Kinderscenen, Op.15

Von fremden Ländern und Menschen (Of foreign lands and people)

Kuriose Geschichte (Curious story)

Hasche-Mann (Catch me)

Bittendes Kind (Pleading child)

Glückes Genug (Happy enough)

Wichtige Begebenheit (Important event)

Traümerei (Dreaming)

Am Kamin (By the fireside)

Ritter vom Steckenpferd (Knight of the hobby-horse)

Fast zu ernst (Almost too serious)

Fürchtenmachen (Frightening)

Kind im Einschlummern (Child falling asleep)

Der Dichter spricht (The poet speaks)

Though written in March 1838, during the agonizing period of Schumann’s enforced separation from Clara Wieck, the Kinderscenen seem at first to have nothing to do with the adult world of parental hostility and romantic frustration. In fact they are part of it. As Robert explained to Clara, “They are like an echo of what you once wrote to me, that I sometimes ‘seem like a child’ to you.” The epilogue to the set, where the composer so tenderly reveals himself at last, says much the same thing.

Alongside the innocent expression of each of the other pieces, there is a subtle variation-like connection between them. The yearning minor sixth at the beginning of the first piece is not the only recurring motif but it is the most significant - as when it so plaintively rises again in Bittendes Kind. Traümerei dreams instead of a major sixth and, though mostly frustrated by a fourth, twice makes it. But, as Am Kamin indicates, you can be just as happy by the fireside with a perfect fourth. Fast zu ernst almost too seriously fails to make the sixth and to free itself from a cramped syncopation. After a frightening episode, however, the child falls asleep comforted by a rocking rhythm and as many major and minor sixths as it likes.

Von fremden Ländern und Menschen (Of foreign lands and people)

Kuriose Geschichte (Curious story)

Hasche-Mann (Catch me)

Bittendes Kind (Pleading child)

Glückes Genug (Happy enough)

Wichtige Begebenheit (Important event)

Traümerei (Dreaming)

Am Kamin (By the fireside)

Ritter vom Steckenpferd (Knight of the hobby-horse)

Fast zu ernst (Almost too serious)

Fürchtenmachen (Frightening)

Kind im Einschlummern (Child falling asleep)

Der Dichter spricht (The poet speaks)

The Kinderscenen were written in March 1838, midway between the Davidsbündler­tänze and Kreisleriana. On the surface they seem to have nothing to do with the adult world of those two agonized expressions of the frustration of the composer’s enforced separation from Clara Wieck. In fact they are part of it. As Schumann wrote to Clara – whom he had known since she was nine – “I’ve put on my frilly dress and composed thirty charming little things from which I’ve selected about twelve and called them ’Scenes from Childhood.’ They are like an echo of what you once wrote to me, that I sometimes ‘seem like a child’ to you.”   

Alongside the innocent expression of each piece, there is a subtle variation-like connection between them. The thematic outline of the first, with its rising minor sixth and dotted rhythm between the third and fourth notes, impresses itself on the others. The sixth might be left out and the dotted rhythm put into a 3/4 instead of a 2/4 context, but the outline is still perceptible - which is what makes the story of the second piece so curious. In Hasche-Mann    the sixth is filled in and the rhythm evened out in pattering semiquavers. The original intervals, plaintive in Bittendes Kind, are ingeniously adapted to suggest the happiness of the fifth piece.

The interval of the sixth is again left out in Wichtiges Begebenheit, which is a heavily satirical version of Kuriose Geschichte. Traümerei dreams of a major sixth and, though mostly frustrated by a fourth, twice makes it. However, as Am Kamin indicates, you can be just as happy    by the fireside with a perfect fourth. Ritter vom Steckenpferd is traditionally translated as “Knight of the rocking horse” but, as the ingenious rhythms make clear, what Schumann had in mind was a hobby horse. The tenth piece almost too seriously fails to make the sixth and to free itself from a cramped syncopation. However, after a frightening episode, the child falls asleep comforted by a rocking rhythm and as many major and minor sixths as it likes.

Finally, the poet speaks – in riddles unless, that is, you recognise the three or four Clara-Robert allusions with which the composer reveals himself and the content of his own dreams.