SINFONISCHE ETÜDEN op.13 
2.Fassung komponiert 1852

5 NACHGELASSENE ETÜDEN o.op.

He wrote Hauptmann von Fricken about the Symphonic Variations, op. 13 (for which Fricken’s Variations for Flute had provided the main theme), that they “were created as a mosaic of colorful pieces of glass…whereby the landscape seems at turns as pink as sunset, or as golden as a sunny morning…” They represent a highly differentiated and novel essay in variation form. The piano writing in the work is structurally dense and at the same time extended. The colorful pieces of glass are portrayed musically through the unusually colorful and resonant treatment of the piano. 
Originally Schumann wanted a “Funeral march which slowly peaked to a victory march, and afterwards encompassed further dramatic ideas.” In the victory march of the finale he cited “Du stolzes England, freue dich” from Marschner’s opera “Templer und Jüdin.” The posthumous Five Etudes were originally a part of this large variation work, but were not included by Schumann in the first edition, nor in the version of 1852.
 

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