Kinderszenen

In the classical domain, children’s music tends toward two main types: that which is written specifically for young people to play, such as Schumann’s own Album für die Jugend (Album for the Young, 1848), a collection of 43 enchanting miniatures composed for his three daughters, and those works concerning childhood but composed with more accomplished players in mind, including Bizet’s Jeux d’enfants (Children’s Games, 1871) and Schumann’s Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood, 1838). The latter is a collection of 13 delightful vignettes whose poetic stream of consciousness is often technically quite exacting, despite their prevailingly innocent tone. We know from a letter Schumann wrote to his beloved Clara Wieck (destined to become his wife two years later), that he initially “rushed off” 30 pieces in a flurry of inspiration, from which he made the final selection. The remainder were published in the early 1850s as part of Bünte Blätter (Colourful Leaves) and Albumblätter (Album Leaves). He even considered at one stage publishing Kinderszenen together with the more boldly etched and technically formidable Op. 21 Novelletten, under the collective title of Kindergeschichten (Children’s Tales). Kinderszenen’s many delights range from the excitable “Hasche-Mann” (“Blindman’s Buff”) and “Ritter vom Steckenpferd” (“Knight of the Hobbyhorse”) to the warm contentment of “Am Kamin” (“By the Fireside”) and, most famously, “Träumerei” (“Dreaming”).