According to Schumann’s own statements in work catalogues and biographical notices, the first “Papillon” sketches were produced in his student days in Heidelberg in 1830. Apparently he had first planned to write a series of waltzes, whose models are to be found in the works of Carl Maria von Weber and Franz Schubert. The idea of a softly starting and softly ending chain of waltzes full of “butterfly-like” impulses was undoubtedly insprired by Weber’s famous “Invitation to the Dance” op. 65 (1821), which the 14-year-old Schumann had played in a school concert and traces of which are particularly noticeable in Papillon No. 10.

The present edition is based on the music text of the „Gesamtausgabe“ of Robert Schumann’s works, edited by Clara Schumann together with Johannes Brahms and others between 1879 und 1893. This publication is almost entirely free from arbitrary alterations in the text. A few obvious errors and unjustifiable alterations of the musical text were eliminated after a thorough comparison with the first edition and the autograph.