Robert Schumann (1 gen 1810 anni – 1 gen 1856 anni)

Descrizione:

a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era.

Schumann
A. Schumann and Literature
1. Schumann was a contemporary of Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Liszt.
2. He tried to make a career as a concert pianist, studying with Friedrich Wieck, father of
the professional pianist Clara Wieck. Schumann and Clara married, against her father’s wishes,
in 1840.
3. Schumann injured his hand when he was twenty and turned to composition and
criticism.
4. As a critic, Schumann discouraged music written to simply please the crowd, which he
labeled “Philistine.”
5. He created a group called the Davidsbund (fictional only) who represented artistic ideals.

New literacy meant an interest in music criticism, as in the cases of Berlioz and
Robert Schumann.
1. Schumann wrote for the Allegemeine musikalische Zeitung beginning in 1831.
2. Finding it too conservative, he helped begin a new journal: Neue [Leipziger] Zeitschrift für Musik in 1834. He served as editor.

Discriminating Romanticisms
1. Schumann’s longest critique was devoted to the Symphonie fantastique.
2. Schumann did not focus on the program, but on the music independent of the program.
3. Schumann finally stated that music should require some involvement on the part of the
listener, whether with the program or not.
4. Berlioz did not write another detailed program for instrumental pieces after this one

Music of Letters
1. Schumann championed the music of Schubert, Beethoven, and even Bach. He
associated with literary music.
2. He chose as a model the literature of Jean Paul, a Romantic author. He remarked that
he felt like the music of Schubert represented the literature of Paul.
3. He frequently wrote literary music without words, and he included narrative comments
in his compositions.
4. He signed some of his pieces with the names of his literary characters.
5. Schumann thought that literary devices in his music should be considered part of the
works, not “extramusical” additions or inspirations.

Schumann’s “Year of Song”
1. Schumann was occupied with piano composition until 1840, the year he married Clara.
2. He wrote predominantly (almost entirely) songs in 1840. He called this the “year of
song.”
3. The year 1841 was devoted to symphonies, 1842 to chamber music, 1843 to oratorio, and 1848 to dramatic music.
4. His attitude toward song changed in 1840, the first year he saw it as a viable, “great” art.
5. Song obviously provided the opportunity to work with literature.
6. He drew from Heine for the Dichterliebe, Op. 48.
a. This is a song cycle of sixteen pieces that addresses the pain of unrequited love.
b. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai represents the musical embodiment of the longing Schumann felt for Clara and was composed in May.

Schumann’s Last Years
1. In his mid-thirties, Schumann devoted his time to large-scale compositions.
2. As he became more famous, his works tended to become more predictable and to behave as the public expected them to behave.
3. Afraid of going mad, he revised many of his earlier works to make them more conventional.
4. He did, indeed, go mad, spending his last two years in an asylum

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