Composer: Schumann, Robert
Dates: 1810-1856
Song title: Es treibt mich hin
Opus, no., etc.: op.24, Nr.2
Music collection title: Liederkreis nach Gedichten von
Heinrich Heine für eine Singstimme mit Klavier
Imprint(s): Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1840
Analysis: A four-measure staccato introduction is restated in the first vocal phrase, and both are repeated at the start of the second and third stanzas as well. One might think of it as a highly modified strophic form, but, other than this unifying device, Schumann allows each stanza to go its own way. Some felicitous details of each include, in the first stanza, the constantly slowing tempo from "nach wenigen Stunden" to the end, and the mocking, maybe even parodistic 5-note turn, as he refers to his "most beautiful maiden"; in the second stanza, the canon at two measures between voice and piano which illustrates the lagging hours (and with which the alternative vocal notes interfere); and in the third stanza, where time is again suspended on "niemals liebten die Horen" by a lengthy ritardando, helped along this time by a circular-sounding repeat of text and music (note that there is a single measure a tempo before this repeat). The voice ends a tempo, with dotted rhythms and an ascent to an indignant high g' on "spotten" (mocking) angrily denouncing the secret conspiracy of Time. Schumann both amplifies and mocks this sentiment with a rising, syncopated, almost rollicking postlude marked by heavily accented upbeats.
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Copyright © 2000, Peter W. Shea