Why do the parallel fifths work in Schumann's Op. 15 No. 1?

Question

In Robert Schumann's "Von fremden Ländern und Menschen" ("Of Strange Lands and People"), he composed parallel fifths in measure 13, highlighted in red in the below illustration. They give no hint of the jarring sound parallel fifths can have, nor do they interfere with the independence of the voices.

Is there anything specific to the compositional context that mitigates the otherwise expected bad effects of parallel fifths? That is, does theory offer an explanation of why the fifths work here? Or is this simply an exceptional case exploited by a skillful composer?

Edit:

In addition to the parallel fifths, Schumann also has parallel octaves in the piece, at mm. 7 and 13.

_{<sarcasm>The only possible conclusion, obviously, is that Schumann was a terrible composer, and all of his music should be burned.</sarcasm>}

Answer 1

I think the mitigating factors are:

• the perfect fifths involve the inner voices.
• the D3 is just an octave doubling, if you eliminate it, you still have the same chords
• Parallel harmony while rare is not verboten in all common practice music.

Parallel first inversion triads is pretty well understood, but Tymoczko's system of parallel triads (page 5, paragraph D in the PDF) is where I first read about parallel 6/3 chords used for descending movement, but parallel root postition triads used in ascending movements.

Now I take notice of parallel harmony, and his point about direction and inversion, seems to be true. I do see parallel root position triads in classical style. It's rare, but when I do see it, it doesn't seem to be accidental. It does seem like it happens in connecting or extending passages, in the same places where you might find harmonic sequences. You might also compare its frequency of use and placement to passages in unison/octaves. Like in a string quartet. Most of the texture is typical four-part writing, but then there are highlights of unison/octave playing. Most of the texture is four-part, but there can be high lights of parallel harmony.

Anyway, if the C3 was held rather than moving to D3 the chords would be the same and the parallel fifths avoided, so it doesn't seem to make much difference to have the D3 in an inner voice, that only doubles at the octave, and adds nothing else to the harmony, except perhaps the "trembling" sonority of a major second in a low register.

---

Parallel root position triads, two examples:

L. Mozart, Nannerl Notebook, No. 34

Dabney, Twelve Minuets and Twelve Dances

The first being a very famous pedagogical source - not where I imagine finding a harmonic faux pas - and the other a run-of-the-mill set of dances. Actually, some other examples of parallel fifth occur in the dances sets I've collected, and they always interrupt my sight reading... because I think I made a reading mistake!

Answer 2

The reason that parallel fifths are bad is that the 5ths end up sounding like overtones of the roots, rather than individual notes of their own.

In four-part harmony, this is undesirable, because two of the four voices end up collapsing into a single voice. But in a lot of piano music, where the number of voices is not controlled, it doesn't matter.

In this case it wouldn't matter anyways, because when you arpeggiate the chord in this way the notes don't really sound conflated.

Answer 3

They're OK because Schumann isn't composing in the style of a 17th century four-voice chorale. It's basically a C triad then a D triad, both over a C pedal. Even if not arpeggiated, this would be a perfectly acceptable pianistic texture.

Answer 4

Two things: First of all Schumann is not writing a strict polyphonic chorale, but a piano piece where any amount of notes can come up and go. Still parallel structures bear the danger of sounding a bit weird and weak. Suppose you’d take way the bass. Then you’d just have a C-major chord that is shifted up in parallel into D-major. But this still works as the D-major has the 7th in the bass, giving the chord a lot of tension and at the same time implying some notion of counter motion resolution (the 7th in the bass implies a strong downward resolution).