Born at Zwickau in Germany, Schumann grew up in
a literary' environment. His father was a writer and publisher and
encouraged his son's enthusiasm for the Romantic authors of the
time. His interest in music was nurtured by performances given
locally, but was discouraged by his mother. After his father died
when he was 16, it was decided that he should go to Leipzig
University to study law.
He did not take studies seriously, preferring to
indulge in the excesses of student life and, of course, music. He
attended concerts at the Gewandhaus, took piano lessons with the
fiercely idealistic Friedrich Wieck, and, during further "study"
in Heidelberg, began to perform and compose. He gave up law and
returned to Leipzig for further lessons with Wieck, but ruined any
chance of a career as a pianist by dislocating a finger with a
stretching machine he had invented.
In 1833 Schumann became ill with a depressive
disorder that would recur for the rest of his life. He composed
almost entirely during happier periods of intense creativity that
alternated with these bouts of illness. Schumann also devoted his
energy to music criticism through his journal Die Neue
Zeitschrift fur Musik (New-Musical Journal), which he founded
in 1834 and edited for ten years. Its aim was to sift out genius
from mere talent and thus combat mediocrity in German music. He
proved to be a discerning critic, recognizing the burgeoning
mastery in very early works by Chopin and Brahms, enthusing over
Mendelssohn, and generously acknowledging Berlioz, Wagner, and
Liszt, although they did not conform to his own ideal — '"Liszt's
world is not mine."
Schumann often wrote under two pseudonyms —
Florestan and Eusebius — who led an imaginary Davidsbund
(League of David) in the fight against musical philistinism and
represented the "ecstatic" and "sensitive" sides of his
personality. The two characters also appear in the piano works
that dominate his output from the 1830s. "F" and "E" are credited
with authorship of the various Davidsbundlertanze (Dances
for the League of David), and their respective musical portraits
form two of the movements of Carnaval, probably Schumann's
finest solo piano work. The League of David appears once more in
the final "March against the Philistines."
In Kreisleriana - another important piano work of the
1830s — he paints a musical portrait of E.T.A. Hoffmann's Romantic
hero Kreisler, but the work is also a tribute to Clara, the
virtuoso pianist and daughter of Wieck, to whom Schumann was
engaged. Wieck strongly opposed the relationship at first, fearing
a threat to Clara's career (and hence his own vicarious success)
but eventually consented and the two were married in 1840. Clara
became a regular performer and lifelong champion of Schumann's
works, and much of his fame is due to her efforts.
Schumann's work diversified in the 1840s. An initial creative
period resulted in the Dichterliebe (Poet's Love) song
cycle of 1840, the first two symphonies of 1841, the Piano
quintet and the Piano quartet of 1842. But in 1843 he
suffered an attack of nervous exhaustion, and depression struck
again the following year.
The Schumanns moved to Dresden and Robert
gradually emerged from his morbid state in 1845 for another highly
creative phase of six years. He completed his Piano concerto
and as a result of a preoccupation with Goethe's Faust
composed Scenes from Faust in 1848 — "the most fruitful
year of my life" — which also saw the composition of his
outstanding overture to Byron's Manfred. The Rhenish
symphony (1850), his third, was his most successful and,
although it suffers from overly dense orchestration, it
demonstrates a true grasp of symphonic form for the first (and
only) time.
In 1850 Schumann was appointed conductor of the
choir and orchestra in Dusseldorf, which should have provided
performance opportunities and inspiration for new works. But he
was too introspective and absent-minded a person to carry out his
duties effectively and quickly became unpopular. When he fell ill
yet again in 1852, the authorities suggested that he retire on
grounds of health, but he took it badly and considered himself to
be the victim of a "Philistine" conspiracy.
A brief light in the darkness of these final
years was provided by the arrival of the young Brahms in the
Schumann household, where he was hailed by Robert as the future
saviour of German music. But Schumann's mental condition
deteriorated soon afterwards and, following an attempt to drown
himself, he spent the last two years of his life in an asylum.
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