Papillons

Papillons (French for "butterflies"), Op. 2, is a suite of piano pieces written in 1831 by Robert Schumann when he was 21 years old. The work is meant to represent a masked ball and was inspired by Jean Paul's novel Flegeljahre (The Awkward Age).

The suite begins with a six-measure introduction before launching into a variety of dance-like movements. Each movement is unrelated to the preceding ones, except that the second, A major, theme of the sixth movement recurs in G major in the tenth movement, and the theme of the first movement returns in the finale. Eric Jensen notes that the 11th movement is appropriately a polonaise because the novel's character Wina is Polish. The last movement starts out by quoting the theme of the traditional "Großvatertanz" (Grandfather's Dance), which was always played at the end of a wedding or similar celebration. Repeated notes near the end of the piece suggest a clock striking, signifying the end of the ball.