Schumann: String Quartet No.3, Op.41 No.3

Introduction

1842 was the year of chamber music for Robert Schumann (as 1840 and 1841 were the years of song and of orchestral music, respectively), and he commenced his remarkable instrumental explorations with the three string quartets. For many years it was customary to dismiss these three Op. 41 works as unidiomatic and overly-pianistic, claiming that their composer's relative unfamiliarity with string instruments precluded him from creating works of much merit. While it is perhaps true that these works cannot compete with those of either Beethoven or Brahms, their total lack of dependence on the dry clichés of the mid-nineteenth century and their intensely expressive musical poetry compensate for such flaws as would be insurmountable in the music of a lesser composer. The three Opus 41 string quartets, then, are entirely successful on their own terms, much as, though he was far more familiar with the medium, Schumann found himself compelled to discover fresh solutions to the compositional issues presented by the keyboard.

Last in the opus but second in order of composition, the Quartet in A major Op.41, No.3 is far and away the most structurally traditional work of the group. The very first gesture of the first movement's brief introduction is identical, harmonically and motivically, to the opening gesture of Beethoven's Op.31, No.3, and one must suspect a conscious or subconscious debt on Schumann's part. The falling fifth motive outlined by this gesture is soon built into the first measure of the primary theme proper (A major, three-four time as opposed to the four-four of the introduction), a tender idea in two halves: the first a graceful eight-bar melody, the second a quarter-note arpeggiation played out in imitation between the four instruments. In Op.41, No.3, at last, Schumann writes a true second theme, whose gentle offbeats and expressive cello melody provide fertile material for development (as, indeed, does the imitative strain of the first theme).

Assai agitato, in F sharp minor, is a roughly-hewn theme and variations (very free variations, to be sure) that presents a far more emotionally disturbed composer than do any of the other movements in the three quartets. A series of short, hurried, syncopated phrase groups collectively form the theme. The first of the variations (note that Schumann does not mark them as such, and one almost feels them to be more in the way of responses to one another than variations in the collective sense of the word) affords the cello and viola opportunity to give their thoughts on the main theme, while the second is a determined effort to make a fugue out of what would seem to be unpromising subject-material (the angry intensity of the imitation makes it clear that Schumann wishes to portray the players' valiant, but ultimately unsuccessful effort, to expunge their grief by logical exercise). The fragmented theme is sewn together into a single lyrical idea in the third variation, while the fourth and last is a furious onslaught determined to wipe away, by violence if necessary, the painful sentimentality of the previous section. A quiet epilogue, the calm after the storm, provides some comfort, and the music winds down into the warmth of F sharp major.

The third movement, Adagio molto, is a lush song without words, growing from quiet statement to heated exclamation before drawing to a comfortable, peaceful end. The finale, on the other hand, is a sprightly, rather free rondo whose dotted-eighth refrain theme lurches forward with good humor. Two subsidiary ideas appear, and each is repeated in the second half of the piece before the driving coda brings the work home.

Parts/Movements

    Andante espressivo - Allegro molto moderato
    Assai agitato
    Adagio molto
    Finale. Allegro molto vivace - Quasi Trio