UC Santa Barbara

Robert Schumann’s pedagogical contribution ,Album for the Young Op. 68, was recognized as a leading pedagogical resource in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From the time of J. S Bach, composers have been aware of the need for didactic compositions directed towards a beginning-level pianist. An oft-neglected work of Robert Schumann, his Sixty-eight Rules for Young Musicians, was written to be published in conjunction with his work; Album für die Jugend, Op. 68. Contemporary teachers and students are rarely aware of these rules and of the related compositional manifestations in such pedagogical works as the Album für die Jugend of Schumann and also in Mendelssohn’s similar contribution; Lieder ohne Worte. The purpose of this paper is to clarify Schumann’s pedagogical contributions by first comparing Schumann’s pedagogical views with those of previous historical pedagogues prior to Schumann. These would include François Couperin (1668 -1733), Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849), and Johann Gottlob Friedrich Wieck (1785-1873). Secondly, I shall demonstrate how the Sixty-eight Rules for Young Musicians are exemplified by the works in Album for the Young. Thirdly, I have investigated the correspondence between Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn. Finally, I will point out examples of a similar nature from the parallel work; Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte. This is a logical progression to examine a portion of the works from each and explores how they deal with technique, voice-leading, balance of the hands, projection of melodic content, phrasing, counterpoint in its most simplistic forms, and the fundamental principles of Romantic nuance and rubato.