His reading was wide and included German translations of major figures in European literature, from Shakespeare to Cervantes, as well as the work of more recent writers. Whereas Schubert had found a place among his settings for his contemporaries, often from his own Vienna cultural circle, Schumann, almost equally prolific in the genre, showed a more cultivated taste. Schumann’s literary background is revealed in his choice of poems for setting to music. His attempt at suicide in 1854 led to his admission, as a voluntary patient, to a private asylum at Endenich, near Bonn. Matters were made worse by the recurrence of mental health problems Schumann had suffered from intermittently over the years. The Schumanns were well received in Düsseldorf but gradually difficulties arose, largely through the perceived inadequacy of Schumann as an orchestral conductor, a skill he had had little opportunity to acquire. Hiller moved on from Düsseldorf to Cologne and Schumann succeeded him in the former position. The final years of Schumann’s life are well known. The composer responded by writing a series of works for the amateur domestic market, in particular compositions for mixed voices, some 40 compositions in all. In 1848 his publisher, Breitkopf und Härtel, complained that Schumann was not proving profitable. ![]() ![]() The abundant professional musical activity that had been part of life in Leipzig was lacking, and Schumann’s compositions won only varied success. Schumann followed this appointment by establishing a larger choir, the Verein für Chorgesang, for which he wrote several works.ĭresden proved in many ways disappointing for the Schumanns. In 1847 he became director of the Dresden Liedertafel, an amateur male vocal group previously directed by Wagner and then by Ferdinand Hiller, who was leaving for Düsseldorf. There were money worries and Schumann suffered periods of depression. Schumann had made use of his inherited literary proclivities in journalism, notably with his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (‘New Journal of Music’), a magazine he had established in 1834 and which he now sold. The first years of marriage brought more ambitious compositions from Robert and in 1844 the couple, now with a growing family, moved to Dresden. For some time, Clara Schumann’s reputation overshadowed that of her husband. In this he failed and in 1840, a year in which Schumann wrote many of his songs, the couple married. Wieck forbade the relationship between Robert and Clara, but the liaison continued, prompting him to attempt to bring matters to an end by recourse to litigation. The discovery of Ernestine’s parentage brought an end to the relationship and a shift in Schumann’s attentions towards Wieck’s 16-year-old daughter, Clara. ![]() Not only was he developing his gifts as a composer, particularly in music for the piano, but he also found time for a liaison with a certain Christel, followed by a brief engagement with a fellow pupil in Wieck’s establishment, Ernestine von Fricken, apparently the daughter of Baron von Fricken but in fact the illegitimate child of his wife’s sister. In Wieck’s household, however, Schumann found time for other interests. Wieck’s systematic approach to teaching proved unsatisfactory to Schumann, and meanwhile an injury to his right hand – apparently caused by a contraption of his own devising, referred to in his diaries as a ‘cigar-box machine’ – made any prospect of a career as a concert pianist impossible. In Leipzig Schumann met Friedrich Wieck, a noted piano teacher who had developed his own teaching method, and his decision to take lessons with him had a lasting impact on Schumann’s professional and personal life. His early schooling completed, he studied law at the University of Leipzig and then at Heidelberg, but he showed no great aptitude for or interest in the subject, while his leaning towards music grew. ![]() Robert continued his education under the supervision of his mother and a Zwickau businessman, Gottlob Rudel. August Schumann died in 1826, leaving his family comfortably off but at the same time depriving his son of the paternal guidance that might have been desirable. Robert had taken his first piano lessons when he was seven and in adolescence had shown a propensity for music and literature, an inclination shared by his mother, Johanna Christiane Schumann (née Schnabel), although she at first took a more practical view of her son’s ambitions. August Schumann had established himself as a bookseller and publisher, and as a prolific writer and translator, in the Saxony town of Zwickau. As a boy Robert Schumann had received every encouragement in his literary and musical interests from his father.
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