Romances and Interludes

Press and Program Notes

Romances and Interludes was commissioned by the Houston Symphony Society at the invitation of its Music Director, Christoph Eschenbach. It was premiered on January 6, 1990, with the Houston Symphony, Christoph Eschenbach/conductor, and Robert Atherholt/oboe; also with the Cincinnati Symphony, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, principal oboist. The Romances are orchestrations of Robert Schumann's Opus 94; The Prelude and Interludes are the composer's own.

Romances and Interludes

I composed Romances and Interludes in 1990 at the invitation of my friend, Christoph Eschenbach, on commission from the Houston Symphony. It was to be the last work I wrote for that orchestra as Composer in Residence. Eschenbach wanted to give his principal oboist, Robert Atherholt, a solo engagement so he suggested that I orchestrate Schumann's famous Three Romances adding one of my own. Since there is virtually no repertoire for oboe and orchestra from that period, I found the idea intriguing. While, I was thinking about how best to approach the daunting problem of in effect "adding to Schumann" I was visiting with my former teacher, Elliott Carter. He suggested that rather than add a fourth Romance, I should think of some way to create a "frame" for the existing romances by composing two outer movements that would not be Romances but something else. I took this into account when I came up with the following form:

Prelude
Romance #1
First Interlude
Romance #2
Second Interlude
Romance #3

It was not exactly the frame Carter had been suggesting but instead, what I felt was also a respectful setting for the three Schumann jewels. A kind of tribute in story form. Carter would have ended the work with his own music. I decided to give Schumann the last word.

To make my setting, I took certain intervals and shapes from the Schumann and made some unusual twelve tone rows. These rows were a spectrum from less tonal to more tonal.

The Prelude makes reference to Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles in its opening bars. And there is a little cadenza for the oboe further in. There are introductory hints of madness and sadness in the Prelude giving the piece a narrative perspective. All of this leads harmonically into the first Romance.

The first Interlude, incorporating the more seductively tonal rows, makes immediate reference to Brahms and also gives the principal cellist an opportunity to shine. It is a kind of bipolar music ranging emotionally from joy to angst and back again — within a very short time.

The second Interlude is more severe than anything that has come before. The original Romances lack a climax as they simply coexist as three pieces side by side. Thus the second Interlude contains a dramatic (and very loud) climax. It is also the structural core of the entire work evoking a kind of emotional Armageddon. A concertante string quartet fragment emerges from the debris and leads to the third Romance.

Eschenbach had described the third Romance to me as a musical version of an old German joke. The incessant restarting of the music is supposed to represent someone tantalizing the listener with a story, leading up to a story, but never actually telling it. This I thought of as a further reference to Schumann's madness (no laughing matter) and a fitting ending to Romances and Interludes.

While I did things in the orchestration of the Romances that Schumann would not have done — I call for the oboe at one point to play a high A unheard of in Schumann's time and I employed a vibraphone — I also tried to pay homage to Schumann's approach to orchestration and at times it is intended to sound as if he might have contributed to the orchestrations himself. I don't know what Schumann would have thought of some of my harmonies and progressions. No doubt he'd have thought I was utterly mad myself.

Tobias Picker
Rhinebeck, New York
August 20, 2005

NB: Romances and Interludes has not been performed in New York or, with the exception of Canada, outside of the U.S.

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