Schumann composed his Op. 56 Etudes, entitled Sechs Stücke in kanonischer Form (Six Pieces in Canonic Form), in the spring and summer of 1845. Along with the Four Sketches, Op. 58 for pedal piano, the Six Fugues, Op. 60, for organ, and the Four Fugues, Op. 72, for piano, the Etudes are the result of an intense "course" of counterpoint Schumann undertook with his wife, Clara, early in 1845. In an attempt to master the polyphonic style, Schumann wrote pieces in imitation of the works of J.S. Bach.

The Six Pieces in Canonic Form was published in September 1855 by F. Whistling in Leipzig as "Volume I." The second volume, however, never appeared, and the Four Sketches may have been intended as its contents. Schumann dedicated the canons to his first piano teacher, Johann Gottfried Kuntzsch, who was organist at St. Mary's in Zwickau.

Mozart is known to have used a pedal attachment for his piano in 1785. Around 1800, Johann Gottlob Wagner developed a pedal keyboard to add to a larger, square piano. By this time, two types of pedal pianos had developed, the first a device that used the same strings as the fingered keyboard, the second a separate unit placed under the grand piano, employing hammers to strike its own strings. It is most likely the latter type that the Schumann's possessed, primarily to practice playing organ works. Schumann expected the instrument to become popular, but this never happened, and his Op. 56 Etudes were arranged for piano two- and four-hands.

Schumann's Op. 56 Etudes bear a strong resemblance to Bach's Inventions in their texture. The first of the six is a strict canon at the octave in C major that touches on D minor in its second half. The canon deviates from it strict path only in the last two measures, all the while with a harmonic underpinning of sustained notes. The second piece, in A minor, features repeated chords in the left hand supporting a canonic texture in the right hand alone. The pedal part becomes very animated in the middle of the work, which closes in A major. After a brief introduction, the third Etude becomes a canon at the fourth below. Again, all the contrapuntal material appears in the right hand as the left plays a figuration that is clearly a nineteenth century idea. The fourth is much like the third in its distribution of material, the canon appearing in the right hand at first, but both hands sharing material when a new canon begins. No. 5 sounds the least Baroque of the set because of its detached chords; however, it becomes clear that a canon spins out between in the upper notes of the right and left hands. Halfway through the piece, a more legato canon begins. A two-part canon opens the final piece, which boasts the most active pedal part of the set.

© John Palmer, All Music Guide