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29
PHILIPPE BIANCONI
Following the example of the quotations from
Papillons
in
Carnaval
, the third piece
of the
Davidsbündlertänze
quotes in its turn a motif from the movement of
Carnaval
called
Promenade
– a subtler but no less significant allusion that demonstrates the
filiation between these works.
I sense a great joy in composing in
Carnaval
, while in the
Davidsbündlertänze
there’s
a deeper happiness, but also a deeper anguish. We mustn’t forget that the genesis
of the work came during a sorrowful period for Schumann and Clara, when they
were separated by her father’s inflexible resolve. The work’s duality is expressed
in the alternation between reverie and elation – Eusebius and Florestan – but
also between joy and unhappiness, as is implied by the lines that headed the first
edition:
In all’ und jeder Zeit
Verknüpft sich Lust und Leid:
Bleibt fromm in Lust und seyd
Dem Leid mit Muth bereit.
(Alter Spruch)
1
As the years goby – I recorded the
Davidsbündlertänze
for the first time nearly twenty
years ago – I feel this conflicting pull between moments of happiness, sometimes
almost of bliss, and moments of darkness and anguish, much more keenly than I
used to.