From Childhood are intended for adults, representing not so much the world viewed through the eyes of a child as they are an idealized childhood reflected upon by an adult, colored by the nostalgia one develops for an earlier innocence.
A striking feature of Kinderszenen is the way the music seems to grow out of itself. Beethoven, who died when Schumann was still a teenager, is generally credited with creating the process called "thematic transformation," in which small kernels of music--short melodic phrases or harmonic or rhythmic patterns--are extended, changed and combined to create new musical elements.
The five notes at the very opening of the first movement, Von fremden Ländern und Menschen ("From Foreign Lands and People") are the seed out of which the entire collections grows, especially the ascending fifth in the right-hand melody and the little dotted "skipping" rhythm. This is what gives the 13 movements such cohesion and makes the Kinderszenen a satisfying whole.
Schumann helps us by connecting various movements so that they seem to blend seamlessly, the way scenes in a movie disolve into one another. The first striking example is the ending of movement 4, Bittendes Kind ("Entreating Child"), which leaves us hanging in midair, like the child who is so anxiously awaiting some desired result. And like that child, we feel the same satisfaction when Schumann grants that entreaty in movement 5, Glückes Genug (usually translated as "Perfect Happiness" but more literally "sufficient happiness").
After the first six movements, which seem to form a cycle in themselves, comes what is far and away the most famous movement, Traümerei [TROY-mer-eye] which is usually translated as "Dreaming" but can also refer to a waking reverie or day-dream. It serves as a moment of blissful repose in the middle of the collection. It also exemplifies one of the primary attractions this work holds for professional performers and students alike: the Kinderszenen may not call for the phenomenal technique required by much of Schumann's other piano music, but it allows for endless variety of emotion and nuance. Like many of the other movements, the music is of a deceptive simplicity-deceptive, because "simple" does not necessarily equate with "easy."
Schumann connects movements 8 (Am Camin, or "By the Fireside") and 9 (Ritter vom Steckenpferd, or "Knight of the Rocking Horse") with an off-beat rhythm that might be depicting the flickering of flames or the galloping of a horse. But we should not put too much emphasis on any pictorial quality of the music; Schumann claimed that the titles of the individual selections within the Kinderszenen were added only after the music had been composed, as a sort of guide to the performer.
Schumann's childhood memories essentially end with movement 12, Kind im Einschlummern ("Child Falling Asleep"), in which musical ideas, like the images that flood our mind as we drift off, arise and fall and blend. But Schumann appends a final movement, Der Dichter Spricht ("The Poet Speaks"), the "Poet" perhaps representing the adult who has been recalling childhood. Schumann concludes the sentimental journey we have just taken with a hymn-like chorale that is interrupted by a recitative-like passage (one that suggests speaking more than singing) before lapsing back into the chorale-like mood.
The Poet seems to be telling us that the music itself does not so much portray specific memories but rather is itself a celebration of remembering. We do not need to make a detailed analysis and identify every similar melodic interval or rhythmic pattern. Our minds will subconsciously detect the composer's subtle musical connections if we only surrender to the music. Whether one is able to perform these pieces or simply listens to them on the enclosed CD, each of us is free to rediscover his or her own real--or imagined--childhood within Schumann's musical landscape.
