“The pieces that most children have to practice in their piano lessons are so bad that Robert came up with the idea to write and publish a book himself, a kind of album
full of pieces for children.” (Clara Schumann in her diary, 1 September 1848)

Young pianists as well as experienced piano teachers have often reached out to us, asking us whether we knew about any new material that might be suitable for piano students
and amateur musicians, but also artistically ambitious and daring. This sparked a conversation among a circle of piano teachers, composers, and pianists, and led us to ask a number of children and young adults to write their own pieces for the piano, to create a New Album for the Young. These young composers came up with small musical scenes inspired by their own experiences, carrying titles like “Secret of the Forest” or “Winter Tableau”. Writing these pieces, they also went in search for innovative sounds, made use of unconventional techniques, and discovered the inner workings of the piano. Some of the pieces – including “The Well-Prepared Clavier”, “The Rabbit”, and “Safari” – involve simple preparations, a few simple additional instruments like a rainstick or a bird flute, spoken words, and additional sound effects like rustling paper bags.
This album, “The Well-Prepared Clavier”, contains 20 pieces for the piano. The list includes compositions that were honoured at the Young Composers’ Competition “Von fremden Ländern und Menschen” (Of Foreign Lands and Peoples), which was part of the Robert Schumann festivities and hosted by the Komponistenklasse Dresden together with the Saxon Vocal Ensemble in 2016. Other pieces, written between 2016 and 2019, were contributed by students of the Komponistenklasse Dresden and participants of composition workshops at the Strasbourg Conservatory. The appendix contains some explanatory notes written by the composers themselves.
In the tradition of Robert Schumann, our New Album for the Young is a treasure trove for piano teachers and aspiring young pianists. These short yet challenging pieces are equally
suitable for beginners and more advanced players. They are meant as an invitation to tackle different contemporary musical styles, manners of notation, as well as piano techniques, and to discover the imaginative soundscapes created by the
youngest generation of composers.

Silke Fraikin, Johannes Korndörfer, Annette Schlünz, and Bernd Schumann