Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) was a German composer, pianist and music critic, and one of the central figures of musical Romanticism. [1] He wrote extensively for the piano before turning to song, chamber music, symphonies and concertos, and founded the influential journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. [2] His career was cut short by mental illness, and he died in an asylum near Bonn at the age of forty-six.
Early life and education
Robert Schumann was born on 8 June 1810 in Zwickau, in the Kingdom of Saxony, the youngest child of a bookseller and publisher. Literature was as formative as music in his upbringing, and the writings of Jean Paul and E. T. A. Hoffmann left lasting traces on his work. [1]
After his father's death he was sent to study law, first at Leipzig University and then at Heidelberg, but he neglected it for the piano. In 1830 he persuaded his family to let him train seriously with Friedrich Wieck in Leipzig. [2] A persistent problem with his right hand ended any prospect of a career as a virtuoso and turned him decisively toward composition.
Criticism and the piano works
In 1834 Schumann helped found the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik and edited it for a decade, writing under invented personas such as the impulsive Florestan and the reflective Eusebius. [3] His criticism introduced readers to Chopin and Berlioz and, in an 1853 article, hailed the young Johannes Brahms as the composer the age had been waiting for.
His compositions of the 1830s were almost exclusively for piano, and took the form of cycles of short character pieces: Papillons, Carnaval, the Symphonic Etudes, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana and the Fantasie in C major. [1]
Marriage and expansion of range
Schumann's courtship of Clara Wieck, his teacher's daughter and already a celebrated concert pianist, was opposed by her father and settled only by a court ruling; they married in 1840. [2] That year, often called his Liederjahr, he produced well over a hundred songs, among them the cycles Dichterliebe, Frauenliebe und -leben and two Liederkreis sets.
Orchestral and chamber music followed: the First Symphony, known as the Spring, in 1841, the Piano Quintet in E-flat and three string quartets in 1842, and the oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri. [1] The Piano Concerto in A minor, completed in 1845 and written for Clara, became one of the most frequently performed works of the Romantic repertoire, as did the later Cello Concerto and the Third Symphony, the Rhenish.
Illness and death
From 1850 Schumann held the post of municipal music director in Düsseldorf, but his abilities as a conductor were questioned and the appointment ended unhappily. [2] He had suffered episodes of depression and auditory disturbance since youth, and these worsened sharply in the early 1850s.
In February 1854 he threw himself into the Rhine and was rescued by boatmen. At his own request he was taken to a private asylum at Endenich, near Bonn, where he remained for two years, visited by Brahms and, at the very end, by Clara. [1] He died there on 29 July 1856 and is buried in Bonn.
Legacy
Clara Schumann outlived her husband by four decades and did much to establish his music in the concert repertoire through her performances and editions. [3] Works once regarded as products of his declining years, including the Violin Concerto and the late chamber music, have been reassessed and widely recorded, and his songs and piano cycles remain central to their genres. [1]
