Papillons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Papillons (French for "butterflies"), Op. 2, is a suite of piano pieces written in 1831 by Robert Schumann when he was 21 years old. The work is meant to represent a masked ball and was inspired by Jean Paul's novel Flegeljahre [de] (The Awkward Age).[1]
The suite begins with a six-measure introduction before launching into a variety of dance-like movements. Each movement is unrelated to the preceding ones, except that the second, A major, theme of the sixth movement recurs in G major in the tenth movement, and the theme of the first movement returns in the finale. Eric Jensen [de] notes that the 11th movement is appropriately a polonaise because the novel's character Wina is Polish.[2] The last movement starts out by quoting the theme of the traditional "Großvatertanz" (Grandfather's Dance), which was always played at the end of a wedding or similar celebration. Repeated notes near the end of the piece suggest a clock striking, signifying the end of the ball.