Unlike most composers I have previously written about Robert
Schumann was not possessed of a ready to wear biographical outline. He is in many ways just plain different. Difficult also to define what direction he was seeking to take. One might well ponder what it was that makes him so prominent in the great catalogue of composers. He was a composer who did not start out on that as his chosen path. In contrast to Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven his career as a composer was not as a result of some trail blazing mission. He clearly saw himself very much in the shadow both of his predecessors and indeed his successors alike. Alright, Beethoven started out as a common or garden court musician and organist but soon enough found himself committed to composing side by side with performing. Schubert remained virtually unknown till he died but he was striving to break through which he did posthumously through undoubtedly the efforts of Robert Schumann, no less, who first discovered him just a year after Schuberts death. When we come to Schumanns own music, and that is something on the whole I should leave to Matthew who is as ardent a fan of Schumann as I shall ever meet, the first thing to remark is that it does not seek to shock or to reach unexplored territory as do the late Beethoven quartets. With Schumann you wont find fate knocking at the door, more a softer form of romanticism. Coupled with that is an awareness of an emerging gentle German nationalism which was clearly a very digestible and acceptable form of the new music of the 1840s. His influences seem to be from Weber (1786-1826), Schubert himself and to his great friend and exact contemporary, Felix Mendelssohn, who was the dominant figure in German music post Beethoven. Mendelssohn was the heavy weight of his time, to fill the hole left by Beethovens departure in 1827. Whilst Mendelssohn was still a know it all teenager, Schumann in comparison seems to have carried an inferiority complex with a mix of obsessional and erratic behaviour. He was to hold the line until overtaken in popularity by his contemporaries, Liszt and Wagner on the one hand and the emergence of the young Johannes Brahms who came on the scene just in time to put his seal on the achievements of Schumann. Schumanns manner of production line composition was as eccentric as it was compulsive. Once he got a bee in his bonnet as to his chosen medium he would go on producing the same genre day in and day out over a year before switching to something else entirely different and then fixing this as the programme for the next year. So it came about that, after writing nothing except piano music over ten years, he declared 1840 to be his Year of Song. He then wrote over 150 of them in that that one year. Yet in his capacity as editor of the Die Neue Zeitschrift fr Musik he reckoned song as inferior and passed on its criticism for someone else to do. Most composers vary their output, switching from one form to another, but in this Schumann remained steadfastly to the plan until the year had run out. For 1841 he switched again. First the year of the orchestra; then the year of chamber music was under way. I reckon that had gas or electricity been available he would have definitely switched each year. Even when he did eventually mix it a bit one can still take note that he was writing works of one type all in close proximity in time to each other. His symphonies are mostly written in groups of two in quick succession. His concertos are all written over a couple of years. Pre-occupation became a form of mono-obsession. Was this a portent of the mental problems from which he was soon to suffer? Perhaps, but there could be another possible explanation which occurs to me. I have found little evidence of Schumann having undergone formal music study apart from lessons in piano technique from Friedrich Wieck, his father in law to be. It seems he learned as he went along. Whilst practising playing the piano, his proposed career ended abruptly when he developed an incapacity to his hand resulting in his decision to switch from playing the piano to composing for it instead. What then, after ten years, turned him into a writer of songs and where did he learn this art? Perhaps his year of song was his intensive way of learning on the hoof. When he turned to chamber music, it was yet another learning curve for himself. Most, nearly all, composers have varied their output as they have gone along, usually sometimes when they have been commissioned to write for a particular instrument or combination or otherwise to diversify and to alternate what they produce. One other aspect of Schumanns standing is that amongst his contemporaries his reputation stood as high as anyone else of his time. Composers from far and wide, from Berlioz to Glinka, knew of him and admired his achievement. His reputation as a discerning critic was second to none. It was he who with his future father in law founded and edited Die Neue Zeitschrift fr Musik (New Music Journal), in which he analysed and assessed and promoted music of his contemporaries, known and unknown. Sibelius famously proclaimed that no-one has ever erected a statue to a critic. Yet if one critic were deserving of such, it would be Schumann. When Hector Berlioz, himself a critic, was fighting rejection from his native Frenchmen he was warmly applauded and encouraged by Schumann. Another French composer, still rarely recognized was Berliozs contemporary, Georges Onslow, who was quickly recognized by Schumann and dubbed the French Beethoven! On the other hand, Schumann showed little fondness for either Liszt or Wagner. By the early 1850s Schumanns mental state was one of near nervous breakdown and his ending followed after a botched suicide attempt. Against that background let us go back to the beginning and follow the life and career of this reluctant pioneer. Schumann was born in the town of Zwickau in Saxony, the fifth and last child of a family, the father being a bookseller, publisher and novelist. It was to music than literature that Schumanns artistic gene would lean. He took piano lessons from a local school teacher, my authorities varying his start from age 7 to 10. He displayed early interest in creating musical imagery, making his friends laugh at his attempts at musical cartoons, which Matthew himself has illustrated. His interest in music is said to have been sparked off by his going to hear a performance by the great pianist, Ignaz Moscheles, coupled then with a developing interest in the works of Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn. His father had encouraged his sons musical interest but he would die in 1826 when Schumann was 16. He was left a legacy but conditional on his studying law. Little wonder his mother put the dampers on his pursuing a career in music. In 1828 Schumann left school and went to Leipzig to start law studies, continuing on in Heidelberg. In 1829 he first came across the songs of Schubert who had died only a year before. He was at this time still continuing his law studies but, as with many composers before him, he proved to be unenthusiastic as a law student before eventually throwing in the towel altogether and turning to music. In 1830 he heard Paganini, the renowned Italian virtuoso violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer who was playing in Frankfurt. He was still divided between music and law but by Christmas that year he was back in Leipzig, at age 20, now taking piano lessons from his former teacher, Friedrich Wieck, who foresaw him emerging as a successful concert pianist after a few years' further study with him. During those studies, Schumann managed to permanently injure a finger on his right hand. Wieck claimed that this had resulted from Schumanns use of a mechanical device designed to strengthen the weakest fingers by his clamping one finger down whilst at the same time exercising the weaker ones. Clara Schumann (Wiecks daughter and later Schumanns wife) would later dispute this. She claimed the problem was chronic and affected the whole hand. Dare I, a lawyer with no hope of switching to composing or medicine, suggest it might have been a case of carpal tunnel syndrome? Whatever the cause of these problems was, Schumann had to accept that he was not going to make it as a concert pianist and instead he decided to devote himself to composition. It was only then that we find that he began a course of study of music theory under Heinrich Dorn, a German composer six years older than him who was conductor of the Leipzig Opera. It was perhaps this connection that prompted Schumann to begin writing an opera of his own based on Hamlet. It is the first and only inkling of his having received any proper musical training. His compositional output through the 1830s was concentrated on his own instrument, the piano. Papillons, his opus 2, was a musical portrayal of events taken from Jean Paul's novel Die Flegeljahre. The novel aspect of this work is that he was writing programme music, that is music composed to illustrate the drama of the subject tale. Schumann was not the first programme music composer but what is unusual is to find programme music conceived and written for solo piano as opposed to the orchestra. As it turns out, it was by sheer coincidence that, at much the same time, Berlioz had written his Symphonie Fantastique in 1830, which was scored for the largest orchestra of its day. Papillons has been suggested as a version expressed in musical terms of one of his own written musical critiques, an 1831 essay he wrote on some Chopin variations. In the music for Papillons, Chopin's work is discussed pianistically by two imaginary characters Schumann had created, Florestan (the embodiment of Schumann's passionate, voluble side) and Eusebius (his dreamy, introspective side). In the winter of 1832, Schumann, had a go at writing a symphony in G minor and managed to get the first movement performed at a concert at which the 13 year old Clara Wieck was appearing. This work was not published during Schumanns lifetime but it has been unearthed and played and recorded in recent times. The following year Schumann encountered for the first time a bout of depression as a result of the deaths from cholera of both his brother and his wife. By the following spring, he had recovered, fit enough to launch the new magazine, Die Neue Zeitschrift fr Musik, in which he was to publish most of his critical writings. As a critic he became the scourge of the trendy taste for flashy technical displays. Schumann regarded the composers of these works as inferior. Room 101 for Liszt. On top of piano composition, his time was taken up with his editorial duties although during the summer of 1834 there was a romantic interlude between him and the 16-year-old Ernestine von Fricken, the adopted daughter of a rich Bohemian nobleman. They quickly became engaged. However, our romantic hero then learned that Ernestine was illegitimate and that she would have no dowry. She immediately lost her attraction and he ditched her, as one would do, realizing her limited means would leave him having to earn his living like any casual labourer. At the same time his attentions were becoming diverted towards the physically developing Clara Wieck. She was by then 15. He had reached 25. They had met again in Zwickau, where Clara was making a concert appearance. There, they first expressed their true love for each other. But the path of true love would be made difficult for them as we shall find out anon. Already, Schumann had written Carnaval, in 1834 when still in his Ernestine period. There was no way to write her name Ernestine in musical notation. He therefore composed a musical cryptogram based on the notes that spelt the name Asch, which was the Bohemian town where Ernestine was born, and with the notes also spelling the letters in Schumann's own name. I would like to call this his Bletchley Park period. He also reproduced in Carnaval the two characters, Eusebius and Florestan, and he also included musical references to Chopin and Paganini. It was at this time that he had met Mendelssohn at Wieck's house in Leipzig, who would become a lifelong friend. In 1837 Schumann went on to publish his Symphonic Studies, a complex set of variations written for piano. That year he published his Davidsbndlertnze, Dances of the League of David", said to be an embodiment of the struggle between enlightened romanticism and musical philistinism. Kreisleriana, in 1838, is considered one of Schumann's greatest works. Johannes Kreisler was a fictional poet created by the poet, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and characterized as a "romantic brought into contact with reality". Schumann used the figure to express what in music was the fantastic and the mad, a spin off perhaps from the world of Berlioz and his Symphonie Fantastique? These piano works of Schumann have been illustrated already for us by Matthew in a far better way than my inadequate words can express. They were largely written post-Ernestine after the beginning of what would be the explosive affair between Clara and himself. When news of their liaison got out and reached her father, Friedrich Wieck, he brought it all to an end, forbade them all further meetings and ordered that all their correspondence should be burnt. They were kept apart, just trying to manage secret meetings, putting the couple under enormous strain. Her income legally belonged to her father and would later become that of her husband. Wieck was no doubt the villain of the piece who sought to retain the status quo and refused his permission for them to marry. Mind you, look at it from Wiecks point of view. Clara was only 15. She was turning out to be a good money earner to boot. Schumann was 25 and his prospects were none too good! An opportunist and possible fortune hunter. I reckon her fathers objection was entirely understandable. Eventually in 1840 the young couple, now five years on, took her father to court and gained official permission to marry. By then she was one day short of 21 and could have by the next day married without permission anyway. There is some similarity in their plight and parental relationships to that of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. All we have to do is to rename the play, Die Wiecks von Wimpolestrasse. Meantime life had to go on despite Robert cracking up at various times. Clara was the strong one. Schumann had visited Vienna the previous year where he had met Ferdinand Schubert, older brother of the composer and was shown the score of Schubert's previously unknown Symphony No. 9 (then known as No 7), the Great C major. Ferdinand had tried out the last movement in 1836. Now he gave Schumann a copy of the score which he took back to Leipzig, where Mendelssohn conducted a shortened version at the Gewandhaus. Schumann famously hailed the symphony for its 'heavenly length'. It proved extremely taxing for orchestras to play because of its extremely lengthy woodwind and string parts. Both in Paris in 1842 under Habaneck and in London in 1844 under Mendelssohn, orchestras refused to go on. In London the violinists collapsed in laughter when rehearsing the second subject of the finale. It did not receive its first proper performance in England until 1856 at a Crystal Palace concert under August Manns and then the first three movements were played on one evening and the last on another! I dont suppose the newly formed London General Omnibus Company had a horse drawn 202 going from Blackheath Standard to the newly re-erected Crystal Palace at the time. After their marriage, the Schumanns settled down to the business of his composing music, her giving concert performances and the two of them producing babies. Over 12 years they had eight children, one of whom died in infancy. Clara was the promoter, critic, and driving force for her husband. Despite her delicate appearance, she was an extremely strong-willed and energetic woman, who kept up a demanding schedule of concert tours in between bearing her brood of children. Two years after their marriage, Friedrich Wieck at last became reconciled, no doubt eager to see his grandchildren. Up to 1839, Schumann had written almost exclusively for the piano. Now in 1840 came both the year of marriage and the year of the of the song of which there would be a superabundance. In 1841 he turned his attention to the orchestra. We know he had already tried his hand at a symphony but now he was to be persuaded by Clara that he was a natural orchestral composer. He wrote two of his four symphonies, No. 1 "Spring" and the first version of what would eventually be numbered as his fourth. The final version in 1851 was an early attempt at 'cyclic form', as would be adopted later by Csar Franck in the 1880s. Included in this year of the orchestra was his Overture, Scherzo and Finale. Next in line followed the year of chamber music, which was new to him but in which he was soon very much at home. 1842 included his three string quartets in quick succession and the leisurely piano quintet, one of his most relaxed works. Just listen to second subject of the first movement and you may think you are hearing the inspiration for Marilyn Monroe singing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? The string quartets follow the traditional combination of two violins, viola and cello. There had been a movement towards deepening the resonance of chamber music by the introduction of the double bass into the ensemble, found in Schubert (the Trout Quintet) and in the larger chamber works of Mendelssohn and Ries. Schumann put chamber music back firmly on its conventional tracks. The piano quintet, is an ensemble of string quartet with piano added and this is the first for the medium. (There were quintets in the late eighteenth century by Boccherini but they were different in nature with the keyboard written for an accompanying lesser powered fortepiano). Often coupled on disc with his quintet is Schumanns piano quartet which engenders considerable more energy. In 1843 he wrote Paradise and the Peri, his first shot at choral music in an oratorio style. Looking through the catalogue of his choral music one finds a requiem and a mass which do not seem to get any playing these days. After this, his compositions were no longer confined to any one form during any particular period. From 1844 to 1853 he was on and off engaged in setting Goethes Faust to music. This adaptation is a mixture of opera, oratorio and drama. Its three parts were written at different times and in different styles. It is now described by some as his magnum opus although it only resurfaced in the 1980s. Faust was the popular subject of the day with a Faust Overture by Wagner, a Faust Symphony by Liszt and Beethoven before them at the end of his life planning on his tenth symphony based on the Faust legend. At that time Berlioz wrote Eight Scenes from Faust, later absorbed into Damnation of Faust in 1846. Despite the Schumann and Berlioz renditions being near contemporaneous the Berlioz turned out initially to be a flop and was pulled after only two performances. Hardly likely that Schumann would have heard it. Schumanns life took a different course from the mid 1840s. Up till then he was feeling his way as a composer but he was not a person to seek to proclaim himself. His life took on a new pattern with a new addition to the family at regular intervals. He accompanied Clara on tour in Russia during the first half of 1844. On returning to Germany, he decided to give up his editorial work perhaps with a view to devoting himself more to composition. The family moved from Leipzig to Dresden. Now Schumann began to suffer more and more from what were becoming persistent nervous breakdowns. As soon as he began to work, he would be seized with fits of shivering and an apprehension of death, experiencing an abhorrence of high places, all metal instruments (even keys), and drugs. He recorded in his diary his hearing a continuous note in his head. This has been ascribed both to his worsening mental condition and to tinnitus. His unease is reflected in his next symphony number two. On the other hand his piano concerto in A minor which was published in 1845 shows no such apprehensions. Quite the contrary, it is very much in the mood of the piano quintet and the most gentle of concertos and one of the most frequently performed and recorded works. That can be explained in that it was originally conceived as a Fantasy for piano and orchestra in one movement in very happy times of 1841. It was not in Schumanns nature to write a majestic piano concerto such as the Beethoven Emperor (1809), nor with the muscular strength of the Brahms first piano concerto (1858). Schumanns success and charm derives from his restraint and gentle nature. By 1846 he was showing signs of recovery from his fitful attacks. His only opera, Genoveva, Op. 81, was written in 1848 in which he did away with recitative, which he regarded as an interruption to the musical flow. This would have an influence on Wagner who was a comparative latecomer on the scene, yet born only three years after Schumann. In 1849 Schumann wrote ,music for Byron's Manfred. In Byron we find another popular 19th century hero version of James Bond, swimmer of the Hellespont notwithstanding a deformed foot. Berlioz already had written Harold in Italy ten years earlier. Liszt identified Byron through his symphonic poems, Tasso in 1849, the same year as Schumanns Manfred, and Mazeppa in 1851. (Actually, the orchestration was not by Liszt himself but ghosted by Joachim Raff). Verdi in his turn wrote two of his lesser known operas on Byronic subjects, I Due Foscari and I Masnadieri, but best of all for me, let me be honest, is Tchaikovskys Manfred Symphony. To-day, I think it is tragic that a Google search on Byron produces first of all a burger chain. In 1850, Schumann took up conducting when he obtained the post of musical director of the Dsseldorf Orchestra, not one that has ever been in the top rankings. He, not the orchestra, turned out to be a poor choice with his direction causing friction with the musicians. It was soon apparent that he could not cope on the rostrum and his contract was eventually terminated by the Brgers of Dusseldorf. Between 1850 to 1854, Schumann composed in a wide variety of genres. Critics differ between themselves as to the quality of his work at this time, some holding the view that his music shows the signs of his impending mental breakdown, a classic situation of being wise after the event and music critics metamorphosing into authorities on psychology. In 1851 he completed his Symphony No. 3, "the Rhenish," a symphony inspired by the River Rhine and Cologne Cathedral. I remember with pride in the 1950s answering a question on Round Britain Quiz which the experts could not solve. What is the convivial connection between these two pieces of music?) (which they played). I had recognized both the Schumann symphony no 3 and the Mendelssohn symphony no 3. The convivial connection was Rhenish (wine) and Scotch (whisky). On 30 September 1853, the 20-year-old composer Johannes Brahms, a complete stranger, to the Schumanns, turned up unannounced at the door with a letter of introduction from the violinist Joseph Joachim. Brahms amazed both Robert and Clara with his playing, stayed on with them for several weeks, and became a close family friend. Mind you, he can never compete with Willie Walton as the guest who could turn up uninvited at dinner time and stay indefinitely. Again, Schuman began to suffer with a renewal of the symptoms that had threatened him earlier. In addition to the single note sounding in his ear, he imagined hearing voices and angelic music. One night he suddenly left his bed, having dreamed that a ghost, purportedly of either Schubert or Mendelssohn, had dictated a spirit theme to him. It turned out to be a good story and the theme was to be used several times, notably in the slow movement of his violin concerto which came to light as late as 1933. Looking again at the period between 1850 to 1854 we now have a composer who seems to have lost total confidence in himself and his own abilities and yet now producing varied works where he has emerged at the top of his form. He may have felt his powers waning when he proclaimed in his magazine that Brahms was Beethovens successor almost as if he was renouncing any claims for himself and handing over the baton. It did not do Brahms much good either as he from then on felt the heavy burden of Beethoven on his shoulder. From there it took him 20 years to write his first symphony. In late February 1854, his condition worsened. The visions were of demons. He felt he was losing control of his actions and warned Clara of his fear that he might do her harm. So troubled was he that he attempted to commit suicide by throwing himself from a bridge into the Rhine. Poor man, he could not even manage this successfully and he was rescued by a boatman and taken home. There seemed no other solution and he sought admission to an asylum in Bonn. Clara was not allowed to see him this was not something for a woman to witness - and she was the one to call upon Brahms for his help, unaware that he had fallen for her but had remained silent about it . Brahms, a man, all of 21 years, was permitted to visit Schumann. Clara was finally allowed to visit her husband at the asylum just two days before he died. He appeared to recognize her, but he could utter only a few words. Robert Schumann died on 29 July 1856 at the age of 46 Brahms and Clara remained close for 40 years but he never sought to take it further. Maybe he felt he was betraying his mentor. Or perhaps he was too mean. The more likely answer was that she was thirteen years older than him and with a family of seven children in tow. More pertinently, he had his own hang ups. His mother had run a brothel in Hamburg where he played the piano when he was a child. His view of women was somewhat distorted from early on and that is how he would later derive his own pleasures. He probably held Clara in such untouchable esteem that he was unable to imagine a relationship involving that in which he enjoyed indulging. As to Robert Schumann, you will see that I have had some difficulty in pinpointing his achievement. Pleasure and measure are both subjective. For most he is charming and pleasurable and for many worthy of his place in the pantheon. For me he seems to lack that extra wow factor. Happily I am no Simon Cowell. Matthew will often comment on this composer or that being good second division. I would not say that of Schumann, no way. He is top flight premiership alright, but mid-table somewhere nearer the relegation area, not Manchester United, more like his own local team, Fortuna Dusseldorf. Let us look at it another way. Schumann was so admired by his contemporaries as the leading figure of his day, including countries further afield, and by such composers for example as Borodin. Read any account of any English composer of the late nineteenth century - William Sterndale Bennett, Charles Villiers Stanford, Hubert Parry and Edward Elgar - and time and again the great god was Schumann, his complexes and shortcomings irrelevant. Then move to today and listen to Matthew Taylors eulogies. Thinking about it, I have decided that if there is a problem it is not that of Schumann at all, but mine. In the final analysis it seems to me on all the evidence that Schumann is a composers composer.