Schumann, Robert, (1810-1856)

the leaf containing: on the recto, the sketch for Op.98a no. 3, notated in brown ink on five systems, each of three staves, with underlaid text, from b.13 the piano part only incompletely outlined, with two bars cancelled by the composer; and on the verso, notated in brown ink and pencil on eight systems, each of two-staves, a number of bars cancelled in pencil by the composer, c.28 bars; the leaf inscribed and signed at the foot of the first page by Clara Schumann ("...April 1885. Skizze von Robert Schumann. Handschrift beglaubigt und Herrn Schwarzschild ... geschenkt von Clara Schumann.")

2 pages, 4to (30.2 x 22.7cm), 16-stave paper, no place or date [Kreischa or Dresden, 1849], splitting to horizontal fold repaired, light browning

Ronald Taylor, Robert Schumann. His Life and Work (London, 1982), p. 273; not recorded in M.L. McCorkle, Robert Schumann Thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis (Munich, 2003); Robert Schumann. New Edition of the Complete Works: Series VI, Volume 6, 2: Critical Notes (2009)

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A SCHUMANN DISCOVERY: an unrecorded sketchleaf for one of Schumann's major Goethe settings. 

Schumann’s Op.98 comprises settings of poems by Goethe from his novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre: the Mignon songs; the 'Lieder des Harfner' and the 'Requiem for Mignon', a cantata for soloists, chorus and orchestra. They date from 1849, a highly productive year, which witnessed an astonishing outpouring of creative energy and the completing of nearly 40 works in a variety of genres.

Schumann worked on Op.98 partly in Dresden and partly in the nearby village of Kreischa, where he spent some time in May 1849, seeking refuge with his family from the revolutionary political events in Dresden. The songs from Op.98 were composed between 12 May and 7 July, the Requiem between 2 July and 12 September. The songs and Requiem were published by Breitkopf two years later, in October 1851.

The manuscript provides a striking impression of the composer at work, the notes of which appear to have been flung down at breakneck speed. The sketch for "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt" diverges in numerous ways from the manuscript regarded as the earliest draft for Op.98a no. 3, a working score which survives in Paris in the Bibliothèque nationale (Ms. 346), together with a fair copy of no. 5 of Op.98a. The present sketch is half as long, lacks the Paris manuscript's cancelled four-bar introduction, and has a much more sketchily written piano accompaniment. Intriguingly, it also has features in common with the music of the song as transmitted in a pre-publication copyist manuscript reviewed by the composer (now in the Robert-Schumann-Haus, Zwickau), containing the four Mignon lieder from Op. 98 (nos. 1, 3, 5 and 9), which Schumann dedicated to Clara Brockhaus, the daughter of the Leipzig publisher Friedrich Brockhaus (the score is inscribed "Zur Erinnerung an den 25sten Februar 1850"). Sketches for the other Op.98 songs survive in various collections, including in South Germany (private collection) and New York (The manuscript collection of the Juilliard School of Music).