Schumann's Funeral Procession: Mit erstorbnem Scheinen Steht der Mond auf todtenstillen Hainen, Seufzend streicht der Nachtgeist durch die Luft – Nebelwolken schauern, Sterne trauern Bleich herab, wie Lampen in der Gruft. Gleich Gespenstern, stumm und hohl und hager, Zieht in schwarzem Todtenpompe dort Ein Gewimmel nach dem Leichenlager Unterm Schauerflor der Grabnacht fort. [...] Lo! on high the moon, her lustre dead, O'er the death-like grove uplifts her head, Sighing flits the spectre through the gloom-- Misty clouds are shivering, Pallid stars are quivering, Looking down, like lamps within a tomb. Spirit-like, all silent, pale, and wan, Marshall'd in procession dark and sad, To the sepulchre a crowd moves on, In the grave-night's dismal emblems clad. [...] (Trans. Edgar A. Bowring. New York: Hurst & Company, 1872) Romantic traits There is no obvious programmatic relationship between Schumann's Night Pieces and E.T.A. Hoffmann’s narrations collected under the same title, but the fantastic, gloomy and macabre mood is similar. The pieces Nachtstück 1 Funeral processionC Major The Trauerzug has the indication 'Mehr langsam, oft zurückhaltend' ('More slow, often holding back' [the tempo]). The image of ghostly groping is evoked by the short eighth note chords in piano, the harmonic uncertainty—only after eight bars do we reach a secure C major and last not least the rhythmic displacement of the strong beat. In the militaristically solemn funeral marches of Beethoven and Chopin, the dotted rhythm naturally emphasizes the downbeat. In Schumann we still have some rudiments of this militaristic march rhythm, but ironically it is placed on the 'wrong' beat emphasizing the fourth beat and creating a feeling of mocking hesitance. The characteristic repeated motif of descending seconds (b flat-a-g-f-e, f-e-d-c-b) followed by a modified ascending inversion (c-d-e-e-e), and with a dotted rhythmic figure at the third and fourth notes is clearly reminiscent of the characteristic ostinato phrase of the fourth movement of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, which is entitled "The procession to the stake" ("Marche au supplice") (see sections 50–52, bars 17ff). Schumann had written a critique of Berlioz's symphony in "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik " four years earlier, in 1835 , which was by far the longest of his articles. Theo Hirsbrunner has pointed out other signs of influence of Berlioz on Schumann. The same idea is used as opening for the next movement of Nachtstücke in varied form (stepwise descending and ascending seconds, with a characteristic accentuation of the upbeat