Schumann's Butterflies

Papillons, Op. 2

Robert Schumann's Papillons, or "Butterflies" depicts a masquerade ballroom scene in Jean Paul Richter's novel Flegeljahre. All of the music directly relates to the text of the novel, and Schumann has done such a brilliant job of painting several pictures of the ballroom scene.

This particular scene in Jean Paul's novel follow the events of two brothers - Walt and Vult, as they hunt for dancing partners at the ballroom throughout the night. All of the 12 short "pieces" that make up Papillons are in triple meter, with the exception of No. 2 and a brief section of the Finale, obviously emphasizing, and maintaining the ballroom dance feel throughout the entire composition. The story mostly follows Walt's account of the evening, his search for Wina, and arguing and dealing with his brother Vult. Schumann beautifully sets the entire thing to music, depicting all kinds of emotions, scenes, characters, boots (randomly), and events that take place throughout the course of the night.

The entire work is quite remarkable, and it's no wonder why this work is such a favorite. I can really appreciate how Schumann can maintain the triple meter throughout while still providing enough interest to keep the whole thing from getting boring, whilst following the plot down to the detail. Wonderful.

It is important to note that Schumann uses several important themes here, which he reuses in his other works (Carnaval, op. 9) including the famous "Grandfather's Dance," which is based on a German folk song, which serves here as the Finale of Papillons. The other theme Schumann will reuse is the theme from No. 1, which in the finale overlaps with the "Grandfather's Dance" quite nicely. Schumann revisits both of these themes in the next work I will discuss - Carnaval Op. 9.