Analysis and Research on Schumann's Piano Piece "Abegg Variations"

In the 19th century, European music entered into the Romantic period, duringwhich, the European Continent gave birth to a large number of world-renownedmusicians, such as Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Berlioz, Brahms, Wagner,Verdi, etc.. They dedicated themselves to composing quantities of music as valuablespiritual wealth for later generations, and added a brilliant, bright color to the historyof European music.Among these musicians, Robert Schumann, is a comparativelyrepresentative one. His music is crafted with a strong romantic flavor, so it is of greatvalue to appreciate and study. During his life, Schumann has created a large numberof music, with a range of distinct genres. His talent is especially showed on his pianomusic. With a melodic and fresh style, Schumann’s piano music richens itself byportraying the psychological activities and emotions of people in a profound and vividway. It can be said that piano music is the part of most artistic value of Schumannmusic.Schumann music can be divided into distinct stages, and almost all of his pianomusic was composed or published before 1840. His variations are scarce in number,but of much representativeness. Both his first and last piano music are variations,which is enough to prove his preference to this genre. With a unique charm,Schumann’s piano variations bring his musicianship into full play. Even in his musicof other genres, the usage of variation can be often seen.Abegg Variation this paper will study is the first piano variation of Schumann aswell as his first publicly published piano music. Although small in its scale, thisworks displays Schumann’s talent and unique flavor. He has put emotions and poetryinto the whole works. What’s more important, his distinct literariness and dualityshaped by Romanic literature and his temperature infiltrate themselves into AbeggVariation. And the forms of these two characteristics in the music will be a focus ofthis paper.