Schumann R. Kreisleriana. Cycle pieces for piano

Schumann called his cycle “Kreisleriana” already after the composition was completed. It was inspired by the “insane chapel-master Johann Kreisler”, the character of E. Th. A. Hoffmann's musical stories. This literary personage was close to the young ardent composer, i. e. Kreisler's passion for music as the voice of the lofty romantic zeal, incongruity and rebellious spirit directed against any other function of music connected with philistinism, cold-blooded scientific attitude and stupid fashion. However, the cycle is not based exactly on the narration of Hoffman's story. This is just the pseudonym, literary analogy, for to utter the predominant spirit of the whole composition. The eight pieces forming “Kreisleriana” abound with twice more independent thematical episodes. Schumann's principle of free variations is used here in full swing. There is no definite chief theme here; nevertheless the main musical character gets its miraculous embodiments throughout the pieces, thus uniting the whole cycle according to the so-called piano symphonism peculiar to Schumann. The piano cycle “Kreisleriana” belongs to the most bosom, intimate and emotional compositions by the great master Robert Schumann, thus getting the right to be identified as “Schumaniana”. (D. Zhitomirsky. Robert Schumannn.)