' (, "Scenes from Childhood"), Op. 15, by

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...

, is a set of thirteen pieces of music for piano written in 1838.

History and description

Schumann wrote 30 movements for this work but chose 13 for the final version. The unused movements were later published in ''Bunte Blätter'', Op. 99, and '' Albumblätter'', Op. 124. Schumann initially intended to publish ''Kinderszenen'' together with '' Novelletten'' (Opus 21); the shared literary theme is suggested by the original title ''Kindergeschichten'' (Children's Tales). He told his wife Clara that the "thirty small, droll things", most of them less than a page in length, were inspired by her comment that he sometimes seemed "like a child". He described them in 1840 as "more cheerful, gentler, more melodic" than his earlier works. Movement No. 7 of the work, ', is one of Schumann's best known pieces; it is the opening and closing musical theme of the 1947 Hollywood film '' Song of Love'', and ' is the title of a 1944 German

biographical film A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from Docudrama, docudrama films ...

on Schumann. In Russia, a hummed choral

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

version became known as mourning music, being played annually during the

Minute of Silence Minuta Molchanya () known for its full title as To the Bright Memory of the Fallen in the Fight Against Fascism () is an annual simultaneous broadcast aired at 18:00 UTC annually on 9 May dedicated to the victims of Great Patriotic War. It broa ...

Victory Day Victory Day is a commonly used name for public holidays in various countries, where it commemorates a nation's triumph over a hostile force in a war or the liberation of a country from hostile occupation. In many cases, multiple countries may ob ...

. Originally called ''Leichte Stücke'' ("Easy Pieces"), the section titles were only added after the completion of the composition, and Schumann described them as "nothing more than delicate hints for execution and interpretation". Timothy D. Taylor, however, has discussed the choice of titles for this work in the context of the changing situation of music culturally and economically, stating that the final movement, entitled ''Der Dichter spricht'' (The Poet Speaks), marked a realisation among composers that, due to the decline of patronage structures in the 19th century, their musical works must take on new meanings. There is no known complete manuscript of ''Kinderszenen''.

Pieces

Recordings

Notes

References

External links

Autograph manuscript
of "Von fremden Ländern und Menschen", preserved in the

Robert Schumann House Robert Schumann House is a museum in Zwickau in Germany. The composer Robert Schumann was born here in 1810; it now houses a large collection relating to the composer. Background Three years before the composer was born, Schumann's family move ...

* * *, Cyprien Katsaris * , Clifford Curzon {{Authority control Piano music by Robert Schumann Compositions for solo piano 1838 compositions