Scenes from Goethe's Faust
Encyclopedia
Written between 1844 and 1853, Szenen aus Goethes Faust (Scenes from Goethe's Faust) has been described as the height of composer Robert Schumann
's accomplishments in the realm of dramatic music.
Schumann's work on what he labeled an oratorio began just over a decade after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
's completion of Part Two of the dramatic poem Faust
in 1832, the year of Goethe's death. Many contemporary readers of Faust found Goethe's epic poem daunting and difficult to grasp. Goethe himself declared only Mozart fit to write the music for Faust (though Mozart died in 1791, almost 20 years prior to the completion of Part One of Faust). As Schumann, thus, explained the felt weight of the task before him in an 1845 letter to Felix Mendelssohn
: "[A]ny composer would not only be judged by his treatment of one of the seminal and most-widely acclaimed works in German literature, but would also be setting himself up to be compared to Mozart." Yet despite Schumann's expressed reservations about the work, it has been labeled Schumann's "magnum opus." Schumann is "[d]eeply sensitive to the all-inclusiveness of Goethe’s drama[.]" From the work's dark and tense overture, to its elegant and tranquil conclusion, Schumann opens wide "a manifold musical world" that coherently draws together elements of "lied, horror opera, grand opera, oratorio, and church music."
Schumann's music suggests the struggle between good and evil at the heart of Goethe's work, as well as Faust's tumultuous search for enlightenment and peace. After the overture, the music depicts Faust's wooing of Gretchen. For Gretchen's story, Schumann employs operatic music, beginning with a love duet, proceeding to Gretchen's passionate and desperate aria, and concluding with a church scene. The second part of the work opens with stark contrast: On the one hand, the lively, fresh music of Ariel and the spirits, calls Faust to savor the beauties of nature; on the other hand, in the scene following, Schumann's restless orchestration brings to the fore Faust's delusions upon hearing of a new world being created and its rapturous promise of an everlasting present. The final scenes, drawing the work to its placid yet unsettled conclusion, hold some of Schumann's best choral writing.
Although often overlooked within Schumann's impressive oeuvre, Szenen aus Goethes Faust has been deemed among Schumann's most moving works, and a pinnacle of his quintessential Romantic concern with the extra-musical (and especially literary) potential of musical expression.
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
's accomplishments in the realm of dramatic music.
Schumann's work on what he labeled an oratorio began just over a decade after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
's completion of Part Two of the dramatic poem Faust
Goethe's Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts: and . Although written as a closet drama, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages...
in 1832, the year of Goethe's death. Many contemporary readers of Faust found Goethe's epic poem daunting and difficult to grasp. Goethe himself declared only Mozart fit to write the music for Faust (though Mozart died in 1791, almost 20 years prior to the completion of Part One of Faust). As Schumann, thus, explained the felt weight of the task before him in an 1845 letter to Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
: "[A]ny composer would not only be judged by his treatment of one of the seminal and most-widely acclaimed works in German literature, but would also be setting himself up to be compared to Mozart." Yet despite Schumann's expressed reservations about the work, it has been labeled Schumann's "magnum opus." Schumann is "[d]eeply sensitive to the all-inclusiveness of Goethe’s drama[.]" From the work's dark and tense overture, to its elegant and tranquil conclusion, Schumann opens wide "a manifold musical world" that coherently draws together elements of "lied, horror opera, grand opera, oratorio, and church music."
Schumann's music suggests the struggle between good and evil at the heart of Goethe's work, as well as Faust's tumultuous search for enlightenment and peace. After the overture, the music depicts Faust's wooing of Gretchen. For Gretchen's story, Schumann employs operatic music, beginning with a love duet, proceeding to Gretchen's passionate and desperate aria, and concluding with a church scene. The second part of the work opens with stark contrast: On the one hand, the lively, fresh music of Ariel and the spirits, calls Faust to savor the beauties of nature; on the other hand, in the scene following, Schumann's restless orchestration brings to the fore Faust's delusions upon hearing of a new world being created and its rapturous promise of an everlasting present. The final scenes, drawing the work to its placid yet unsettled conclusion, hold some of Schumann's best choral writing.
Although often overlooked within Schumann's impressive oeuvre, Szenen aus Goethes Faust has been deemed among Schumann's most moving works, and a pinnacle of his quintessential Romantic concern with the extra-musical (and especially literary) potential of musical expression.