A quite vivid movement although one isn’t sure what Schumann is endeavouring to describe although from the music view a march pattern is suggested both by the time signature and the musical ideas. The arrangement for clarinet in A, violoncello and piano has a playback tempo of 100 quarter note (crotchet) beats to the minute. The music has been transposed down a tone and sounds in the key of A minor. A canon arises in the description of a musical piece simply because musical ideas are imitated by another voice or instrument. It doesn’t necessarily describe the overall form or structure of a piece. The Study in Canon No. 5 is in three sections ABA’ with Section B beginning at bar 37 and the varied repeat of A at bar 83. The imitation in this movement is shared first between the clarinet and violoncello and in the final section between the piano and clarinet in A. The trio versions are strong simply because the contrasting timbres enable the musical ideas and imitation to be communicated more readily. Understand that the canonic element in Schumann’s time references all the musical elements and not just pitch: dynamics, articulation, ornamentation are all part of the canonic process. The crushed notes or acciaccaturas are a prominent musical feature. This is essentially a study in the articulation of short notes and occasional longer notes. Compositional process is evident from bar 49 where the canonic element involves inversion. This is a challenging music setting to engrave and prepare for print mainly because the score has so much detail which is not easy to represent with clarity on the sheet music page. Accompaniments are available as mp3 downloads featuring the violoncello and piano parts playing at 92, 96, 100 and 104 quarter note (crotchet) beats to the minute. This enables a clarinet in A player to incorporate ensemble playing into their practice routines. The accompaniments are recorded at 256kbps. Parts for the clarinet in A appropriately transposed and violoncello are appended to the full score.
