Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (some inconclusive records show him to have the middle name Alexander) was born in Zwickau, Saxony (now in Germany) on June 8, 1810. He was the fifth and last child born to August Schumann and Johanna Christiane Schnabel. He began piano lessons when he was about seven. He developed a love for music and poetry, composing before he was even ten and writing poetry as well. He was eventually sent to the University of Leipzig in 1828 to study law, but he spent his time, instead, on drinking, women, poetry, and music. He began piano lessons with Friedrich Wieck, the father of his future wife Clara. He moved to Heidelberg briefly and returned to Leipzig to focus on studying music. During this time he suffered an injury to his right hand, either due to use of a finger-strengthing device or the medication for his syphilis. After his injury he devoted his energy to composition instead. He published various piano works and also helped to found the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal for Music), a periodical that he both wrote for and later edited. He focused on both revitalizing interest in composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber, and on praising the music by newer composers such as Chopin, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Schubert, and Brahms.
In 1840, he and Clara finally overcame her father's legal objections to their marriage and were wed on September 12. He wrote over 150 songs that year, making a huge impact on that genre. Upon Clara's urging, he began composing for larger ensembles, which brought about his symphonies. He also continued to compose for solo piano and even wrote a piano concerto, which Clara, an accomplished pianist herself, premiered. He also wrote several chamber works in 1842, including his Piano Quintet in E-flat Major. He was jealous of his wife's performing success, but she supported him through his emotional crises as he suffered several periods of depression. They had eight children: Emil, Marie, Elise, Julie, Ludwig, Ferdinand, Eugenie, and Felix.
In 1843, his friend Ludwig Mendelssohn, the director of the newly-founded Leipzig Conservatory, appointed him a teacher of “piano playing, composition, and playing from score." He was a terrible teacher and eventually had to resign. He also, after a severe bout of debilitating depression, had to resign from the Neue Zeitschrift for Musik as well. He eventually found work in 1850 as the music director at Düsseldorf, but he lacked skill as a conductor and had to resign that post in 1853. His mental and emotional stability continued to suffer until he attempted suicide in February of 1854, when he asked to be taken to an asylum. He was taken to Endenich, near Bonn, and would die there on July 29, 1856, probably due to the effects of syphilis.
Ted Libbey wrote the following incredible description of Schumann's music: "Schumann's literary sensitivity and introspective nature led him to imbue nearly everything he wrote with personality — in the case of his best songs and piano pieces, often the multiple sides of his own personality. Nearly all of his piano music is referential, attempting to embody emotions aroused by literature or to characterize actors' interactions in some ongoing novel or lyric poem of the mind. One of Schumann's favorite conceits was the "Davidsbund" ("Tribe of David"), peopled by imaginary characters who, like the biblical David, were willing to stand up to the artistic Philistines of the day. The members of this society included Meister Raro, probably an idealization of his teacher and father-in-law, as well as Schumann's two major personae: the impetuous extrovert Florestan and the pale, studious, introverted Eusebius. The Davidsbündler Tänze (Dances of the Tribe of David) specifically chronicles an emotional and musical journey with these two alter egos at the wheel — but so do most of Schumann's works, especially those for piano.
Schumann's lyrical, intense musicality produced some of the most beautiful and moving lieder in the repertoire. His Dichterliebe (Poet's Love), a setting of 16 poems by Heinrich Heine, is his best-known song cycle and a supreme achievement in German lied. Other cycles include Frauenliebe und Leben (Women's Love and Life) and two sets titled Liederkreis (one to poems of Heine, one to poems of Joseph von Eichendorf). There is a substantial amount of chamber music; the best pieces are the Piano Quintet (the first piece ever written for that complement), the Piano Quartet, and the Three Romances for oboe and piano.
As a symphonic composer Schumann sports a long rap sheet: awkwardness in larger forms, muddy scoring, excessive doublings that always sound a little out of tune. But he was capable of achieving splendid orchestral effects, and his Third and Fourth Symphonies also reveal original and innovative approaches to form. In an effort to reinforce a feeling of unity in the Fourth Symphony, he specified that its four movements be played without a break, with the aim that the entire work would form a large, cyclical structure. The underlying unity of the piece asserts itself in the treatment of the key and in the thematic linking of the last movement to the first, and of parts of the third movement to the second. The material is so closely knit that musicologists have come to regard it as a landmark in the history of the genre. Of the concerted works, the Piano Concerto is Schumann at his best. The Cello Concerto is a solid piece but the Violin Concerto, a late work of troubled delicacy, requires very sympathetic treatment to be effective. None of Schumann's efforts for the stage has found a place in the repertoire.
There is little doubt that Schumann will remain a canonic figure, though if quality of work is the only gauge, his importance has long been overrated. His abilities, at times, fell short of his ambitions, but he brought enthusiasm and a rare poetic genius to everything he attempted. As a critic he was remarkably astute in some judgments, wildly off the mark in others, and in all cases generous. He never became a great pianist, was a failure as a conductor, and at times was not even a very good composer. But his entire being was music, informed by dream and fantasy. He was music's quintessential Romantic, always ardent, always striving for the ideal."
My sources for this biography are britannica.com (article written by Gerald E.H. Abraham), classical.net (which also has a nice suggested recordings list), npr.org (article written by Ted Libbey), and thefamouspeople.com. Feel free to read their more extensive biographies!
In 1840, he and Clara finally overcame her father's legal objections to their marriage and were wed on September 12. He wrote over 150 songs that year, making a huge impact on that genre. Upon Clara's urging, he began composing for larger ensembles, which brought about his symphonies. He also continued to compose for solo piano and even wrote a piano concerto, which Clara, an accomplished pianist herself, premiered. He also wrote several chamber works in 1842, including his Piano Quintet in E-flat Major. He was jealous of his wife's performing success, but she supported him through his emotional crises as he suffered several periods of depression. They had eight children: Emil, Marie, Elise, Julie, Ludwig, Ferdinand, Eugenie, and Felix.
In 1843, his friend Ludwig Mendelssohn, the director of the newly-founded Leipzig Conservatory, appointed him a teacher of “piano playing, composition, and playing from score." He was a terrible teacher and eventually had to resign. He also, after a severe bout of debilitating depression, had to resign from the Neue Zeitschrift for Musik as well. He eventually found work in 1850 as the music director at Düsseldorf, but he lacked skill as a conductor and had to resign that post in 1853. His mental and emotional stability continued to suffer until he attempted suicide in February of 1854, when he asked to be taken to an asylum. He was taken to Endenich, near Bonn, and would die there on July 29, 1856, probably due to the effects of syphilis.
Ted Libbey wrote the following incredible description of Schumann's music: "Schumann's literary sensitivity and introspective nature led him to imbue nearly everything he wrote with personality — in the case of his best songs and piano pieces, often the multiple sides of his own personality. Nearly all of his piano music is referential, attempting to embody emotions aroused by literature or to characterize actors' interactions in some ongoing novel or lyric poem of the mind. One of Schumann's favorite conceits was the "Davidsbund" ("Tribe of David"), peopled by imaginary characters who, like the biblical David, were willing to stand up to the artistic Philistines of the day. The members of this society included Meister Raro, probably an idealization of his teacher and father-in-law, as well as Schumann's two major personae: the impetuous extrovert Florestan and the pale, studious, introverted Eusebius. The Davidsbündler Tänze (Dances of the Tribe of David) specifically chronicles an emotional and musical journey with these two alter egos at the wheel — but so do most of Schumann's works, especially those for piano.
Schumann's lyrical, intense musicality produced some of the most beautiful and moving lieder in the repertoire. His Dichterliebe (Poet's Love), a setting of 16 poems by Heinrich Heine, is his best-known song cycle and a supreme achievement in German lied. Other cycles include Frauenliebe und Leben (Women's Love and Life) and two sets titled Liederkreis (one to poems of Heine, one to poems of Joseph von Eichendorf). There is a substantial amount of chamber music; the best pieces are the Piano Quintet (the first piece ever written for that complement), the Piano Quartet, and the Three Romances for oboe and piano.
As a symphonic composer Schumann sports a long rap sheet: awkwardness in larger forms, muddy scoring, excessive doublings that always sound a little out of tune. But he was capable of achieving splendid orchestral effects, and his Third and Fourth Symphonies also reveal original and innovative approaches to form. In an effort to reinforce a feeling of unity in the Fourth Symphony, he specified that its four movements be played without a break, with the aim that the entire work would form a large, cyclical structure. The underlying unity of the piece asserts itself in the treatment of the key and in the thematic linking of the last movement to the first, and of parts of the third movement to the second. The material is so closely knit that musicologists have come to regard it as a landmark in the history of the genre. Of the concerted works, the Piano Concerto is Schumann at his best. The Cello Concerto is a solid piece but the Violin Concerto, a late work of troubled delicacy, requires very sympathetic treatment to be effective. None of Schumann's efforts for the stage has found a place in the repertoire.
There is little doubt that Schumann will remain a canonic figure, though if quality of work is the only gauge, his importance has long been overrated. His abilities, at times, fell short of his ambitions, but he brought enthusiasm and a rare poetic genius to everything he attempted. As a critic he was remarkably astute in some judgments, wildly off the mark in others, and in all cases generous. He never became a great pianist, was a failure as a conductor, and at times was not even a very good composer. But his entire being was music, informed by dream and fantasy. He was music's quintessential Romantic, always ardent, always striving for the ideal."
My sources for this biography are britannica.com (article written by Gerald E.H. Abraham), classical.net (which also has a nice suggested recordings list), npr.org (article written by Ted Libbey), and thefamouspeople.com. Feel free to read their more extensive biographies!
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Marchenbilder, Op. 113
Tabea Zimmerman, viola Christian Ihle Hadland, piano (Tabea Zimmerman is one of the best violists in the world) Symphony No. 3 "Rhenish"
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Marek Janowski, conductor Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, op.44
Boris Brovtsyn and Clara-Jumi Kang, violins Amihai Grosz, viola Jens-Peter Maintz, cello Sunwook Kim, piano |
The Two Grenadiers
Music & Performance: Neil Balfour Audio & Video: Ben Rawles Accompaniment: Chris Pulleyn In der Fremde from Liederkreis Op. 39
Sarah Champion, mezzo soprano Nico de Villiers, piano The author of artsongs.wordpress.com gives these lyrics and translation for this song: In der Fremde Aus der Heimat hinter den Blitzen rot Da kommen die Wolken her, Aber Vater und Mutter sind lange tot, Es kennt mich dort keiner mehr. Wie bald, ach wie bald kommt die stille Zeit, Da ruhe ich auch, und über mir Rauscht die schöne Waldeinsamkeit, Und keiner kennt mich mehr hier. In the Foreign Place From the homeland behind the lightning red, From there, the clouds come here, But father and mother are long dead, And no one knows me there anymore. How soon, ah, how soon will come the quiet time where I will rest, too, and above me will rush the beautiful solitude of the woods, and no one will know me here anymore. |