- Date: 1851
- Composer: Robert Schumann
- Period: Romantic (1820-1869)
Review
Der Rose Pilgerfahrt (The Pilgrimage of a Rose) is a hybrid work, combining aspects of the choral ballade, oratorio, song cycle, and even opera. Schumann made this combination very deliberately; he believed that a new format was needed to combine the best aspects of all of these genres and meld lyricism and drama in a new way. Throughout his life he experimented with these concepts, producing, as well as this work, the better-known "Paradise and the Peri," (most of which was written during 1841) "Scenes from Goethe's Faust," (written between 1844 and 1853) "Manfred," (written in 1848 and 1849, premiered in 1852) and "Der Konigssohn" (also written in 1851.) However, those works are larger in dramatic scope and far from the intimacy of this work, which was premiered in the music salon at the Schumann's Dusseldorf home, a venue which could hold an audience of only about 60.The structure is most like an oratorio, divided into sections for solo voice, solo voices and chorus, and for just the chorus, which itself is sometimes divided into different sections, as in the beginning and ending pieces, which are sung just by the women's voices. However, unlike the standard oratorio format, the solo music is not divided into recitatives and arias, but instead written more like individual lieder, an impression which the relative intimacy of the music and the piano accompaniment (in that version) enhance. Also unusually, the role of the narrator is taken by different soloists during different moments.
Though it is infrequently performed, it is overflowing with lyric melody with a charm that is naive but not cloyingly so, and is appealing in its own right as well as for the insight it provides into Schumann as a musical innovator. ~ Anne Feeney, Rovi
Albums with Complete Performances of the Work
| Title | Date |
| Robert Schumann: Der Rose Pilgerfahrt | 2010 |
| Schumann: Choral Works | 2006 |
| Schumann: Der Rose Pilgerfahrt | |
| Schumann: Der Rose Pilgerfahrt | |
| Schumann: Pilgrimage of the Rose | 1988 |
Albums with Excerpt Performances of the Work
| Der Roland von Berlin (Rolando di Berlino), opera | |
| Der Rosenkavalier Synopsis & Libretto [CD-ROM track] |
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