Slumber song

He gave a present to me and my little Marie of a delightful lullaby composed that Christmas afternoon, Clara Schumann noted in the family diary they shared. This "Slumer Song" of 1841 Robert Schumann later included as No. 16 in his collection of Albumblätter (Album Leaves) Op. 124. The collection of twenty miniatures for piano was written over a fairly long period of time: the first piedes were written in 1832/33 and the composer started work on the last piece, the Canon, in 1845. In 1853 Schumann had the idea of brining together barious individual pieces that didn't fit in anywhere else in a collection of Albumblätter that was published in December of the same year. It is a bright bouquet of poetic little piano pieces of moderate technical difficulty: there can be no comparsion with grand works such as his G minor piano sonata of Carnaval. These musical aphorisms were not intended for the concert hall, though, but for domestic music making: this is chamber music in the true sense of the term. After unpleasant wrangling that even involved going to court to obtain permission to marry Clara Wieck, there followed a time of intense productivity for Robert Schumann: 1840 was his "year of songs" and 1841 his "year of symphonies". Their marriage, which eventually took place against the wishes of Schumann's father-in-law, and the birth of their first child on 1 September 1841 contributed much to his personal happiness. It was for Marie that the hyppy father now composed this "Slumber Song", which has enjoyed great popularity ever since: a simple and tender lullaby, written by the father as a surprise ´gift. This lullgy lends itself very well to being performed on a melodic instrument with piano accompaniment, as in thes edition for violin.