Kinderszenen

"Träumerei" redirects here. For the 1944 film of the same name, see Dreaming (1944 German film).

Kinderszenen
by Robert Schumann
First edition title page
English	Scenes from Childhood
Opus	15
Period	Romantic period
Composed	1838
Movements	13 pieces
Scoring	Solo piano

Kinderszenen (German pronunciation: [ˈkɪndɐˌst͡seːnən], "Scenes from Childhood"), Op. 15, by Robert Schumann, is a set of thirteen pieces of music for piano written in 1838.

History and description

Schumann wrote 30 movements for this work but chose 13 for the final version. The unused movements were later published in Bunte Blätter, Op. 99, and Albumblätter, Op. 124. Schumann initially intended to publish Kinderszenen together with Novelletten (Opus 21); the shared literary theme is suggested by the original title Kindergeschichten (Children's Tales). He told his wife Clara that the "thirty small, droll things", most of them less than a page in length, were inspired by her comment that he sometimes seemed "like a child". He described them in 1840 as "more cheerful, gentler, more melodic" than his earlier works.

Movement No. 7 of the work, Träumerei, is one of Schumann's best known pieces; it is the opening and closing musical theme of the 1947 Hollywood film Song of Love, and Träumerei is the title of a 1944 German biographical film on Schumann. In Russia, a hummed choral a cappella version became known as mourning music, being played annually during the Minute of Silence on Victory Day. In 2021, violinist Fenella Humphreys released an arrangement of Träumerei for violin.

Originally called Leichte Stücke ("Easy Pieces"), the section titles were only added after the completion of the composition, and Schumann described them as "nothing more than delicate hints for execution and interpretation". Timothy D. Taylor, however, has discussed the choice of titles for this work in the context of the changing situation of music culturally and economically, stating that the final movement, entitled Der Dichter spricht (The Poet Speaks), marked a realisation among composers that, due to the decline of patronage structures in the 19th century, their musical works must take on new meanings.

There is no known complete manuscript of Kinderszenen.

Pieces

Title	Key	Play
01. Von fremden Ländern und Menschen 00. Of Foreign Lands and Peoples	G major
02. Kuriose Geschichte 00. A Curious Story	D major
03. Hasche-Mann 00. Blind Man's Buff	B minor
04. Bittendes Kind 00. Pleading Child	D major
05. Glückes genug 00. Happy Enough	D major
06. Wichtige Begebenheit 00. An Important Event	A major
07. Träumerei 00. Dreaming	F major
08. Am Kamin 00. At the Fireside	F major
09. Ritter vom Steckenpferd 00. Knight of the Hobbyhorse	C major
10. Fast zu ernst 00. Almost Too Serious	G♯ minor
11. Fürchtenmachen 00. Frightening	E minor – G major
12. Kind im Einschlummern 00. Child Falling Asleep	E minor - E major
13. Der Dichter spricht 00. The Poet Speaks	G major

Recordings

Pianist	Piano	Label	Recording year
Jörg Demus	Conrad Graf (c. 1835)	SKC	1979
Penelope Crawford	Conrad Graf (1835)	Musica Omnia	2014
Richard Burnett	Conrad Graf (1841)	FSM	1982
Eric Zivian	Franz Rausch (1841)	Avie Records	2011
Jan Vermeulen	Johann Nepomuk Tröndlin (1830–1835)	Accent	2010
Andreas Staier	Erard (1837)	Harmonia Mundi	2007
Yuan Sheng	Streicher (1846)	Piano Classics	2018
Piet Kuijken	Streicher (1850)	Fuga Libera	2007, 2009
Byron Schenkman	Streicher (1875)

External links

• Autograph manuscript of "Von fremden Ländern und Menschen", preserved in the Robert Schumann House
• Media related to Kinderszenen at Wikimedia Commons
• Kinderszenen: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Kinderszenen on YouTube, Cyprien Katsaris
• Kinderszenen on YouTube, Clifford Curzon