Composed 1853; 15 minutes

“Today Robert completed four pieces for piano, clarinet and viola and was very happy about it,” Schumann’s wife Clara wrote in her diary, October 11, 1853. “He believes that this compilation will appear highly romantic. I feel the same myself. What an inexhaustible genius!” This was during a month when the Schumanns received almost daily visits from the 20-year-old Johannes Brahms, who sought advice and an understanding ear. It was also just a few months before the 43-year-old Schumann, at the height of his composing career, sought professional help for his worsening mental instability. Despite this, the polished Fairy-tale Fables, Op. 132, reveal no trace of inner turmoil. Instead, they enhance Schumann’s recent chamber music collections, designed as hausmusik for the growing market of amateur music lovers.

Schumann was the first major composer to incorporate the romantic piano ‘character’ piece into poetic chamber music miniatures.  These works display his gift for storytelling, with each piece resembling a dialogue where brief musical ideas are passed between the instruments. In 1851, Schumann composed Fairy-Tale Pictures, Op. 113, for viola and piano. In 1853, he added the clarinet’s mellow timber to the viola’s darker hues in Fairy-Tale Fables, Op. 132, adopting the distinctive combination of instruments previously used by Mozart in his Kegelstatt trio, K. 498 – and Schumann’s music is a delight. The term Märchen (literally ‘fairy-tale’) refers to a popular 19^th-century German literary narrative form featuring folkloric characters like fairies, goblins and giants, often infused with magical elements. The first of Schumann’s Fairy-tale Fables is an elegant conversation between the three instruments, weaving an intimate and occasionally fanciful dialogue over a recurring lyrical melody that permeates all four pieces.  A motif from the first piece is developed in the fantastical, march-like second movement. The third unfolds gently over a continuously evolving melodic line, which, like that of the affirmative finale, again has its origins in the theme of the opening movement.