"
Far from objecting to this, Schumann sees in it something necessary to
musical evolution.
"Apparently music is showing a tendency to go back to its
beginnings, to the time when the laws of rhythm did not yet trouble
her; it seems that she wishes to free herself, to regain an
utterance that is unconstrained, and raise herself to the dignity
of a sort of poetic language."
And Schumann quotes these words of Ernest Wagner: "He who shakes off the
tyranny of time and delivers us from it will, as far as one can see,
give back freedom to music."[88]
[Footnote 87: "Oh, how I love, honour, and reverence Schumann for having
written this article alone" (Hugo Wolf, 1884).]
[Footnote 88: _Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik_. See _Hector Berlioz und
Robert Schumann_. Berlioz was constantly righting for this freedom of
rhythm--for "those harmonies of rhythm," as he said. He wished to form a
Rhythm class at the Conservatoire (_Memoires_, II, 241), but such a
thing was not understood in France. Without being as backward as Italy
on this point, France is still resisting the emancipation of rhythm
(_Memoires_, II, 196).
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