Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 09/04/2013, uploaded on 04/10/2014

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Robert Schumann’s composition output was dominated by piano music up until 1840. His compositions of this period were highly Romantic and strikingly original. The English theorist and composer, Ebenezer Prout, called him one of the greatest harmonic experimenters of the Romantic period. Much of his piano music is still well-known today and forms an important part of the repertoire.

Carnaval was written in 1834-35 and was subtitled Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes (Little Scenes on Four Notes). The work is a collection a short pieces that represent masked revelers at Carnival, a festival occurring before the Christian tradition of Lent. During the course of the piece, Schumann musically represents himself, his friends and colleagues, as well as characters from commedia dell’arte, or improvised Italian comedy. Edward Elgar would later do the same thing in his famous Enigma Variations in which he characterized his friends in each variation.

Even more intriguing than Schumann’s characterizations of his friends, is his use of a sort of musical code or puzzle in the work. Composers throughout music history have found ways to encrypt messages into their works either by using pitches to stand for letters in a name or acronym, or through the use of numerology. In Carnaval each piece is based on a musical motif of four notes that recurs in different forms. The basis of the musical motif is the name of a German town named Asch. The following motives derived from this are:

·      A, E flat, C, B - rendered as A-S-C-H in German

·      A flat, C, B - rendered as As-C-H in German

·      E flat, C, B, A - rendered as H-C-S-A in German

Understanding the permutations of the motif requires a little knowledge of German music notation. In German, B natural is called H while B flat is called simply B. Furthermore, A flat in German is called "As," and E flat is called "Es," sounding as in the letter "S." Thus, the letters of "Asch" are transformed into the three motives seen above. The town of Asch is significant because at the time Schumann was engaged to woman from that town by the name of Ernestine von Fricken. Other interpretations of the motive have been suggested as well. The letters form part of the German word "Fasching" which means "carnival," and "asch" itself is the German word for "ash" as in Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Furthermore, the letters also represent those capable of musical interpretation in Schumann’s own name: Schumann.

During his lifetime, Schumann’s piano music was considered technically challenging and was not performed often. However, today Carnaval is one of his most popular piano pieces and a staple piece of the repertoire.     Joseph DuBose

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.