Uploaded December 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago

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This is the fourth piece of Schumann‘s (1810-1856) cycle „Album für die Jugend“ (Album of for the youth). He composed it in 1848 and it contains 43 pieces. The first 18 pieces are meant to be composed for the „Kleineren“ (The younger ones), from the 19th piece it‘s purposed to target „Erwachsenere“ (More mature ones). His intention was to compose compositions of high quality already for beginners that they can develop a good musical taste from the very start.

The pieces of this cycle can be called a „Charakterstück“ (a piece of certain character or theme). In this particular piece a mourning melody portrays grief combined with some swelling sorrow that is expressed with energetic chords.

More approachable and beautiful piano pieces to impress:

Gymnopedie nr. 1: youtu.be/8F8QcN07-0o
Comptine d‘une autre été: youtu.be/5AGcrc9DEeA
From foreign lands and people: youtu.be/UwNpGalZHOM

My best Joe Hisaishi Collection: youtu.be/PzUiA9mNVNk

Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. His teacher, Friedrich Wieck, a German pianist, had assured him that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing.
In 1840, Schumann married Clara Wieck, after a long and acrimonious legal battle with her father, Friedrich, who opposed the marriage. A lifelong partnership in music began, as Clara herself was an established pianist and music prodigy. Clara and Robert also maintained a close relationship with German composer Johannes Brahms.
Until 1840, Schumann wrote exclusively for the piano. Later, he composed piano and orchestral works, and many Lieder (songs for voice and piano). He composed four symphonies, one opera, and other orchestral, choral, and chamber works. His best-known works include Carnaval, Symphonic Studies, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, and the Fantasie in C. Schumann was known for infusing his music with characters through motifs, as well as references to works of literature. These characters bled into his editorial writing in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal for Music), a Leipzig-based publication that he co-founded.
Schumann had mental disorder that first manifested in 1833 as a severe melancholic depressive episode—which recurred several times alternating with phases of "exaltation" and increasingly also delusional ideas of being poisoned or threatened with metallic items. What is now thought to have been a combination of bipolar disorder and perhaps mercury poisoning led to "manic" and "depressive" periods in Schumann's compositional productivity. After a suicide attempt in 1854, Schumann was admitted at his own request to a mental asylum in Endenich (now in Bonn). Diagnosed with psychotic melancholia, he died of pneumonia two years later at the age of 46, without recovering from his mental illness.

#FirstLoss AlbumForTheYouth #Schumann #piano