What is it about?
Schumann’s first published essay, Ein Opus II (1831) opens with the much-quoted phrase “Hats off, gentlemen: A genius!”, referring to Chopin. Schumann’s essay is a review of Chopin’s Op. 2, a set of variations on Mozart’s aria La ci darem la mano from Don Giovanni. The review is couched as a short story, featuring Schumann’s “two best friends”, Florestan and Eusebius. The famous opening phrase is Eusebius’s words; he then performs Chopin’s work, and Florestan interprets it as a narrative reflecting Mozart’s aria and opera. The play of repetition of one text in another, and the variation of meaning that results, demonstrates an interdependence of repetition, variation and translation between all three texts (Schumann’s, Chopin’s, and Mozart’s).
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Why is it important?
This essay explores the relationship between words and music in a way that deepens our knowledge of the composers Robert Schumann and Fryderyk Chopin, and also Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It also demonstrates that generations of critics and scholars have persistently mis-read Schumann's famous article.
Perspectives
I did the research for this article in preparation for the 2023 conference of the International Words and Music Association in Munich. I was astonished to find no-one had previously looked closely at Schumann's diaries from the time at which he wrote his review, and therefore simply had not understood the meaning of its famous opening phrase.
Robert Samuels
The Open University (UK)
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: You Can Leave Your Hat On: Schumann, Ein Opus II Repeats Chopin, Op. 2, Varying Mozart, La ci darem la mano, April 2026, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004758155-006.
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