Schumann's Piano Symphony

Etudes Symphoniques, Op. 13

Schumann's "Symphonic" Etudes are slightly confused. It seems like they cannot decide whether to be in variation form or etudes. Instead of deciding, Schumann just does both.. The Etudes are based on a theme, actually composed by the father of Ernestine von Fricken, the woman Schumann was engaged to, origionally for flute. The Etudes are more of character variations than etudes at times, but alternate with etudes like writing, for one or more technical difficulty exploited throughout the variation. Schumann labels them all variations, with finale.

Schumann's Etudes are very different than those of say Chopin or Liszt. Schumann's etudes usually explore some kind of Rhythmic oddity, much of the time underneath or over top of a lyrical melody, sometimes not, much of which is in thick texture and fat writing. Schumann's "etudes" don't have any kind of virtuosic scalar passages or flashiness to them at all. Schumann was firmly against the flashiness of other Romantic composers such as Liszt and Wagner.

The Symphonic Etudes were not meant to be played with orchestra or anything ridiculous. One can argue however, with Schumann's thick texture-style of wrting, that they could appear 'symphonic' in that sense. Or, labeling them "Symphonic" etudes is just a big fat label of attention..