February Free Sheet Music: Traumerei
- Gaili Schoen
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Merry Mid-Winter Piano Friends!
I hope those of you in the northern hemisphere are staying safe and warm in these perilous times. To see you through the storms I have arranged Robert Schumann's piano piece, Traumerei. Schumann wrote Traumerei which means "dreaming" or "reverie" in 1838. According to the LA Philharmonic, Schumann wrote the piece during a difficult time in his life:
"Schumann’s marriage to his beloved Clara would not take place for more than a year and the couple was busy petitioning the courts for permission to marry, over Clara’s father’s objection to the union. Robert had been courting Clara since 1835 and by the time of their eventual marriage in 1840 (the day before the bride’s 21st birthday), the couple had known each other for more than 10 years."
I like to think that Robert wrote Traumerei for Clara, dreaming of the day that they would some day be together. A romantic notion for this month of love! 💘💘💘
My intermediate arrangement of Traumerei sounds very much like the original; I just omitted some of the less consequential notes and many of the markings that, in my opinion, are not vital to the score and make it very difficult to read. My arrangement is available to you for free for 1 year, so print now! (After Jan 2027, you can purchase it on Sheet Music Plus.)
Notice that I did not repeat the first section in my demonstration video, to keep it short. But I hope that you will!
For the purist, you can print the original here:
In his 1997 memoir called Piano Lessons: Music, Love and True Adventures, news
correspondent Noah Adams describes his arduous process of learning Traumerei at a music camp when he is 52 years old. His teacher tells him that when you repeat a section, you should change something about it, the second time you play that section. How might you change the first section of Traumerei (the first 3 lines) on the repeat? Piano Lessons is a great book for adult piano students and I highly recommend it!
I hope you have been enjoying playing Embraceable You and are ready for some reverie this month! I worked on Traumerei for quite a while to get it as close to the original as possible while also making it a little more accessible to the intermediate pianist. I took out the pedal markings, so if you are comfortable using your piano's damper pedal (the pedal on the right) or your keyboard's sustain pedal, the general rule is, refresh the pedal whenever the chord changes. Once you are comfortable with the notes, record yourself playing Traumerei and listen to make sure your pedaling smooths the phrases while not overlapping too many chords. If the sound is too mushy, you need to lift your pedal more often.
Stay cozy friends! Let's hope the groundhog brings us an early spring this year! We could sure use a few fresh daffodils on the horizon! With love and music, Gaili
P.S.If you are new to this blog, welcome! I post free sheet music every month, arranged for beginning to intermediate piano students, plus worksheets, practice tips and information on music and the brain. I have written piano instruction books for older adults (UpperHandsPiano.com), younger adults and teens (called Piano Powered), Songs of the Seasons piano sheet music books for seasonal classical and popular favorites, and my latest piano/guitar/vocals books called The Music Remedy: sheet music collections to restore and revitalize the spirit.
In her review of my Upper Hands Piano BOOK 1 for Clavier Companion, The Piano Magazine (May/June 2016), Susan Geffen writes: “Upper Hands Piano, Gaili Schoen’s comprehensive method for adults over fifty, is so good and so original that it’s difficult to know where to begin. With the expert selection of repertoire? Or perhaps with Schoen’s emphasis on the mental benefits of playing the piano? Or maybe with her friendly, encouraging tone? And certainly her well-considered approach to harmony is worth mention.”
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