All works by Robert Schumann

In musical life generally Robert Schumann is known to his day primarily as a composer of piano music and Lieder, or as a symphonist. The fact that, especially during his later years, he regarded the composition of choral music as at least one of the principal elements his creative work is largely overlooked, although the composer himself often emphasized how important this genre was to him. Schumann wrote about his many choral pieces of 1849, to his publisher Whistling, that he had composed them “with true passion.” The works published by Carus comprise the entire oeuvre for mixed-voice a cappella choir with piano accompaniment (in some cases ad lib.); they demonstrate the entire rage of Schumann’s love of experimentation, his sensitivity in his choice and musical treatment of texts, and not least his individual choral style (quite different from the styles revealed in comparable works by, e.g., Mendelssohn, Brams an Schubert), which places special emphasis on fine details in the shaping of a homophonic setting.