Deep Structure and Foreground Features in the Humoreske Op.

20 by Schumann

By Guilherme Sauerbronn de Barros

PPGMUS/UDESC-Brazil

Abstract: The Humoreske Op. 20, a signature piece on my repertoire along with its “Inner
Voice” located at the Hastig section (m.252-275), has always sparkled my imagination.
As a result, I have published two articles discussing this subject. The first (BARROS,
2001) was largely based on the tripartite model of Nattiez and Molino and seeks to
provide an understanding of the piece external formal concerns as well as possible
meanings for the Inner Voice, departing from biographical aspects of Schumann´s life
and some of his published texts. Recently published, the second paper (BARROS, 2018)
presents a Schenkerian type analysis for the first third of the piece thus revealing my
vision for its deep structure and synthesis. Synthesis in its Schenkerian sense is intimately
related to the concept of Urlinie, the composer´s “long-distance hearing” (Schenker,
2004a, p.22), the “melody of synthesis” (Schenker, 1996a, p.115). In the present
communication I reflect both on the contrasting and complimentary aspect of these two
analytical visions and possible implications for the performance of the Humoreske Op.20.
I also relate the Inner Voice with the Schenkerian Urlinie, in dialogue with reference texts
published by Schenker in Der Tonwille I and II, and in Das Meisterwerk in der Musik I
and II, published between the years of 1921 and 1926. Both approaches are intrinsically
mingled with my experience as performer. Detailed analytical graphs give support to my
arguments and illustrate the findings of this investigation.
Keywords: Schumann’s Humoreske Op.20. Inner Voice; Urlinie; Schenkerian analysis;
Tripartite model.
Years ago, in a fist attempt to understand the “meaning” of the Inner Voice of Schumann’s
Humoreske Op.20 – the writing of a voice to be internally sung but not played –, I
followed the steps of Jean Jacques Nattiez in the application of the Tripartite Method.
Based in the recognition of motives and phrases and its repetitions, Ruwet’s paradigmatic
analysis revealed a point of textural and motivic density in the Inner Voice section. It led
me to conclude that main motives were both concentrated or originated at this inner voice
and eventually resonated throughout the piece.

Inner Voice section, first phrase (m.252-259)

Structural analysis was also accompanied by a musicological search for extrinsic
meanings of this unusual compositional procedure by Schumann.
Each of the motives had a “character” implicit in the narrative of the piece: X (the
trichord) and Y (the turn) expressed the sentimental Eusebius, the grupetto being itself a
“signature” of Schumann’s tenderness, as Rémy Stricker (1984) and J. J. Eigeldinger
(1994) points out; Z, embodies the intrepid Florestan and its rhythmic impetus.
Biographical information also revealed the possibility of the Inner Voice being a
reminiscence of the french horn solo from the second movement of Schubert’s C
Symphony No.9, whose manuscript Schumann received from Schubert’s brother, in
Vienna, by the time he composed the Humoreske. In a letter to his beloved Clara he
expresses his enthusiasm with the orchestral work. Harmonic and melodic features of the
solo are analogous to the Inner Voice section: descendent trichord (motive X); Dominant
seventh chords; rhythmic delay (echo effect) in the French Horn part.

Another curious information was pointed out by Joan Chissell, who affirms that many
musical ideas were shared by Schumann and Clara, specially a five note descending
melody, a kind of leitmotiv of their love – curiously, as we will verify later, the Urlinie
of the piece is also a five note descent. These poetic suggestions were useful for my
playing, as well as the formal plan I outlined from the analysis of its harmonic and motivic
relations.

I – Einfach
II – Hastig
III – Einfach un Zart
IV – Innig
V – Sehr Lebhaft
VI – Zum Beschluss

But the quest for a deeper meaning for the Inner Voice wasn’t over. Almost seventeen
years later I would return to the subject, equipped with different analytical tools.
During that time, I’ve been studying the work of Heinrich Schenker and the idea of
confronting the Inner Voice and the Urlinie seemed very promising to me.
As Schenker stated, the Urlinie is the composer´s “long-distance hearing” that “may be
of use to the reader, the performer, or the listener whose hearing is only near-at-hand, like
a pair of mental spectacles that bring distant things closer to him.” (Schenker, 2004a,
p.22) Schenker also describes the Urlinie as the “melody of synthesis” (Schenker, 1996a,
p.115) and says that “for the performer, the Urlinie is, above all, a means of orientation”
(Schenker, 1996a, p.109).
Could the Inner Voice be not only an interpretive indication from Schumann, but also a
structural key of the piece?
The Inner voice is located at the second section, Hastig (m.252-275), which has a
complimentary relation with the first section, Einfach (m.1-251). This relation is
reinforced by the transitional cadenza (m.247-251) and the final cadenza (m.499-514).
The first theme of the Humoreske presents the following structural line. The 6 prepares
the 5, primary tone (Kopfton) of the line:
A development section (m.8-21) elaborates the motives, departing from Gf (fVI of Bf)
and reaching Ef (IV of Bf).

The theme returns in m.21, followed by a series of developments until m.240, where it
returns once more to finish the first section (Einfach).

As we see, the soprano doesn’t rest at the 1 (Bf) at m.247, but in the next measures (248-
251) descends to the 5 in an inner voice and “filters” the 3 from the complete Bf chord.
The stability of that chord is also challenged by the fifth (F) in the bass. It is this 3,
emerging “from inside” the chord, that will be transferred to an upper register and open
the Inner Voice section, in the region of Gm (VI of Bf).
The Inner Voice section is not conclusive, presenting an unstable harmonic line and a
suspensive closing.

The measures that follow develop the material chromatically (m.260-267) and between
m.268-275 the first phrase of the Inner Voice is literally repeated.

The final cadenza is suspensive and will be prolonged in a series of thematic and harmonic
elaborations until m.448, when the Inner Voice “emerges” from its “ideal dimension” to
be actually played by the pianist in a choral-like harmonization.
It sounds like a sort of “immaterial music”, out of time and space, once the rhythm
virtually ceases at this point. The listener, until then unaware of the presence of the Inner
Voice, is now invited to share with the composer and the performer this hidden melody.
In m.499 the Dominant (5 / V) suspension calls for a closing, which, deceptively, will
not be in Gm, but in Bf.

The large unit formed by the two first parts of the Humoreske, Einfach and Hastig, with
their harmonic and thematic relations, can be viewed synthetically in the next figure:

And more synthetically yet in the next one:

From our analysis, it became clear that the fifth (54321) progression constitutes the
Urlinie of this first large section of Humoreske (m.1-514). The Inner Voice replicates this
linear progression in the relative minor mode of the initial tonality (m.252-259). This
replication, however, is suspensive (5[432]) and its closure occurs with the return of the
main tonality at the end of the first large section of the piece (m.499-514).
I consider this a case of motivic parallelism in deeper levels. As Charles Buckhart states
in his famous “Schenker’s Motivic Parallelisms” (1978), parallelism is not always
repetition, but also variation. “(…) surface repetition is effortlessly apprehended and
gives instant pleasure. But repetitions of a different sort, less immediately gratifying, but
no less genuine and audible, lie concealed beneath the musical surface. These ‘hidden
repetitions’ can range from the tiniest particles to the broadest of tonal spans. When they
appear in a composition they give it a more deeply ‘organic’ dimension.” BUCKART,
C., 1978, p.172)
The interiority of the Inner Voice is therefore justified by a structural approach that
highlights its features: its position, “nested” under the main line; its apparition in the
minor mode, which, according to Goethe, is the mode of introspection and concentration;
and, last but not least, its affinity with the Urlinie of the piece.
Assigning to the Inner Voice an archetypal dimension, Schumann seems to point to what
Schenker would present, in the form of a theory, a century later: the Urlinie as germ and
synthesis of the work.

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