Traumerei (Continued - formal analysis and beyond)

The Traumerei has a simple enough AABA structure with several small modulations in the development which happens to be where most of the "action" occurs within the piece.


Here, we examine the analyzed first and second phrases of part A (the beginning of the piece up until the repeat:








In the first 4 bars of the excerpt, Schumann outlines what is the main theme of the piece in a very simple way. The chords progress in a way that is leading to one drawn out expansion of the tonic; we see only the tonic, followed by very solid instances of the IV and dominant that resolve back to one.

Followed by the first theme, in bars 5-8, we see Theme 2. Here, Schumann throws in his first instances of secondary dominance with a V/IV and a diminished vii/ii. Obviously, these functions serve to create a stronger sense of the key, but because Theme I contains no secondary dominance and the subsequent theme does, there is a feeling of accelerating motion the further you progress in part A.

Rhythmically, part A does not very much; it is pretty much all over the place on its own between all of the syncopation and the grace notes. It is important to note, however, that the piece does not contain your typical 4-voice part writing but rather has as many as 6 voices at times. This polyphonic writing makes for very hard readings of the piece which is the main reason that, even in its simplicity, it is regarded among the most exceedingly challenging piano pieces to perform.

While masters like Horowitz have managed to perform this beautiful piece, many struggle a lot with the interpretation of dynamics and rhythm. Schumann offers almost no assistance in that department, instead choosing to leave it up to the artist to interpret freely, which, was something Schumann was known and greatly scoffed at in his own time for.

If you read the score while listening to most recordings of the piece, you will find that almost no artists keep anything even CLOSE to a strict tempo during this piece. Schumann most likely felt similarly, which explains all of the sustained tonic and dominant chords. However, when the piece wants to go to another place, you have these repeated eighth-note groupings of skips and leaps that go slightly up only to drop even further down. This motion creates, like I said earlier, a feeling of acceleration that not only applies to the rhythm but the dynamics as well. There are understood crescendos and diminuendos all over the place that invoke thoughts of things like (and this probably sounds extremely cliche) fields of wheat on a day with a light breeze going back and fourth; the fluidity of the piece is very clear and, especially in the main themes you move from chord to chord by barely realizing it.