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Having spent some time learning much of Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Schumann, Op. 9, I thought I'd share some of the simple research I did on the piece by putting together a blog. It's not high-level stuff, but it collects a lot of background material and a little bit of commentary on each of the variations. Maybe it will be of interest to somebody else.

http://brahms-schumann.blogspot.ca/

The project is under way now with the background material plus the theme and first four variations completed. I plan to continue working on it fairly steadily in coming days and weeks.

I would be happy to have your suggestions or reports of errors.

This is really great, thanks! This is one of those Brahms pieces I never really listened to. I didn't realize what theme it was based on nor did I understand much about the background of the Bunte Blatter.

However that Op. 99 Schumann set is among my favorites by that composer so now I see the Brahms Op. 9 in a new light. Listening to it right now.

That's great to hear. I don't understand why this piece is so badly overlooked. Its overall quietness may put it in the shadow of the Handel and Paganini Variations, but even though Brahms wrote it at the young age of twenty, it's a very interesting, complex piece with beautiful melodies and lots of interest. A friend told me he has a 40-CD set of works by Brahms and Beethoven, and this piece does not appear on any of them. Maybe people feel it's too much like Schumann and not enough like "typical" Brahms?

Isn't the Op. 99 Bunte Blätter by Schumann wonderful? It's next on my list to play (some of it, at least). Tiny gems, each so exquisite. It's amazing he could composer such beautiful things one after the other like that.

I love this set of variations and I'm glad that it found another, even more passionate admirer. Your blog posts revealed many things about the piece I didn't know and I truly thank you for it.

For Variation 10 I have notes taken from Jan Swafford's biography of Brahms, but I can't quite see everything he describes. He says:
(1)- begins with a melody taken from the bass line of the main theme
(2) - that melody appears in the treble while its mirror image (called inversion) forms the bass
(3) - the lilting voices in between are a speeded-up rendering of Schumann's theme (called diminution of the theme, in contapuntal technique)
(4) - then the opening soprano and bass become a canon by inversion at the distance of a measure

I'm OK with (1) and (2), I think, although the inversion in the left hand does not follow the Schumann theme exactly note by note, and maybe (3) with the same reservation. But I seem to have a blind spot for (4). Is it obvious to everybody but me?

It starts at bar 9, but read "opening soprano and TENOR".

It starts at measure 9.