Schumann originally wanted to call this sombre collection âCorpse Fantasiaâ. It was written under very stressful and mysterious circumstances around the time of his brother Eduardâs death in 1839.
He later wrote to Clara that âhe kept seeing funeral processions, coffins, and unhappy, distraught figures". Almost immediately after these frightening visions appeared he received the news that his brother was dying.
The strangeness continued, as Schumann recounted in another letter to Clara: "Last Saturday, at half past two in the morning, while I was still on the road [on the way to visit Eduard], I heard a chorale played by trombones."
It was at that very moment, the composer later discovered, that his brother passed on.
