Fantasiestücke op.12 
composed in 1837 - dedicated to Miss Anna Robena Laidlaw

Des Abends - Aufschwung - Warum? - Grillen -
In der Nacht - Fabel - 
Traumes Wirren - Ende vom Lied


Schumann's "Fantasiestücke," Op. 12, composed in 1837, are dedicated to Miss Anna Robena Laidlaw. The titles ("Des Abends/Of the Evening," "Aufschwung," "Warum?," "Grillen," "In der Nacht," "Fabel," "Traumes Wirren," "Ende vom Lied") are taken from E. T. A. Hoffmann's Fantasy Pieces in Callot's manner.
Schumann's comment  about composing them was, "One can spread out quite comfortably." In reference to "Carnaval" he wrote that "thunder and lightning" were less important than "eternal conditions and moods." About the"Fantasiestücke" he wrote Clara Wieck: "Later, when I was finished, I joyfully came across the story of Hero and Leander. You know it, of course. Leander swims every night across the sea to his beloved, who waits at a lighthouse showing the way with a burning torch. It is an old, beautiful, romantic tale.
When I play "In der Nacht" I cannot forget this mental picture: how he dives into the sea, she calls, he answers, he happily surges through the waves to land, then the cantilena when they embrace, then as they cannot bear to part when he must leave, and the night again covers all in darkness." "At the end ["Ende vom Lied"] all is resolved in a joyful wedding, but there is also pain because of you, and it sounds like a wedding and a dirge mixed together."
 

mbasting@t-online.de
 

Translation: William Melton
© Franz Vorraber