Schumann - Instrumentation

Question 1

What instruments play in a piano trio?

Answer 1

Piano, Violin, Cello

Question 2

How is the role of the piano in Schumann’s piano trio slightly different to lots of other piano trios?

Answer 2

The instruments are given fairly equal roles in this movement, unlike many piano
trios, where the piano dominates.

Question 3

What does virtuosic mean?

Answer 3

Music that is very difficult to play, often involving lots of notes within a very short space of time and technically challenging passages.

Question 4

Is the CS’s trio virtuosic?

Answer 4

Although not without difficulty, none of the parts here are particularly virtuosic. However, it would be easy to play it badly!

Question 5

Why do you think CS made the trio not too virtuosic.

Answer 5

Perhaps it was intended for performance by capable amateurs, as well as by
professional musicians.

Question 6

Both the cello and the violin use double stopping in the piece. What does this mean?

Answer 6

When the string player plays 2 notes together at the same time - i.e. the bow strokes 2 strings simultaneously.

Question 7

Give an example of double stopping used in the trio

Answer 7

It happens both at loud dramatic moments (bars 284–286)

and to fill in the texture during quieter passages (bars 73–77).

Question 8

What is the “range” of an instrument part?

Answer 8

This is the distance between the lowest and highest note it plays.

Question 9

Describe the range of the violin in CS’s trio.

Answer 9

The violin plays mainly in the two octaves above its lowest string (G below middle C), but it does have
music that stretches nearly another octave above this at times.

Question 10

Describe the range of the cello in CS’s trio.

Answer 10

The cello uses both its resonant low range and its powerful upper range, up to an
octave above middle C at times.

Question 11

What are the roles the instruments share equally?

Answer 11

Melodic, filling the texture/harmonies, bass line, counter melodies, melodic dialogue between one another.

Question 12

What does the cello use its powerful lower range for?

Answer 12

To support the bass line, often through playing pedal notes.

Question 13

What does the cello use its “tenor like” mid range for?

Answer 13

Bringing out inner parts of the texture and “singing” some melodic ideas. An example is bars 37-41.

Question 14

Give an example of where the cello uses material in its higher register.

Answer 14

Bars 134–138; note that the notation here is in

the treble clef, but written an octave higher than it sounds..

Question 15

The piano music in CS’s trio is typically romantic, but how is it different to Beethoven and some other romantics?

Answer 15

It can be more intimate

and less virtuosic at times.

Question 16

How does Schumann present important melodic material in the piano?

Answer 16

Important melodic material is often presented in a single octave (without
doubling) (e.g. bars 9–14).

Question 17

Which range of the piano does Schumann often favour?

Answer 17

The middle range of the keyboard is favoured, especially in the right-hand
material – the highest note is the G two and a half octaves above middle C.

Question 18

Schumann is always sensitive to the balance between the instruments. What does this mean?

Answer 18

Ensuring that the instruments do not overpower one another and when one is doing a more important part, then the others go more into the background.

Question 19

Give an example of how Schumann might avoid the piano overpowering the strings.

Answer 19

She might place some

of the piano material in a lower register to avoid masking the strings.