes all the harmonies but none of the figuration or non-harmonic tones. Notes of the harmony which are passing tones, neighbour tones, or incomplete neighbours are marked P, N, or IN. 

“Aufschwung” means “Soaring up”; the piece has two themes — 

the heaviness of bars 1 — 4, with its sighing Db to C (scale degree 6 to scale degree 5 in minor traditionally indicates tragedy) 

and the weightlessness of bars 5 — 8, with its motion up a third, C — Db — Eb, and cadence on III. 

(An important aspect of this weightlessness is that, in bars 1 — 8, the tonic, F minor, never appears in root position.)

The opening sound, Bb and Db, is odd in that there is no fifth (the F in parentheses is only in our minds, remembered from the end of the last piece). What is odd is held in our memory; we want to explore it. Schumann explores each note in turn — first Db, the tonic of the B section (measures 17 — 40), then Bb, the tonic of the C section (measures 51 — 112). 

Both the B and C sections are permeated with the rising third of measures 5 — 8. 

In measures 16 — 18, the beginning of the B section, the third is in the soprano, F — Gb — Ab; this third is then inverted to make a descending 6th (measures 20 — 24, F to Ab). 

In measures 51 — 58, the beginning of the C section, these ideas are worked out with especial beauty: 

the soprano begins with a descending sixth, Bb to F (measures 51 to 53), while the tenor rises a third from D to F and descends again. The tenor’s rising third is doubled in the bass, a tenth lower. As Heinrich Schenker wrote, passing tones like to move in pairs.

The overall harmony of measures 51 — 54 is Bb major; in measures 55 — 57, it is a dominant seventh on F. The bass arpeggiates this dominant seventh chord, from Eb to F, in a series of descending thirds.

Meanwhile, the tenor moves from F to its upper neighbor, G (measure 56) and back to F (measure 57). 

The soprano moves from an implied F in measure 55 (expected as a resolution of the soprano’s G in measure 54) through an Eb in measure 56, to D in measure 58. (I have connected the F, Eb, and D with a beam to show this descending third.)

The combination of the soprano’s Eb and the tenor’s G in measure 56 creates, within the overall harmony of F, a local harmony of C minor. This is a very poignant moment.

A rising third, C — D — Eb, leads to the soprano’s Eb (measures 55 and 56); it is doubled in the alto, A — B natural — C. From the Eb, a passing E natural leads to F; this is harmonised by a neighbour motion, C — Db — C, in the alto, which, together with Bb in the bass, creates a harmony of the diminished seventh. 

In measures 59 — 62, the basic progression is Bb major — G major — C minor. The Bb harmony is expanded with rising thirds in soprano and bass (soprano, D — Eb — F in measures 59 — 61, bass, Bb — C — D in the same measures). Again, poignantly, when the upper notes of the rising third arrive in measure 61, the local harmony is no longer Bb, but D minor. 

In Schumann, the basic ideas are very simple, but expressed in poetic ways. When hear the underlying simplicity, the poetry is even more moving.

Thank you for reading! For the other essays in this series, please visit my website:

https://ishmaelwallace.com/analysis-for-pianists/

I also write a weekly newsletter on music and philosophy -- it's free:

https://ishmaelwallace.ck.page/1c7fda45fe