Fünf Stücke im Volkston Op.102 (1849)

1 Mit Humor 2 Langsam 3 Nicht schnell, mit viel Ton zu spielen 4 Nicht zu rasch 5 Stark und markiert

Having studied the cello himself at one time, Schumann understood the instrument better than most of his colleagues – as the intimately expressive slow movement of the Cello Concerto confirms. Had he written a cello sonata he would surely have included a signicant slow movement there too. Unfortunately, although there are two violin sonatas, there is nothing of the kind for cello. The one surviving Schumann work conceived specifically for cello and piano is the Fünf Stücke in Volkston (Five Pieces in Folk Style), the limited ambitions of which preclude anything too personal. This is not to say that lyricism is excluded, least of all from Langsam (Slow) second movement which, however, melodious though it is, aspires to be little more than a cradle song. The cello does, on the other hand, have other valusable characteristics – like it propensity for comedy demonstrated in the first movement, for story-telling in the ballade-like third, for an invigorating march with episodes of song in the fourth and for a conclusive display of energy in the fifth.

1 Mit Humor 2 Langsam 3 Nicht schnell, mit viel Ton zu spielen 4 Nicht zu rasch 5 Stark und markiert

Having studied the cello himself at one time, Schumann understood the instrument better than most of his colleagues – as the intimately expressive slow movement of the Cello Concerto confirms. Had he written a cello sonata he would surely have included a signicant slow movement there too. Unfortunately, although there are two violin sonatas, there is nothing of the kind for cello. The one surviving Schumann work conceived specifically for cello and piano is the Fünf Stücke in Volkston (Five Pieces in Folk Style), the limited ambitions of which preclude anything too personal. This is not to say that lyricism is excluded, least of all from Langsam (Slow) second movement which, melodious though it is, aspires to be little more than a cradle song. That is just one aspect of the cello - like it propensity for comedy in the first movement, for the ballad in the third, for the march in the fourth and for a display of energy in the fifth.

No.2 Langsam

No.3 Nicht schnell, mit viel Ton zu spielen

No.4 Nicht zu rasch

As a composer who had nothing against his Drei Romanzen Op.94 for oboe being performed on violin or cello, Schumann would have been unlikely to object to at least some of his Fünf Stücke im Volkston Op.102 for cello or violin being performed on oboe. Although the first and last of the Stücke im Volkston require a range of pitch and colour beyond the resources of the wind instrument, the other three movements are for the most part well suited to it. Indeed, the second of these “pieces in folk style,” a tender lullaby marked Langsam, could have been written for the oboe in the first place. If some adaptation is necessary to compensate for a cellist’s or violinist’s application of double stops to the middle section of the central slow movement (Nicht schnell), the plaintive tone of the oboe is entirely appropriate to the rueful expression of the piece. The contrasting elements of Nicht zu schnell, the jaunty and the poetic, are two prominent aspects of the oboe personality.