Frauenliebe und -leben

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Frauenliebe und -leben (A Woman's Life and Love) is a song cycle with music by Robert Schumann and words by Adelbert von Chamisso. It is Schumann's opus 42.

Schumann wrote the piece in 1840, a year in which he wrote so many lieder (including three other song cycles: the two Liederkreis and Dichterliebe) it is known as his "year of song". Chamisso's words, from the point of view of a devoted wife, were penned ten years earlier.

Schumann's choice of text was very probably inspired in part by events in his personal life. He had been courting Clara Wieck, but had failed to get her father's permission to marry her. In 1840, after a legal battle to make such permission unnecessary, he finally married her.

The songs in this cycle are notable in the fact that the piano has a remarkable independence from the voice. Breaking away from the Schubertian ideal, Schumann has the piano contain the mood of the song in its totality. Another notable characteristic is the cycle's cyclic structure, in which the last movement repeats the theme of the first.

There are eight songs in the cycle, together telling a story from the protagonist first meeting her love, through their marriage, to his death. The songs are:

"Seit ich ihn gesehen" ("Since I Saw Him")
"Er, der Herrlichste von allen" ("He, the Noblest of All")
"Ich kann's nicht fassen, nicht glauben" ("I Cannot Grasp or Believe It")
"Du Ring an meinem Finger" ("You Ring Upon My Finger")
"Helft mir, ihr Schwestern" ("Help Me, Sisters")
"Süßer Freund, du blickest" ("Sweet Friend, You Gaze")
"An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust" ("At My Heart, At My Breast")
"Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan" ("Now You Have Caused Me Pain for the First Time")