Schumann:
Fantasy in C major Op. 17
Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6 (First Edition)

The motto “dwarfs on the shoulders of giants” has been used since the Middle Ages (nani gigantum humeris insidentes1) to express modern culture’s dependence on the ancient one. Moderns are like dwarfs compared to the great thinkers and artists of the past, but by climbing on their shoulders they can see farther. Since his youngest age, Schumann was aware to be an indivisible part of the German musical culture. Already in his early twenties he wrote in his diary: “The future should be the higher echo of the past2” and in the first issue of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (Jan. 2, 1835) he published the following programmatic manifesto: “Our intentions have been firm from the beginning, and they are quite simple: to be mindful of former times and their contributions, and to point them out as the only pure source at which present artistic endeavour can find renewed strength.” In the same years Schumann summarized the history of music into ten interrelated periods each one developing from the previous one, reaching the summit with Schubert and Beethoven. The study of their works, not forgetting those of Bach, was of fundamental importance in shaping and refining Schumann’s creative talent. How then to write new music after the pinnacle has already been reached? This question has long tormented the young Schumann in search of a personal voice, struggling between originality and worthy continuation of the great tradition.