David Ferris
University of Houston
The weak opening, which is one of the primary techniques that Schumann uses to create fragmentary song forms, can be defined as a piece whose tonal definition is purposefully weakened at its beginning and gradually becomes clarified as it continues. While in some cases a song may have no initial tonic harmony at all, in others Schumann begins with a tonic chord but destabilizes it through voiceleading, phrase rhythm, harmonic structure, register, or some combination of these elements. It is this latter technique that I will consider here, both as an experiment in form and as a musical response to the Romantic lyric poems that Schumann set in his early song cycles. I will illustrate my discussion with analyses of "Frühlingsnacht and "Intermezzo, both from the Eichendorff Liederkreis.
Weak openings are examples of end-accented structures, by which I mean that the rhythmic impulse with which a given phrase or section ends is stronger than the impulse with which it begins. Because such structures tend to replicate hierarchically, a weak opening arouses the expectation of an especially strong conclusion. Schumann fulfills this expectation in "Frühlingsnacht" and we perceive this song as a closed musical form. But in the case of "Intermezzo" he exploits the expectations that the weak opening arouses by repeatedly preparing and then thwarting a strong tonic arrival, and he thus creates a form that has harmonic closure yet still feels openended.