Fairy-Tale Pictures - Four Pieces

Remarks in his household books indicate that Robert Schumann (1810–1856) composed the Märchenbilder (Fairy-Tale Pictures) for piano and viola (or violin) op. 113 in just four days between 1st and 4th March, 1851, in Düsseldorf. Schumann only gradually came to the title Märchenbilder. The four pieces are unified by their shared opus number and keys (D minor, F major, D minor, D major), but the first edition published them in two volumes (Vol. 1: Nos. 1 and 2; Vol. 2: Nos. 3 and 4). Clearly, the Märchenbilder op. 113 do not need to be performed as a group but can be played in pairs or individually.

The present arrangement is based upon the viola part. The viola's ambitus, when transposed up an octave, matches that of the flute. Solutions from the violin part have also been used on occasion. The double stops in the second piece were, for example, already simplified in the violin version. At such points the violin part provides a model for further simplifications in the flute part. A later, corrected edition of the first print served as the source of the current edition.