Robert Schumann, 1810-1856
String Quartet No. 3 in A major, Op. 41, No. 3

The opening movement in sonata form is rather delicate and subtle with tempo and character directions like "espressivo" and "molto moderato." It begins with a short, dreamy introduction that establishes a signature motive heard at least four times: a falling perfect fifth like a sensuous sigh. Schumann clouds the key signature with expressive modulations leading to a pregnant pause full of dramatic tension. But the main exposition ensues with a gentle calmness, defying this opening feint with a grazioso character. The clear-cut form features two main themes with a floating sequential bridge passage in between. A short but turbulent development section concerns itself primarily with the first theme broken in half: the falling fifth and its scurrying counterpart juxtaposed. The movement ends quietly with a fully resolved final falling fifth in the cello.
Schumann supplies a theme and variations for the second movement, an alternative to the usual scherzo. The first three variations are terse, agitated and dark leading to the fourth variation, a much more lyrical canon between the violin and viola recalling Schubert. Some commentators suggest this is a novel arrangement comprising a theme preceded by three variations. The fifth variation resumes the turbulent thematic reduction while a coda changes the mood entirely with a shift to the major mode and a serene conclusion.
The third movement Adagio is the longest and most profound movement of the quartet revealing Schumann's characteristic lyricism and rhapsodic romanticism. A heartwarming song-like theme is quickly confounded by a second, fragmentary and angst-ridden idea threatening to drown the song in the dramatic chaos of a plodding march. The intermittent surges and swells settle back into warm lyricism as the insistent march softens and fades into the third mild conclusion of the quartet.
Typical for Schumann, the finale sweeps away all that has gone before in a surge of kinetic vitality with a grand conclusion. A crisply delineated sectional form gives Schumann ample room for a variety of musical ideas in what Melvin Berger calls "the apotheosis of rondo form." Several small episodes are arranged around the recurring refrain to make the symmetrical form characteristic of the classical rondo crowned with a coda expanding the realization of the finale refrain. One is reminded of Schumann's penchant for pageantry exposing a gallery of contrasting characters including his famous literary duality of Florestan and Eusebius. So ends Schumann's only set of string quartets, essentially the last word in the genre before Brahms.