Gesänge der Frühe

Gesänge der Frühe (Songs of Dawn), Op. 133, is a composition in five movements by Robert Schumann for solo piano. A performance takes about 13 minutes.

Composed in October 1853, it is one of Schumann's last compositions, composed three years before his death. By the time he began work on these pieces, he was suffering from mental and emotional decline. The set was composed just five months before Schumann's attempted suicide and confinement to a mental institution. The set is dedicated to "the high poetess" Bettina von Arnim.

Schumann's wife, Clara Schumann, wrote in her private diary, "dawn-songs, very original as always but hard to understand, their tone is so very strange."

The Swiss composer Heinz Holliger wrote a work for orchestra, choir and tape in 1987 under the same title, Gesänge der Frühe [nl], which quoted Schumann and the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin.

D major chord

The five movements are tonally organized by the three notes in the D major triad: D, F-sharp, and A. The first, second, and fifth pieces are in D major; the fourth piece is in F-sharp minor; and the third piece is in A major.

1. Im ruhigen Tempo (In a tranquil tempo, D major)

2. Belebt, nicht zu rasch (Animated, not too quick, D major)

3. Lebhaft (Lively, A major)

4. Bewegt (With motion, F minor)

5. Im Anfange ruhiges, im Verlauf bewegtes Tempo (First tranquil, then moved tempo, D major)