Schumann's Simple Musical Structures - Composer Insights 

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Schumann: so important to learning experience at the piano ..”An Important Event” a glorious first sense of a classical a way back. ‘Wonderful take on this lovely Schumann piece !!

Thank you for playing this! I’ve learned so much from this.

The inner voice is very important and another level to be expressed as a separate voice, not just as a harmony. The section B can end with a very expressive slowing down, and it not easy to keep the tension and bridge over to A. The main voice almost flies over the other voices while they keep a right in their own and should be singing. A really beautiful miniature. Greatest pianists play it. Thank you very much.

Wonderful exploration of the brilliant simplicity of Schumann's piece! Your insights are invaluable to musicians. Thank you.

Beautiful, not despite simplicity, but because of it. Amazing how much can be achieved with the small ternary form. Interesting how he uses the diminished seventh of the dominant so early in the melodic development And dotted rhythms to break up the monotony of the triplets Super analysis Thank you!

Yet another excellent video. Many thanks for reminding me that complicated is neither necessary nor better.

I’ve actually been hoping you’d do an analysis of this piece for a while

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Hello from Sweden, Garreth! Thanks for this and other videos! I just want to add something that you missed, or did't mention. In the B section one can say that the melody actually is in the bass! You have a big contrast from the previous eighth notes with rests to a legato line, that is partly of inversion of the main melody. The sixth leap upwards become a fifth leap downwards, followed by the dotted scale. The third time it becomes just a scale, mirrored by the rising scale in the soprano, taking back the leading role! And I think one should emphasize this when playing! The zig-zag scale of the soprano/alto isn't that important in comparison... Just wanted to add that!

Amazing video sir. Beautifully explained. Very inspiring and captivating composition. Thank you so much.

Thank you Gareth for sharing all this . Beautiful .

Thank you so much for your brilliant analysis of the piece choosed. We need these types of lessons. Brahms writes the same way....Thant you

Thank you for introducing me to this piece! I am currently doing Grade 5 ABRSM - and couldn't decide my B pieces - only to discover that this beautiful piece is an alternative piece - in the B section! Perfect timing!

Very informative, thank you! Schumann's music is truly timeless.

I've had to explain myself in the past when I've said " the beauty is in the simplicity " and somebody's replied " that's not simple , it's quite difficult to play " ...and like you've said it doesn't always mean that

i'm doing a small essay about RS so it's really helpful and straightforward, thanks so much

Thank you.

Bravo!

This is such a brilliant idea of taking us into the minds of some of the greatest composers' structures and arrangements of their works. Thank you! My question to you is, Why would such a beautiful piece invoke a certain feeling of sadness, a sort of Nostalgic sense?

Thank you ☺️

Interesting video - I've been looking at his 'Album for the Young' and I was struck in those pieces how many of those pieces are similar to how you describe this piece. Lots of Ternary form in those pieces as well...

Yes yes keep it up! Maybe Haydn or Beethoven or Schubert next!

Hey, have you tried musescore? It might work a little better for that right hand split screen, you can also highlight notes or bars as well as zooming in. Great video though.

You haven't mentioned the way the bass line in the B section uses the rhythmic pattern of the melody in the A section. That's an important unifying structural feature of the piece.

Geniuses make complex simple.

It looks to me that the B section is a cycle of fourths: Em, Am, D, G, C, F#dim, B. The next two chords could be taken as Em7 and Am7 without their roots followed by D7, G to complete the cycle.

excellent information and piece. ( jazzers of a century later influenced by this perhaps?

It’s a bit more fiddly than it looks but still very easy for you. I am trying to learn piano. I have been a percussionist for 13 years and wanted to do something different other than that and composition. Finding it rather tricky. Wondering what pieces are good to start with. Moonlight sonata first section I can play. Been playing for a year and a half.

Thankyou. If view of score was larger I'd find it easier to follow .

Hi, i love your teaching style. Will there be a chrismast sale for the courses? Im planning to buy the aural dictation course.

Thanks

Minor point, but elementary harmony instruction usually says that a gap of (much) over an octave between any two adjacent voices except the bass and its neighbour will make the chord sound "hollow". Schumann blithely has a gap of a 13th between the tune and the middle line on beat 2 of bar 1 (and its repeats) and beat 1 of bar 2 (ditto), then 2 octaves on beat 2 of bar 5 (and it sounds fine). Is this only a consideration for choral writing, and if so, why? Also, apparently I'm the only one that's bugged by this, but the final phrase of the B section is quite truncated. I suppose that he was subverting the listeners' expectation that this be another 4 bar phrase, but it still feels weirdly short to me. Maybe he could have made this phrase 3 bars 😁

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With so many great German composers, how could German speakers gain endless inspiration from their music without theorist to organize, compare, and preserve their music, although I do think someone will have to engineer a better brain to contain it all.

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*Жалко нет русских субтитров :(*