Ed de Boer: Homage to Robert Schumann, for orchestra

'Er begann als Genie und endete als Talent' (He began as a genius and ended as a talent), the music history teacher in my conservatory days said about Robert Schumann, quoting the German composer Felix Draeseke. At the end of the 20th century, statements such as these about the composer, who spent his final months in an institution for the mentally ill, had taken on a life of their own. When I later got to know more of Schumann’s music, also late works as for instance his violin concerto, I came to a different conclusion. The decline of his mental health did not affect his ability to compose brilliant music, as long as he was able to compose. This composition is a tribute to the great romantic composer. It is based on a composition I originally wrote for brass band, which I later withdrew. An impetus for writing it was a visit to Leipzig in June 2026, where the Leipziger Symphonieorchester, conducted by Robbert van Steijn, gave three wonderful performances of my composition Sta op en Schitter (Arise and Shine). While in Leipzig, I visited the Schumann-Haus and was once gain moved by the story of his life. While there, I decided to revisit my rejected earlier composition and use the modest but well-balanced line-up of the Leipziger Symphonieorchester as a starting point for the instrumentation. The thematic material has been derived from both early and late compositions by Schumann. From his early days, I quote the theme from his song Aus alten Märchen winkt es (From old fairy tales one is beckoned), composed around 1822. I furthermore forged the main themes of the first and last movements from his late set of piano pieces Gesänge der Frühe (Songs of the early hour) (1853) into one theme. The Gesänge were written five months before he succumbed to both the final stage of syphilis and the heavy doses of mercury he had been subjected to as a treatment for this; just five months before his attempted suicide and subsequent confinement to a mental institution. Schumann's wife Clara described the pieces in her private diary as "dawn-songs, very original as always but hard to understand, their tone is so very strange." The pieces sound strange indeed, even a bit 'otherworldly'. As I see it, the treatment of Schumann’s’ illness, reinforced by his tendency to seek refuge in alcohol, severely damaged his already vulnerable mental and emotional well-being. The 'otherworldly' sound of this late composition is an important reason why I chose material from this particular composition. The Homage to Robert Schumann musically depicts a variety of feelings Schumann had toward the end of his life; feelings of exhaustion (rehearsal number 6), dizziness (number 13), depression (number 22) and giddiness (number 33), alternated with moments of inspiration (numbers 9 and 42) and upliftment (number 19). These various episodes eventually culminate into an euphoric apotheosis (number 48), where the Schumann themes intertwine contrapuntally and the fast tempo that has been reached at this point coincides with the slow tempo of the beginning.