page_title: Piano Quintet (Schumann)
section_title: Finale: Allegro ma non troppo
hierarchical_section_title: Piano Quintet (Schumann) / Analysis / Finale: Allegro ma non troppo
caption_attribution_description: English: Piano Quintet Schumann: Allegro ma non troppo (part 4) - Opening Nederlands: Pianokwintet van Schumann: Allegro ma non troppo (deel 4) - Opening
context_page_description: The Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44, by Robert Schumann was composed in 1842 and received its first public performance the following year. Noted for its "extroverted, exuberant" character, Schumann's piano quintet is considered one of his finest compositions and a major work of nineteenth-century chamber music. Composed for piano and string quartet, the work revolutionized the instrumentation and musical character of the piano quintet and established it as a quintessentially Romantic genre.
context_section_description: The finale begins in G minor, on a C minor chord, rather than in the tonic. The movement as a whole is cast in an unusual form that partly reflects, but ultimately triumphs over Schumann's frequent difficulties with the conventional sonata form in his larger-scale instrumental movements. The original handling of both form and key contrasts sharply with the largely conventional formal organization of the previous three movements.
  A summary of the main themes and key areas follows:
  Bar 1: G minor theme A1
  Bar 21: E-flat major theme A2
  Bar 29: D minor A1
  Bar 37: B-flat major A2
  Bar 43: G major theme B (with an important motive B’, first introduced by the viola in 54). B itself is a diminished version of A2.
  Bar 77: B minor-major A1
  Bar 114: E major-G-sharp minor theme C (accompanied by B’)
  ****
  Bar 136: G-sharp minor A1
  Bar 148: D-sharp minor A1
  Bar 156: B major A2
  Bar 164: B-flat minor A1
  Bar 172: G-flat major A2
  Bar 178: E-flat major B recapitulated
  ****
  Bar 212: G minor A1
  Bar 224: E-flat major theme D 
  Bar 248: fugato on A1
  Bar 274: E-flat major C (B’) recapitulated
  Bar 319: E-flat major, fugato on A1 combined with the opening theme of the first movement, Allegro brillante
  Bar 378: E-flat major D recapitulated
  Bar 402: Coda
  The main themes, A1, A2, B and C, are all introduced in the first 135 bars, making this opening roughly equivalent to a sonata exposition. The tonic key, however, is almost entirely absent, with the music mostly remaining in G minor/major until the introduction of the lyrical theme C in the remote key of E major at bar 114. The music modulates to G-sharp minor to begin what is essentially a recapitulation in bar 136, with B returning in E-flat to finally establish the true tonic in bar 178, very late in a lengthy movement. More than 200 bars remain to unfold, however, almost entirely in the tonic. During their course, Schumann introduces yet another theme, the syncopated D, gets around to recapitulating the lyrical theme C in the tonic, and develops the music further via two fugato passages, the second unexpectedly and impressively incorporating the principal theme of the opening Allegro brillante and combining it with the opening theme A1, finally heard in the tonic. This coup may have been inspired by a similar confluence of themes in the E flat quartet op. 12 of Felix Mendelssohn. It also, probably deliberately, evokes the climactic contrapuntal finales of works such as Mozart's Jupiter symphony. The movement as a whole can be noted for the rondo-like reappearances of the opening theme A1, which consistently avoids the tonic key until the final fugato; for its innovative key scheme, which combines the restless modulations of a traditional sonata development with the idea of recapitulation in the tonic; and for its successful integration of counterpoint within a non-contrapuntal formal structure.
caption: Schumann: Piano Quintet, finale, piano part, mm.1-4 (Theme A1)
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