"Robert Schumann (1810-1856) in many ways embodied musical romanticism. His works are intensely autobiographical and usually have descriptive titles, texts, or programs. He expressed his essentially lyrical nature in startlingly original piano pieces and songs. And as a writer and critic, he also discovered and made famous some of the leading composers of his day.
"Schumann was born in Zwickau, Germany. He studied law at Leipzig University but actually devoted himself to literature and music. At twenty, he decided to become a piano virtuoso, but this goal become impossible when he developed serious problems with his right hand which were not helped by medical treatments or by a gadget he used to stretch and strengthen the fingers. "Don't worry about my finger," he wrote to his mother; "I can compose without it"--and in his twenties he did compose many piano works which remain a basic part of the repertory, although at the time they were often considered too unconventional and personal. During his twenties, too, he founded and edited the influential New Journal of Music, which contained his appreciative reviews of young "radical" composers like Chopin and Berlioz.
"While studying piano, Schumann met his teacher's daughter and pupil, Clara Wieck, then a nine-year-old prodigy. The two were engaged when Clara was seventeen; but her father was bitterly opposed, and the couple had to fight against him in court before they could be married. Their marriage was a happy one. Clara--herself a composer--was also the ideal interpreter of Robert's works and introduced many of them to the public.
"Schumann held some musical positions but was temperamentally unsuited for them, and during his late years, his mental and physical health deteriorated. In 1854 he tried to drown himself and was committed to an asylum, where he died two years alter.
Robert Schumann's Music
"During his first ten years as a composer, Schumann published only piano pieces, and his musical style seemed to grow out of piano improvisation. His short pieces often express a single mood through a sensitive melody, dance rhythms, dotted rhythms, and syncopations are also prominent.
"In 1840, the year of his marriage, he composed many art songs which also reveal his gift for melody. Both the songs and the short piano pieces are usually organized in sets or cycles, whose titles --Carnaval (Carnival),(Kinderscenen (Scenes of Childhood), Nachtstucke (Night Pieces), Dichterliebe (Poet's Love), Fantasiesticke (Fantasy Pieces)--give insight into his imagination. Schumann thought of music in emotional, literary, and autobiographical terms; his work is full of extramusical references.
"After 1840, possible as a result of Clara's influence, he turned to symphonies and chamber music. His symphonies are romantic in their emphasis on lyrical second themes, used of thematic transformation, and connections between movements."
The above is from Music an Appreciation by Roger Kamien, Third Brief Edition, McGraw Hill Companies, Inc. Pages 223-224
The Robert Schumann Page
