Zweig MS 85

Autograph draft in short score. Written in ink on systems of two staves. Tempo direction ‘Langsam’. Text begins ‘Es ist bestimmt in Gothes Rath’. Headed ‘Lied zum Abschied’ at top left and dated ‘7 Mai 47.’ at top right of f. 1r. With indication of instrumentation above the first system on f. 1r: ‘Fl. Ob. Clar. Fag. 4 Corni. Vcell. Bass’. Full choir or solo voices indicated above the systems throughout, though not always in accord with the published scores. The central section, which repeats the music of the opening though to different words, is written as a single vocal line marked ‘wie vorher’, and cued in to the opening by signs in pencil. Two brief sketches on single staves appear on f. 2r, beneath the conclusion of the work. Presentation inscription by Clara Schumann in blue ink in right and top margin of f. 1r: ‘Original-Handschrift Robert Schumann’s an Miss Metcalfe von Clara Schumann. Berlin 1858’.

The work was composed for a music festival in Schumann’s home town of Zwickau on 30 June 1847. In the final version, as represented by the autograph full score and the published scores, Schumann dispensed with the lower strings and two of the four horns which he included in his note on the instrumentation in the margin of this draft. Dr Bernhard R. Appel of the Robert-Schumann-Gesellschaft has pointed out that the version of Feuchtersleben’s text which Schumann uses differs from that published, and that in this Schumann follows the variant used by Mendelssohn in his setting of the same words (as op. 47, no. 4, for voice and piano).