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Papillons (French for "butterflies"), Op. 2, is a suite of piano pieces written in 1831 by Robert Schumann when he was 21 years old. The work is meant to represent a masked ball and was inspired by Jean Paul's novel Flegeljahre [de] (The Awkward Age).^[1]

The suite begins with a six-measure introduction before launching into a variety of dance-like movements. Each movement is unrelated to the preceding ones, except that the second, A major, theme of the sixth movement recurs in G major in the tenth movement, and the theme of the first movement returns in the finale. Eric Jensen [de] notes that the 11th movement is appropriately a polonaise because the novel's character Wina is Polish.^[2] The last movement starts out by quoting the theme of the traditional "Großvatertanz" (Grandfather's Dance), which was always played at the end of a wedding or similar celebration. Repeated notes near the end of the piece suggest a clock striking, signifying the end of the ball.

Structure

The composition's twelve movements are:

Introduction. Moderato (D major)

Waltz (D major)
Waltz – Prestissimo (E♭ major)
Waltz – Pomposo (F♯ minor)
Waltz – Allegretto vivace (A major)
Polonaise – Allegretto cantabile (B♭ major)
Waltz – Allegro molto (D minor)
Waltz – Semplice (F minor)
Waltz – Allegro con brio (C♯ minor)
Waltz – Prestissimo (B♭ minor)
Waltz – Vivo (C major)
Polonaise – Allegro con spirito (D major)
Finale (D major)

Related works

Schumann quoted some themes from Papillons in his later work, Carnaval, Op. 9, but none of them appear in section no. 9 of that work titled "Papillons". The main waltz theme from the first movement in Papillons was quoted in the section "Florestan", with an explicit acknowledgement written in the score, and again in the final section, "Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins", but without acknowledgement. The "Großvatertanz" also appears in the final section, with the inscription "Thème du XVIIème siècle".

Jörg Widmann quotes the first eight bars of the finale at the beginning of his third string quartet 'The Hunt':^[3]

$\relative c'' { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"piano" \mark "Finale, No. 12" \tempo 4 = 163 \key d \major \time 3/4 \partial 4 a4 | d4. d8 d4 | d e fis | fis e e | e2 e4 | fis4. g8 a4 | a4 g fis | fis e e | e2 }$

"Großvatertanz" (Grandfather's Dance)

References

^ "Explicating Jean Paul: Robert Schumann's Program for Papillons, Op. 2", Eric Frederick Jensen [de] 19th-Century Music, vol. 22, no. 2 (Autumn 1998), pp. 127–143. University of California Press. doi:10.2307/746854. JSTOR 746854
^ Jensen, Eric Frederick (2001). Schumann. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 92–93.
^ "Hunting Quartet". Schott Music. 3 March 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2021.