Davidsbündlertänze

Historical context

Robert Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6, holds a deeply personal significance for the composer. As Schumann himself stated in 1839, the work was “almost entirely inspired” by Clara Wieck and dedicated to her “in a quite special sense.” He further noted in 1838 that the dances were his “particular property” and dedicated to her “more emphatically than any of my other things.” While dedicated to Walther von Goethe, the grandson of the old man, the pieces were infused with Schumann’s feelings for Clara.

Schumann recalled in 1838 that he never spent happier moments at the piano than when composing these dances, which contained “many marriage motifs” and were written in the “finest frenzy” of his experience. He explained that the “whole thing represents a Polterabend” – the evening before a wedding – and he left it to Clara to “fill in the beginning and the end.” Schumann believed the Davidsbündlertänze were quite different from his “Carnaval,” comparing them to “what a face is to a mask,” and noting they were written in happiness, while the others were written in toil and sorrow. He even discovered that it strikes twelve at the end of the “Davids-tanze.”

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.