Papillons

Much of the music Schumann composed during his twenties consisted of piano miniatures, often with fanciful titles and regularly published in collections with suggestive names such as Carnaval, Scenes from Childhood or Kreisleriana. His twin obsessions during this time were the piano-duet dances of Schubert (whose larger music was still to be rediscovered) and the novels of the Romantic author Jean Paul Richter. The latter’s Flegeljahre was a particular favourite; the title’s allusion to a wild adolescence struck a chord with the young composer and he considered the novel “like the Bible”. The story concerns two estranged brothers, dreamy Walt and passionate Vult, in competition for a legacy and (naturally) for the hand of the beautiful Wina, with whom they are both in love. Butterflies are a recurring motif in the novel and Schumann’s Papillons, composed between 1829 and 1831, is a direct response to the final scene at a masked ball. Schumann described the scenario to the poet Ludwig Rellstab in terms that correspond to the 12 dances that follow the all-too-brief Introduction: “Walt—Vult—the masks—Wina—Vult’s dancing—they exchange masks—confessions—rage—revelations—they rush away—the final scene and Vult leaves, playing his flute.” The closing number combines the “Grandfather’s Dance”, the traditional conclusion to a masked ball, with a wistful recollection of the waltz from the first dance, before a clock is heard chiming to herald the dawn.