f Schumann's short pieces for the pianoforte.
They are thoroughly pianistic and evoke from the instrument all its
possibilities of sonority and color. In point of texture they
illustrate that happy combination, which Schumann worked out, of lyric
melodies on a firmly knit polyphonic basis. They are also
programmistic in so far as Schumann believed in music of that type.
There is no attempt to tell a detailed story or to have the music
correspond literally to definite incidents. The titles merely afford a
verbal clue to the general import and atmosphere of the music. Thus in
regard to the piece under consideration, the mere mention of eventide
is supposed to be enough to stimulate thought in any one with a
sensitive imagination, and the music is a suggestive expression of
Schumann's own intimate reveries. The piece is in extended two-part
form--each part repeated--and rounded out with an eloquent Coda. The
rhythmic scheme is of particular significance for it illustrates not
only the composer's fondness for inventing new combinations, but, as
well, suggests most delicately the mood of the piece. It would
evidently be false art to write a piece, entitled Evening, in a
vigorous, arousing rhythm, such as might be associated with a noon-day
sun, when we often see the heat-waves dancing over the fields. On the
other hand Schumann, by a subtle blending of triple time in the main
upper melody and duple time in the lower, suggests that hazy
indefiniteness appropriate to the time of day when the life of Nature
seems momentarily subsiding and everything sinking to rest, _e.g._

[Music]

In many measures of the second part (_i.e._, 21-24) the accent is so
disguised that it seems as if we were in a twilight revery, quite
apart from matters of time and space.

[Footnote 191: As the music is readily procurable the student should
make himself familiar with the entire set.]

WARUM?

This piece is a happy illustration of the intensity of meaning and the
conciseness of structure which Schumann gained by the application of
polyphonic imitation. It is difficult to say exactly what _Warum_
signifies. It was characteristic of the Romantic unrest of the German
mind to question everything--especially "Why am I not more happy in
love?" The motto may be considered a Carlyle-like "everlasting why."
At any rate the composition is an example of music speaking more
plainly than words; for no one can fail to recognize the haunting
appeal in th