Carnaval

Suite of piano pieces on the notes ASCH by Robert Schumann, Op. 9. In German musical terminology, ‘As’ is A flat, S alone (‘Es’) is E flat, and H is B natural. The letters represent the only musical ones in Schumann's surname and the town of Asch in Bohemia, the home of Ernestine von Fricken, with whom he was in love in 1834–35, when he wrote the work. She is alluded to in the piece entitled Estrella; other persons referred to are Clara Wieck in Chiarina, Chopin and Paganini under their own names, and Schumann himself in his two different imaginary characters of Florestan and Eusebius.

A ballet on Schumann's music, orchestrated by Aleksandr Glazunov and others (choreographed by Mikhail Fokin), was first produced at the Paris Opéra, France, on 4 June 1910.