Faces, not masks: Schumann's comparison of the Davidsbündlertänze to Carnaval suggests that his later piano works explore a different musical territory from the ciphers, rebuses and radiant texts discussed in the previous chapter. No longer are the members of the Davidsbund dressed as commedia dell'arte figures, or is Paganini seen in a magic circle; but while the images of the later music are less artificial – the mask is dropped – they are somehow also less immediate, haunting the listener as does a distant memory. The technical reasons for the change are complex. It certainly involves an altered use of quotations, both from Schumann's own works and Clara's; developments in his harmonic, melodic and rhythmic language; and his occasional evocation of music and voices ‘aus der Ferne’ (from the distance).

The first of the Davidsbündlertänze took its musical motto from a mazurka in Clara's Soiré;es musicales, Op. 6, which Schumann had reviewed in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik on 12 September 1837 (signed ‘Florestan und Eusebius’), the day before Clara's eighteenth birthday, when she had consented that he might ask for her hand. The Davidsbündlertänze, perhaps more than any other of Schumann's works, express love and hope for their union. What is more, Clara's influence over Schumann's piano music cannot be overestimated, either as creative muse or as performer.