Scherzo, Gigue, Romanze und Fughette op.32 
composed 1838/1839 
dedicated to Miss Amalie Rieffel

Scherzo, Sehr markiert, B-flat major
Gigue, Sehr schnell, G minor
Romanze, Sehr rasch und mit Bravour, D-minor
Fughette, Leise, G minor

 The Klavierstücke, op. 32, are motivically interrelated, and make up a small Schumannesque suite. All four movements share a dance-like character. The gigue is a dance that often ends Bach’s Suites. In a letter to the mortally-ill music lover Henriette Voigt, the dedicatee of the Sonata in G minor, Schumann wrote: “…I have again been rescued by Bach, and so have regained the strength to work and to love.” The fughettas, whose rhythm and motifs are related to the last Nachtstück, were supplemented by Schumann after the return from Vienna. He wrote to Clara in 1839 about the Scherzo, Gigue, Romanze und Fughette, op. 32: “The Gigue is an old, outmoded dance in triple meter with fugal entrances. Do you like it?”
 

mbasting@t-online.de 

Translation: William Melton
© Franz Vorraber