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Repertoire Robert Schumann 1848 Op. 68 No. 1

Melody

From the Album for the Young, Op. 68 No. 1

Easy Full

Two steps

First the easy arrangement, then the full version: the same notes, with more voices and detail.

Easy version Lesson 02 Schumann, Melody: two hands Full version Lesson 07 Schumann's Melody: the full version

The scores

Both versions in full: listen to them before you open the lesson.

The story of the piece

Robert Schumann composed the Album for the Young, Op. 68, in 1848 for his children. It began with a present: on 1 September his eldest daughter, Marie, turned seven, and her father gave her a few little pieces. Clara Schumann wrote in her diary that the pieces children usually learnt in their lessons were not very good, and Robert had the idea of composing and publishing a whole collection of pieces for children.

The collection came out in Hamburg in December 1848: 43 pieces in two parts, "For the Younger Ones" and "For the Older Ones". "Melody" opens the first part and the whole album. For the second edition Schumann added his "Musical Rules for Home and Life", short pieces of advice for a young musician. One of them is exactly what this course teaches: "You must get to the point where you understand music on paper."

In "Melody" the right hand carries an unhurried tune while the left, almost without a break, runs through eighth notes beneath it: broken chords. In lesson 02 you play an easy arrangement: the tune and one bass note per half bar. In lesson 07 you play the whole piece as printed in the Peters edition, with that left-hand figure.