Robert Schumann, "Eusebius" from Carnaval, Op. 9 (1835)
Back to Era Robert Schumann's Carnaval, a collection of small piano pieces completed in 1835, shows the composer intertwining his innermost personal world with his public life as pianist, music critic, and composer. The work was inspired by his infatuation with Ernestine von Fricken, a young pianist whom he met in Leipzig. Each of its miniature character pieces uses motives made from the musical letters of Ernestine's hometown of Asch (in German solf�ge, these letters suggest the notes A, Ab, Eb, C, and B), and Schumann was delighted to find that these letters also occur in his own last name. Musical letters from Asch, for example, make up virtually all of the notes of the motive in measure 1 of the right hand in the piece titled "Eusebius."
Schumann's reflections upon himself in this work go well beyond musical ciphers. The titles of two of the pieces, "Florestan" and "Eusebius," come from fantasy names that Schumann gave to different sides of his own personality. Florestan was Schumann as bold and impetuous; Eusebius, the introspective and dreamy side of the composer's imagination. These latter qualities are much apparent in the quiet piece titled "Eusebius."