"Scenes from Childhood " composed by Robert Schumann, is a set of 13 piano pieces, inspired by a comment his wife, Clara Schumann, had made that he sometimes seemed like a child. Schumann described these pieces as "more cheerful, gentle and melodic than his earlier works" which probably reflected his mood at the time of this composition at the age of 28, when he was deeply in love with Clara and his passion for her had grown even stronger as her father did not allow them to marry. His music had then become more emotional and more experimental.
This collection aims to provide to adults a new way of looking at childhood: children are not trainee future adults but have access to insights and capabilities that are later lost during adulthood. He achieves this by "immersing himself so completely in certain moods, states and memorable moments of the child's world", according to a music critic of that period. Each piece in the collection has a title which takes us to the land of children ( "Of Foreign Lands and People", "A Strange Story", "Catch-as-Catch-can", "Pleading Child", "Happy Enough", "An Important Event", "Dreaming", "By the Fire-side", "Knight of the Hobby-horse", "Almost too Serious", "Frightening, "Child Falling Asleep", "The Poet Speaks"). In the last piece of this collection ("The Poet Speaks"), the composer associates himself with the poet and provides us his own memories of childhood.
A music collection which brings you back to childhood: its playful, joyful, innocent, creative and dreamful moments.