Robert Schumann

Wild Rider-Matross Song

Wilder Reiter
The music to this cabinet piece by Schumann can be of particular charm if it is performed in fine staccato. In order to achieve this, it is advisable, also with regard to intonation, to practice the piece slowly, in sustained tones. Only then, gradually increasing the tempo, in even, pointed staccato. A bass can be added ad libitum. For the young bassist who has the necessary zeal, this pretty little composition can become a bravura piece.

Sailor's Song
When Schumann wrote this composition, the great sailing ships with their imposing superstructures were still sailing on the oceans. The lives of the crews on these ships were hard, full of privation, and often fraught with tragedy. Thus Schumann's sailor song begins in unison, gravely and as if from memory. Only gradually does it develop into polyphony. In tone painting, it swells from piano to forte with abrupt melodic incisions, probably suggesting approaching wave crests, in whose roar the mutual shouting of the sailors is lost. In unison, serious and quiet as it began, this musically valuable and interesting piece of music ends. With amplification by a bass it can gain in effect.

This edition contains the following parts:
1st voice in Bb (flugelhorn/trumpet)
2nd voice in Bb (flugelhorn/trumpet)
3rd voice in Bb (tenor horn/trombone)
4th voice in C (baritone/baritone). Voice in C (baritone/trombone)
4th voice in C (bass ad libitum)

Other instrumentation options
3rd voice in Eb (horn)
3rd voice in C (baritone/trombone)
4th voice in Bb (baritone/trombone)
4th voice in Bb (bass Bb ad libitum).