Schumann Kleine Studie - simple question

[mound]

Been looking through some of the easier pieces in Schumann's Album for the Young. "Kleine Studie" is short and sweet, but both my teacher and I had a question on a particular notation, he was pretty sure he knew what it meant..

on the 2nd page, bar 41, bar 43 and bar 63 the LH arpeggios have "smaller note" arpeggios written below the normal arpeggios.

I don't believe both sets of arpeggios are to be played together.. the sudden introduction of a new voice just doesn't seem to make sense.. My teacher didn't think so either.. He said it was likely that the "smaller note" versions were to be played instead of the "standard size note" arpeggios in the LH, on the 2nd time through (most of the 2nd page is repeated)

Can anybody shed some light on this?

Thanks
-Paul

[bernhard]

Your teacher is right (are teachers ever wrong? The odd mistake maybe, but wrong?!? Nah! )

The little notes are called “ossia” and represent an alternative possibility. Basically Schumann liked both and could not decide which fitted the passage best, so he wrote down both. You can choose the one you like best, or do what players traditionally do in this piece: play it as written the first time, and on the repeat play the ossia version instead (that is what I do anyway).

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[mound]

Excellent.. My teacher also wasn't sure if it was editorial or Schumann's own writing.. How do you know it was Schumann not being able to make up his mind?

[beethovenfan]

Excellent.. My teacher also wasn't sure if it was editorial or Schumann's own writing.. How do you know it was Schumann not being able to make up his mind?

Do you have the "Urtext - edition"?, If yes, it was Schumann.

[mound]

Do you have the "Urtext - edition"?, If yes, it was Schumann.

No, I don't have the urtext of this particular album.  funny, my teacher said the same thing

[bernhard]

Excellent.. My teacher also wasn't sure if it was editorial or Schumann's own writing.. How do you know it was Schumann not being able to make up his mind?

It is definitely Schumann’s. I read about it in some footnote on – I believe – the ABRSM  edition – I will look at it later (have to find the book first!).

Of course there is a much more plausible explanation: The Album for the young was written for the  - well – young. Handspan may be a problem. So the Ossia is the version that Schumann considered better, but which a child may not be able to negotiate since it requires larger hands.

As I said both versions are very nice, so most people when playing them (if they have large enough hands) tend to play both, the ossia one on the repeat.

How do we know these things in general. In the case of Schumann we are fortunate that Schumann was an obsessive diarist (after marriage he even registered how frequently he made love to Clara, so we know even those saucy details!) and letter writer, so he went out of his way to write about almost everything he composed. Most of it makes for wonderful reading (he was a superlative writer as well – as was Mendelssohn). Dover publishes a collection of his music criticism (“Schumann on music”), and both his complete letters and diaries as well as selections have been published.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.