Robert Schumann | Notable Biographies

(1810/06/08 - 1856/07/29)

Robert Schumann
German composer

He was born on June 8, 1810 in Zwickau, Saxony.
It was the fifth and last child of Johanna Christiane Schnabel and August Schumann. He spent his childhood growing literature both as music influenced by his father, bookseller, Publisher and novelist.
He began to receive music instruction and piano by Johann Gottfried Kuntzsch, Professor at the Zwickau high school. He worked at creating musical compositions by himself, without the aid of Kuntzsch. At age 14, he wrote an essay on the aesthetics of music and contributed to a volume, edited by his father, titled portraits of famous men. At school in Zwickau, he read works of poets and German philosophers Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, as well as Lord Byron and the Greek tragic.
Schumann's interest in music was triggered by a performance of Ignaz Moscheles in Karlsbad; later he became interested in the works of Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn. His father, who had encouraged his musical aspirations, died in 1826, when Schumann was 16 years old. Neither his mother nor his guardian encouraged him to pursue his career in music. In 1828 he left school, and after a tour during which he met Heinrich Heine in Munich, he went to Leipzig to study Derecho (forced to comply with the terms of his inheritance). In 1829 he continued his studies in Heidelberg, but in 1830 he left to devote himself exclusively to music.
He studied piano with German teacher Friedrich Wieck, but an irreversible one of fingers injury ended his career as a pianist. Dedicated to the composition and to write about music. In 1834 he founded the magazine musical Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, which published until 1844. In 1843 he was Professor of the newly founded Leipzig Conservatory.
He composed one hundred and thirty-eight songs, among which are the collections of Liederkreis (with texts by Heinrich Heine , and Joseph Eichendorff), Myrthen, love and life (with text by Adelbert von Chamisso), and the poet's loves (on texts by Heinrich Heine).
His piano compositions tend to be musical expressions of moods. With the exception of the fantasy in c major (1836) and symphonic studies (1854), his works for piano are collections of short pieces. In addition to the Carnival, he wrote butterflies (1829-1832), scenes of childs (1838), Kreisleriana (1838) and Album for the youth (1848). His long works include Symphony No. 1 (1841), the piano Quintet in e flat major (1842), Concerto for piano in a minor (1845), the Symphony No. 2, Symphony No. 3 Renana (1846), and the piano Trio (1847).
He married in 1840 with the pianist Clara Josephine Wiek, daughter of his teacher Friedrich Wieck. They remained together until almost the death of the composer and had eight children.
In 1850 he was appointed musical director at Düsseldorf, but a mental disease, he suffered since adolescence, made him resign in 1854 (it is believed that he was schizophrenic, although another hypothesis holds that it was a manic depressive in its early years developing an organic brain condition, and another is that it could suffer from sifillis). On February 27, 1854, he attempted to commit suicide by throwing himself from a bridge on the river Rhine. He was rescued by some boatmen and taken home. He entered the sanatorium of Dr. Franz Richarz in Endenich, near Bonn, where he remained until his death on July 29, 1856. During its closure, not permitted to see Clara. He finally visited him two days before his death, and, although it seemed to recognize it, was unable to speak. From the moment of his death, Clara devoted to interpretation of their works around Europe. She died in 1896, it is buried in the same grave as her husband.