t South Bend, Indiana, in the summer of 1870. Before that I had
heard but very few of the Schumann works, and these had not been well
done and so had failed of making an impression. I was much surprised
when Dr. Mason told me that one could not properly understand Beethoven
without knowing Schumann. And it was like opening a new world when I
began with the Novelette in E, the Fantasy Pieces, opus 12, and the
Romance in F-sharp, opus 28.

The most distinguishing quality of the Schumann music, and the one
which perhaps demarcates it from other music most strikingly, is its
hearty quality, its spontaneity, its headlong driving speed. Another
quality almost or quite equally notable is its conciseness. Schumann
is above all the poet of the short, the clear, the well-defined. In
parallel line with this is his habit of employing fanciful designations
for his short pieces, generally poetical titles suggesting a mood or a
scene. Examples of this latter peculiarity occur in the present
program. The titles were perhaps always put on after the piece had
been composed. It is not known with certainty whether Schumann had the
idea of the title in his mind in composing the piece. In most cases it
serves merely as a suggestion to the player of a proper standpoint for
conceiving the work.

Another peculiarity of Schumann's writing is the close unity of each
little piece or movement. He develops his period or his two periods
out of a single motive or a motive and a counter-theme, and the leading
idea is repeated several times. When the first idea gives place to a
second idea, this proves to be something totally unlike the idea which
it follows, making with it a strong contrast. In the clearness of his
moods and their contrast is one source of the vigor of impression which
the Schumann music has made and is making upon the musical world.

The first number in the present program contains five pieces from the
set called "Scenes from Childhood," written in 1837, when the composer
was in the very thick of his somewhat diversified course of true love
and had advanced seven years along the pathway of a composer.

Following the "Traeumerei" are two popular selections from the "Album
for the Young," written some ten years later--the "Jolly Farmer" and
the "Little Romance." This program number closes with the Polonaise in
D, from the "Papillons," written in 1832. It is a very brilliant and
original piece, full of delightful pianof