Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann was born in Zwickau, Germany, on June 8, 1810. Though he demonstrated an unusual gift for music from earliest childhood he was directed by his father to law. While attending the Leipzig Conservatory in 1828 he studied the piano with Friedrich Wieck. In 1829, in Heidelberg, where he had come to continue his law study, he completed the first of his works to get published, the Abegg Variations for piano. He returned to Leipzig in 1829, having come to the decision to make music and not law his lifework, and plunged intensively into study. His ambition was to become a great virtuoso of the piano. In his efforts to master his technique he so abused his hands that a slight paralysis set in, putting to rest all hopes of a career as pianist. He now decided on composition. After an additional period of study with Heinrich Dorn, he completed his first major work, the Paganini Etudes for piano, and started work on his first symphony. He became active in the musical life of Leipzig by helping found and editing the Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik, which became a powerful medium for fighting for the highest ideals in music. He also formed a musical society called the Davidsbuendler made up of idealistic young musicians who attacked false values and philistinism in music. All the while his creative life was unfolding richly. He wrote two unqualified masterworks for piano between 1833 and 1835, the Carnaval and the Études symphoniques. In 1840 Schumann married Clara Wieck, daughter of his one-time piano teacher. Their love affair had been of more than five years’ duration, but Clara’s father was stubbornly opposed to their marriage and put every possible obstacle in their way. Schumann finally had to seek the sanction of the law courts before his marriage could be consummated. He now entered upon his most productive period as composer, completing four symphonies, three string quartets, a piano quartet, numerous songs, a piano concerto among other works. In 1843, he helped found the Leipzig Conservatory where for a while he taught the piano, and between 1850 and 1853 he was municipal music director for the city of Duesseldorf. After 1853 there took place a startling deterioration of his nervous system, bringing on melancholia, lapses of memory, and finally insanity. The last two years of his life were spent in an asylum at Endenich, Germany, where he died on July 29, 1856.
Schumann was a giant in German Romantic music. His works abound with the most captivating lyricism, heartfelt emotion, subtle moods, and an unrestricted imagination. There is not much in this wonderful literature that falls naturally within the category of semi-classics—only three piano pieces familiar in transcriptions, and a song.
Abendlied (Evening Song), a gentle mood picture in the composer’s most rewarding Romantic vein, comes from Twelve Four-Hand Pieces for Younger and Older Children, op. 85 (1849) where it is the final number.
“Die beiden Grenadiere” (The Two Grenadiers) op. 49, no. 1 (1840) is probably the most familiar of Schumann’s many songs. The poem is by Heine. The music describes with telling effect the reaction of two French grenadiers on learning that their Emperor Napoleon has been captured. The song reaches a powerful climax with a quotation from the Marseillaise.
The Traeumerei (Dreaming) is the seventh number in a set of thirteen piano pieces collectively entitled Scenes from Childhood (Kinderscenen), op. 15, (1838). Like the Abendlied, it is an atmospheric piece, perhaps one of the most popular compositions by Schumann.
Wild Horseman (Wilder Reiter) can be found in the Album for the Young (Album fuer die Jugend), op. 68, no. 3 (1848). It was made into an American popular song in the early 1950’s by Johnny Burke.