Fantasie

Historical context

Robert Schumann began sketching his three-movement Fantasie, Op. 17, in June 1836, completing it, all but the details, by 1838. He described the first movement as “more impassioned than anything I have ever written,” further calling it “one long wail over you” in 1838. Schumann later told Clara Wieck in 1839 that she would only understand the “Phantasie” if she recalled the “unhappy summer of 1836, when I had to give you up.” He also asked her what she thought of the first movement and if it conjured many images in her mind, noting he liked a particular melody best.

The work was eventually published by Breitkopf and Härtel. Schumann had considered other titles for some Fantasias, such as “Ruine, Siegesbogen und Sternbild, und Dichtungen,” finding “Dichtungen” a “very refined and most characteristic title for a piece of music” in 1838. When Liszt played parts of the Phantasie, Schumann was “quite moved” in 1840, noting that while Liszt’s reading differed from his own conception, it was “always genial and full of delicacy and strong feeling.” Schumann also recalled in 1840 that Liszt’s playing of parts of the Phantasie “moved me strangely,” even though his reading differed from Schumann’s own.

Drawn from Schumann, Robert, 1810-1856, The letters of Robert Schumann (1907); May Herbert, Early Letters Of Robert Schumann (1888); Schumann, Robert, 1810-1856; Storck, Karl, 1873-1920; Bryant, Hannah, The letters of Robert Schumann; (1907) — public domain, archive.org.