The origin of Schumann's Nachtstücke (Night Pieces; 1839) lay in a disturbing premonition the composer had between March 24 and 27, 1839. "I kept seeing funeral processions, coffins, and unhappy, distraught figures," he later wrote to his wife, Clara. Almost immediately thereafter he received the news that his brother Eduard was dying. The strangeness continued, as Schumann recounted in another letter to Clara: "Last Saturday, at half past two in the morning, while I was still on the road, I heard a chorale played by trombones." It was at that very moment, the composer later discovered, that Eduard passed on.

These events were the direct inspiration for what Schumann had originally planned to call Leichenfantasie (Funeral Fantasy), a set of four pieces, each of which was to bear a descriptive title: "Funeral Procession," "A Curious Society," "A Night Party," and "A Ring-Dance Song with Solo Voices." Ultimately, however, he adopted the less specific Nachtstücke, vaguely inspired by E.T.A. Hoffman's "Night Tales."

The opening march, despite its bright key of C major, is darkly colored and certainly nocturnal. The F major second piece, of a larger scope than its predecessor, is a characteristic representation of Schumann's symbolic twins Florestan (gentle and introspective) and Eusebius (manic and stormy) in musical conflict with one another. The third piece is a virtuosic waltz in D flat major. The final piece is tender and song-like, like a lullaby or an expression of fond parting.

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