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Paganini's studies, in which he sought to reproduce upon the pianoforte
some of the effects of the famous Paganini caprices for the violin. He
made two collections of these, about four years apart, and prefaced the
first book with many observations in regard to the methods of practice
and innovations of technic. Almost simultaneously with this he began
seriously as a composer upon his own account, and, quite
characteristically, as a composer of short pieces. The Papillons, opus
2, or "Scenes at a Ball," consist of short pieces of from two to six
lines in length, and among them are many of great beauty. Another of
these early works is the so-called "Dances of the Davidsbuendler against
the Philistines." These consist of eighteen short pieces without
individual titles. Already, by the time when the composition of this
work was undertaken in 1835, Schumann had commenced to write as a
musical literary man under two pseudonyms--Florestan and Eusebius, the
one representing the sentimental and tender side, and the other the
impassioned and vigorously moved. The different numbers in the
"Davidsbuendler Dances" are signed with one or the other of these
initials, and sometimes with both. The name "Davidsbuendler Dances" was
in allusion to the term Philistine, which, in the German university
towns, signified the old fogies, the conservative element, who take
things as they find them and want nothing changed. Schumann belonged
to the new party, who wanted about everything changed.

Two or three years later a second work of very similar import, called
the "Carnaval," was produced, consisting of thirty-one short pieces,
each bearing a characteristic title. This work is of a very
extraordinary character. The moods of the pieces are extremely
individual and marked, and the range of pianoforte expression covered
by them is as great as can be found in the compositions of any master
for the instrument. Another characteristic set of pieces at this time
was the "Fantasy Pieces," opus 12, each of which had its own title;
also the "Kreisleriana," a series of queer sayings after the manner of
one Kreisler, an eccentric old musician in a novel popular at that
time. There are also what he called "Novelettes," a series of eight
somewhat elaborate pianoforte pieces.

In 1834 Schumann, in connection with two other young men, founded the
"Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik" as an organ of musical progress. He
remained editor of this for t