Träumerei
Schumann"Kinderszenen" No. 7
Cornell University, Fall 2022, Art Studio
Independent Project
Träumerei, or Dreaming, is a piano piece from Robert Schumann’s Scenes from Childhood. Beneath its seemingly naïve melody lies a carefully articulated structure that sustains emotional complexity. Rather than adhering to a regular four-beat pattern, its strong beats are scattered and unpredictable, producing a drifting, dreamlike quality. The melody follows a recurring cycle of ascension, climax, and descent, repeated six times with subtle variations that register shifting emotional inflections.
These cycles suggest a movement through states of naïveté, uncertainty, ambivalence, and tension, before folding back toward resolution and reflection. Ink overlays a foundational linework system derived from the music’s structure and tempo, establishing a dialogue between composition and feeling, precision and reverie.
