The Other Albums for the Young by Robert Schumann

Abstract

The Album für die Jugend (Album for the Youth) Op. 68 by Robert Schumann is one of his best-known compositions, partly according to its pedagogical profile and its visibility in the curriculum in the regulated musical curricula of piano studies. However, despite the existence of numerous academic antecedents about it, we have verified the existence of other volumes that, under the same name of Album for the Youth, were published after the death of the composer, on which we have not located studies previous. According to this circumstance, the objective of this work, in addition to proposing an approach to the origin and essence of opus 68, includes knowing the characteristics and context in which these other Albums for youth were created, all that throughout the access to primary and secondary sources. As we show, due to its posthumous nature, the figure of the publisher gained fundamental relevance, using the immense success of the Schumannian composition and his own experience in publishing this type of album.