Op. 85/12 Horn: Abendlied (Evening Song) by Robert Schumann Op. 85, No. 12. Duration: 3:10 Score: 3 pg. 29 ms. common time. Lento ? quarter note = 40. Piano part: 2 pg. solo part 1 pg.
Schumann Background
Robert Schumann (1810 ?1856) was a German composer and, moreover,a music critic. Music historians, as well as critics, generally agree that heis one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. In the first place, Schumann was studying tobecome a lawyer. He quit law school, however, to pursue a career as a concert pianist. Be that as it may, he injured his hand andruined any chance of success as a virtuoso pianist. As a result, Schumann turnedhis musical attention to composing.

The Beginning of the End
In1848, Robert Schumann was in fact only 38 years old. Nevertheless, he wasalready weakening as a composer and conductor. His productivity, on thewhole, was slowing down. Furthermore, his conducting job at one of the world?soldest orchestras had come under great criticism.

Last Period
Schumannbecame inspired by the death of his friend Felix Mendelssohn theyear before. Similarly, he was stimulated by the Revolutions of 1848, andconsequently composed some of his most substantive works. It wasduring this last period of inspiration that he wrote his Scenes from Faust. Furthermore, he finishedthe Requiem for Mignon and the Introduction and Allegro for Piano & Orchestra. Next, he composed Scenes from the Forest forpiano. Finally, he composed the Twelve Four-hand Piano Worksfor Small & Large Children, Op. 85. This collection turns out, insummary, to be Schumann?s last great collection of piano literature.

Abendlied
Thefinal movement (Op.85/12) of this great collection on balance is entitled Abendlied or Evening Song. It is inessence a very effective recital encore especially following a more aggressiveor fast-paced piece. This is, in either case, a chance to develop long rubatophrases and demonstrate your musical sensitivity. This music, for the mostpart, sets a quiet, mysterious, and somewhat melancholy mood reminiscent ofevening-time just after sunset when the shadows become long and the sky beginsto darken.

Orginal scores from the Rainer Fabich`s CD PIANO PUR played by Michaela Puehn.
Piano solo, 80 pages.

About the music:
In Piano Scenes musical associations are reflected, strung together in a loose sequence of imaginary pictures, such as Water Visions, Waves, Fallen Angel. Images of abstract, musical style (Gradus Ad Parnassum and Homage To Satie) refer in an idealistic way to musical precursors of piano literature.
In the very emotional Four Nocturnes there are both exuberant and flirtatious moments, such as the night walk of a lady (Promenade D `une Dame) and Valse Pour ... Thoughtful and sometimes brooding moods sound in Songes De La Nuit (Night Thoughts ) and Une Illusion.
The sonic world of Latin America appears in the Impr�siones Latinas. Short snapshots characterize the typical, playful pride and charm of female sex in Cuba (Haba�era) or they evoke the untamed vitality of Brazil (Impresi�n Brasiliana).
In addition to the new compositions for piano, the music edition also includes a commissioned composition for Bavarian Television, Piano Reflections and excerpts from a film score for the short film Queen of the Night (directed by Hans Lang, HFF 1996, actors and others by Juliane K�hler). In the dance of puppets, Mozart's famous aria sounds like something from the distant world, slightly alienated.
All pieces of the CD Rainer Fabich - Piano Pur, were recorded on a Steinway grand piano (D) in 2005 by the Munich concert pianist Prof. Michaela Puehn in the Great Concert Hall of the Academy of Music and Theater, Munich. Recording, editing and mastering: Prof. Ulrich Kraus. The notes for the film music of the CD, Memoirs of a Frustrated Hedonist (ISBN: 9783737578295) have been published in an extra volume.
The first live premiere and American premiere of the two pieces Bulgarian Dance / Bulgarian Dance and Homage to Satie took place in 2018 (The National Opera Center, New York) by Tania Stavreva (piano).
Szenen f�r Klavier / Scenes for piano

01 Opener 1:18 
02 Visionen im Wasser ? Water visions 2:33
03 Wellen ? Waves 2:43
04 Fallen Angel 2:36
05 Gradus ad parnassum 2:09
06 Wiegenlied ? Lullaby 2:41
07 Bulgarischer Tanz ? Bulgarian dance 2:02
08 Hommage an Satie ? Hommage to Satie 2:31
09 Just an affair 4:33

Vier Nocturnes / Four Nocturnes

10 Songes de la nuit ? Night muses 2:18
11 Valse pour ? ? Waltz for ? 2:37
12 Une illusion- An illusion 2:25
13 Promenade d?une dame ? Promenade of a lady 3:38

Impresi�nes latinas

14 Habanera 2:04
15 Canci�n triste ? Melancholic song 1:28
16 Impresi�n brasiliana - Brasilian impression 2:23

Filmmusik ?K�nig der Nacht? / Filmmusic ?Queen of the night?

17 Tanz der Marionetten ? Dance of the marionettes (Piano) 2:06
18 Tanz der Marionetten ? Dance of the marionettes (Celesta) 2:00

Piano Pur

19 Piano reflections 3:16

The Belgian violinist, Eugene Ysaye (1858-1931), with his impressive blend of virtuosity and poetry, was a great admirer of the young Debussy's music who led the Paris premiere of his only string quartet in December 1893. In September 1892, Debussy was planning an American tour with the financial support of Prince Andre Poniatowski that was to include his 'nearly completed three Scenes au crepuscule', inspired by the Symbolist poetry of his friend Henri de Regnier. He made 'extensive revisions' to them in 1893, even if all that seems to have survived is a series of sketches in Bibliotheque Nationale de France, MS 20632(2), most of which appear to be for violin and orchestra in E or B major. Another related, and more virtuosic, theme emerged in a Parisian sale in June 2006, which opens the main part of the present Nocturne (after a slow introduction).

We also learn from Ernest Chausson in April 1893 that Debussy was composing a work for Ysaye's first American tour in 1894-95, which at one stage was described as a 'concerto'. Then, as Debussy was putting the finishing touches to L'Apres-midi d'un faune in 1894, he told Ysaye he was now working on 'three Nocturnes for solo violin and orchestra which are destined for you', and which undoubtedly derived from his earlier 'Twilight scenes'. The first was to be 'for strings only'. the second for three flutes, four horns, three trumpets and two harps. the third combines all these instruments'. He also informed Ysaye, perhaps with Whistler's Nocturnes in mind, that they were to be like 'a study in grey in painting'. Debussy only abandoned this project in November 1896 after Ysaye told him he would not be able to premiere the Nocturnes in Brussels 'for financial reasons'.

My completion comes closest to the third Nocturne Debussy planned and to being a rondo with related episodes. The dynamic idea that emerged in 2006, which was scored by Debussy, leads naturally into the 'twilight' theme in B major beginning on solo cello and doublebasses, with the high, haunting three-note idea first heard at the outset floating above on solo violin, exactly as Debussy conceived it. All five of Debussy's themes are harmonized and they vary in length between three and thirteen bars: none of them relate to the orchestral Nocturnes of 1897-99. Rather than develop any of these themes, they are presented in changing harmonic backgrounds in the contemporary manner of L'Apres-midi d'un faune, and the whole work centres on an expansive scalar which joins the various aspects of Debussy's 'twilight' themes together in a new perspective.