Gustav
Heinze, c.1860
(photo Wegner & Mottu, Amsterdam)
Coll. Netherlands Music Institute, The Hague
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Schumann's
First Symphony: 'The Nightwatchman'
The
memoires of the German-Dutch musician G.A. Heinze (1820-1904) are a
neglected source for the creation history of Schumann’s First Symphony,
the Frühlingssymphonie.
As
a young second clarinetist in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra Heinze
knew Schumann well. He describes how Schumann has used the evening call
of a nightwatchman as the opening motif of his First Symphony. This
contradicts something which has always been accepted as a fact in the
Schumann literature: Schumann alledgedly based this ‘motto’ on a poem
by Adolf Böttger.
Heinze’s anecdote is cause for a critical
discussion, with a side-glance on the chanting of Amsterdam
nightwatchmen, as written down by Heinze’s contemporary Richard Hol.
in
The
Musical Times,
Summer 2010
Frühlingssymphonie |
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