Fantasiestücke
German
The composition of the Fantasiestücke for piano and clarinet in 1849 marks the beginning of Schumann becoming especially interested in the chamber music miniature, which he scored for instrumental ensembles uncommon in the conventional genres such as the string quartet. The three Fantasy-pieces are short character images of expression that lie somewhere between an “absolute” concept of the sonata and a series of genre pieces with programmatic imagery. More related to the three-part song or rondo form, they also display a lyricism for which Schumann is most famous in his earlier vocal works. Thematic material is interwoven between the movements, but not in an entirely obvious fashion – giving the listener a sense of having heard a mini-sonata presented in a rather abstract way.