Quote message Clara Wieck and Robert Schumann - a love story.
Schumann Robert - "Dreams"
The great romantic composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856) began his life with extraordinary success, and ended it in a psychiatric clinic. He owed his ups and downs primarily to his beloved, the incomparable Clara Wieck (1819-1896). Perhaps Schumann would not have become so world famous if he had not met this brilliant pianist on his life path, whose performing genius must have forced the composer to rise to divine heights.
Robert Schumann was born in 1810 in Saxony in the provincial town of Zwickau and was the fifth child in a large family of burghers. His father, a well-known book publisher in the province, dreamed that his son would become a poet or literary critic. Fate decreed otherwise: once, having heard Paganini's violin at a concert, the future composer bowed to music forever. The mother loved the boy more than other children, but she wanted her son to learn the "bread" profession, she dreamed that Robert would become a lawyer. The desire of the mother initially prevailed - in 1828, young Schumann went to Leipzig, where he entered the university to study law.
However, the young man never broke with the dream of becoming a musician. Once, walking around the city after class, he decided to visit the local psychiatrist Karus, whose wife, singer Agnes Karus, often gathered famous musicians and music critics. That evening, the owner of the piano workshop and at the same time the piano teacher Friedrich Wieck was there with his nine-year-old daughter, who already showed great promise as a performer at such an early age. When the girl sat down at the instrument and lowered her thin childish hands to the keys, the whole house fell silent, as if spellbound, and listened to little Clara's playing. There was no doubt: the girl had an amazing musical gift.
Clara Wieck was born in 1819 and was brought up by a strict father who left his wife, taking his young daughter and her younger brothers to him and forbidding the children to see their mother. The vain Vic never doubted for a moment that his Clara would become a great pianist: he was obsessed with the maniacal idea of making his first child, whether it was a daughter or a son, a brilliant, world-famous musician. Thus, Vic longed to glorify his name for centuries.
The born girl was a very sickly and weak child. Closed in on herself, Clara began to speak only from the age of four, and sometimes seemed completely deaf. Most likely, the sheathed development of the girl is explained by the unhealthy atmosphere in the family and the ongoing quarrels between the parents. Therefore, when they divorced, and her father took little Clara to Leipzig, the girl quickly spoke and showed her outstanding abilities.
Since then, Clara's whole life has been focused on music: daily, hours-long lessons at the piano, exhausting exercises, a strict regimen, a ban on children's games and fun. Friedrich spared no expense: the most famous masters of music, teachers of writing and reading, English and French, came to his daughter. All this made Clara Wieck mature and serious beyond her years: her father took away her childhood, giving her worldwide fame in return.
The morning after the performance of the little pianist, Robert Schumann stood at the door of the Viks' house and begged the head of the family to be his teacher. On that day, he became a student of the famous music teacher Friedrich Wieck and from a carefree young man turned into a hardworking student who spent hours studying music. Contemporaries recalled that Schumann, even on trips, took a cardboard keyboard, on which he constantly worked out the technique of playing the piano. Coming up with sophisticated exercises, he once injured his right hand, after which the doctors forbade the musician to play, forever taking away the hope of becoming a great pianist. Continuing his studies with Friedrich Wieck, the future composer at that time became seriously interested in music criticism.
When young Robert appeared at the Vicks, everything in the house emanated warmth and fun. But Clara's thin, unhealthy face and her huge, sad eyes did not give the young man peace. His sympathy for the "sad Chiarina", as well as admiration for her genius, soon grew into a real, strong feeling.
In 1836, when Clara was sixteen years old, Schumann first declared his love for her. “When you kissed me then,” she recalled in her letters much later, “I thought I would lose consciousness ... I barely held the lamp with which I escorted you to the exit.” The girl, who had long had tender feelings for the young pianist, immediately reciprocated. The lovers had to hide their relationship by hiding and deceiving old Vic. Nevertheless, the suspicious father soon found out about the tricks of his daughter. Understanding what Clara's novel could turn out for him, Vic took his daughter away from the city, and for more than a year and a half, the lovers did not have the slightest opportunity to meet. Even correspondence was strictly forbidden to them. In the days of separation, Robert Schumann, yearning for "little Chiarina", wrote his best "Songs", which later brought him worldwide fame.
In 1837, when Vicki returned from a long tour to Leipzig, Clara wrote a tender letter to her beloved, passing it through a mutual friend, Ernst Wecker. Since then, their secret letters have been forwarded through acquaintances who have tried their best to help the couple in love ease their suffering. “... You are a guardian angel sent to me by the creator. After all, you and only you brought me back to life ... "- wrote Schumann. Sometimes friends organized secret meetings between Robert and Clara, and this was done so skillfully that even the stern and vigilant Friedrich Wieck did not notice his daughter's passionate love affair for a long time.
When Schumann, who wished to make an open connection with his beloved, came to old Vik to ask for the hand of his daughter, he in a rage drove the former student out of the house and forbade him to approach "his brilliant Clara." Desperate, the young man took the last step, going to court with Clara's consent, where the beloved's father publicly accused his daughter's admirer of drunkenness, debauchery, plebeianism and illiteracy. The composer refuted the slander of the angry Vic, and the court ruled on the possibility of marriage between the lovers, contrary to the ban of the strict father.
Robert and Clara were married in a small church near Leipzig on September 12, 1840. The Schumanns settled in a tiny house on the outskirts of the city. Clara gave concerts, Robert composed music, and in their free time they taught at the conservatory. The famous "Love of a Poet", "Love and Life of a Woman". Schumann created “Dreams of Love” at this happy time.
When four years later the couple went on a joint tour of the cities of Russia, a grandiose concert of the famous European pianist took place in St. Petersburg. The next day, the newspapers wrote: “The incomparable Clara came to us with her husband ...” Returning home, Schumann was depressed and broken, he more and more retreated into himself, became withdrawn and unsociable: “... My position next to the famous wife is becoming more and more humiliating ... Fate is laughing at me. Am I just Clara Wick's husband and nothing more?
Living already in Düsseldorf, the Schumann family met the novice musician Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), who remained their faithful and sincere friend until the end of the life of the spouses. He was very affectionate and warm towards Robert, and he experienced completely ambiguous feelings towards Clara.
When, on October 1, 1853, the young, thin Brahms appeared on the threshold of their house, the owner wrote in his diary: "Visit of Brahms (genius)". A month later, a German music magazine published an article by Robert Schumann, where he wrote: “I thought ... that someone should appear who is destined to ideally embody the highest beginning of our time ... And he appeared ... His name is Johannes Brahms ... Sitting at the piano, he opened up wonderful countries for us, enveloping us more and more tightly with his charms. It was even said that supposedly such a strong connection between the two men gave rise to other relationships in addition to friendship, but to this day this remains only speculation.
Meanwhile, Robert's health was deteriorating: increasingly falling into nervous melancholy, he did not even want to see "beloved Clara." The signs of a hereditary mental illness, which his sister and father suffered, made themselves felt more and more strongly. Schumann left the real world for his own world, created by an inflamed imagination, attended circles of magic, became interested in spiritualism and mysticism.
Clara, continuing to give concerts in cities and towns, tried to help her husband: surrounded him with care, patiently endured nervous breakdowns, which were aggravated every day. The sick composer was tormented by auditory hallucinations, sometimes he did not even recognize his children and wife, and once, trying to get rid of the images maniacally pursuing him, he threw himself off the bridge into the Rhine. Blue from the cold, unconscious Schumann was carried ashore by passers-by.
After this incident, fearing to harm Clara and the children, the genius losing his mind asked to be placed in a psychiatric clinic. There he spent two painful years, where he gradually went crazy: he fell into a deep depression, refused to talk, eat and drink - he was afraid that he would be poisoned. Only when the devoted Brahms visited him did Schumann agree to drink a sip of wine and eat a piece of fruit jelly.
After the death of her husband, eight children remained in Clara's arms. Schumann's widow survived the composer by as much as forty years. At first, Brahms remained close to Clara and helped her run the household. Six months later, he returned to his homeland in Hamburg. Everyone who knew Brahms understood how reverently the young composer loves Schumann's widow. Friends and relatives expected that they would soon get married. But this did not happen, perhaps for several reasons.
The composer Brahms dedicated this cycle to his beloved woman - Clara
First, being fourteen years older than Johannes, Clara treated him like a child and had motherly tender feelings towards him. Secondly, a young, promising twenty-three-year-old man could be frightened by a difficult family life, surrounded by an always very busy wife and eight children. Some were convinced that Brahms was afraid of the genius of the "incomparable Clara", who always, as was the case with Schumann, overshadowed his talent. One way or another, Johannes Brahms left Düsseldorf alone.
It is not known whether the connection between Brahms and Clara Schumann was platonic or whether friends in public were still secret lovers. It was said that Clara was very jealous of Brahms for women. Perhaps that is why, and also because of his great devotion to the great pianist, the composer remained unmarried. Before Clara's death, for forty years, the friends had been in continuous correspondence. When Clara died in Frankfurt on May 20, 1896, Brahms took her departure very hard. He died a year later.
It should be noted that time has put everything in its place: the names of Schumann and Brahms are known to everyone who is even slightly interested in classical music, and only musicologists remember Clara Wieck.
100 DM 1989 featuring Clara Wieck
10 euro, Germany (200 years since the birth of Robert Schumann)
Monument to R. Schumann in Zwickau.
The love story of Clara and Robert Schumann can be seen in the old sentimental American film Song of Love (1947, USA, in the role of Clara - Katharine Hepburn).
Beloved Clara / Clara Original name: Geliebte Clara production-Germany 2008
Name: Robert Schumann
Age: 46 years old
Place of Birth: Zwickau, Germany
A place of death: Bonn, Germany
Activity: German composer, teacher
Family status: was married
Robert Schumann - Biography
Composer whose works were popular not only in Germany, but all over the world. Schumann found in music the era of romanticism, to which he aspired, becoming a musician, but fate decreed otherwise.
Childhood, musician's family
In the family of a far from poor book publisher and writer, the boy Robert was born. The father gave his son a decent education. Very early, the child showed a talent for literature and music, and his father hired a teacher for him, who was a local organist. Already at the age of ten, the boy composed compositions for the choir and orchestra. Like all children, little Schumann studied at the gymnasium, loved the works of George Byron, who belonged to the romantic direction in literature.
It was difficult to predict what the boy's biography would be like. After all, for a long time, Robert wrote articles that were placed in encyclopedias. These scientific books were published by Schumann Sr. The boy was passionate about philology, and therefore doubted in the future in choosing a profession. Poems, comedies and dramas coming out from under his pen were highly appreciated by specialists.
Education
First, Robert studied at the University of Leipzig, then in Heidelberg. The mother insisted on acquiring the profession of a lawyer, and the young man himself was very fond of music. He played the piano beautifully and dreamed of giving concerts playing the piano. The mother finally gave in and gave her permission to study music. Returning to his hometown, the future composer takes piano lessons. To the great regret of his parents and himself, Robert's two fingers were damaged by paralysis. The cause of the paralysis is unknown, but the biography of the pianist and touring musician had to be forgotten.
The character of the young man changed dramatically: he became silent, stopped joking, became vulnerable. Now writing takes up all of Schumann's free time. In the composer's plays, not only the plot line can be traced, but also the psychologism of the situation. Robert Schumann is a follower of the work of F. Schubert, he uses the verses of the great G. Heine to create his vocal works. The composer only sometimes brings his music closer to German folk songs.
Schumann's old dream
Robert Schumann dreamed of opera for a long time, but the author did not succeed in this genre. When the opera "Genoveva" was completed, she could not find her audience and fans. The composer continues to create overtures, concertos, symphonies. All music is full of drama, lyricism and cheerfulness. Schumann is appreciated for the contribution he made to music criticism.
The views of the composer were shared by Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Liszt, P.I. Tchaikovsky. He also supported their work by writing articles in the New Musical Newspaper he founded. The composer has many works, but the cycles of romances “The Circle of Songs” and “The Poet's Love” are considered the most significant in his work. Schumann composed cycles for piano "Butterflies", "Kreisleriana" and "Carnival".
Robert Schumann - biography of personal life
Robert married at almost thirty years old, taking his teacher's daughter as his wife. Clara Wieck understood her husband, as she herself played the piano beautifully and had already become famous in the performing arts. The marriage was the only one, and, despite the complexity of Robert's character, happy. Eight children became successors to the family of the great composer. The love of Robert and Clara flourished at the same time as a nine-year-old girl grew up and flourished before the eyes of the composer, then a teenager at 15 years old. Then Schumann confessed for the first time to Clara. But the girl's father was categorically against their relationship.
Three years later, after Clara came of age, young people came to court for permission to marry. Schumann had health problems very early on. At the age of 35, he began to show signs of a nervous disorder. He was haunted by sounds, notes, orchestral cacophony. Sometimes everything was clothed in music, but most often it drove the composer crazy. He retired from the profession for two years. Gradually returning to his former duties, writing and raising children, he again plunges into depression.
At the age of 44, Robert commits suicide by jumping into the river Rhine from a bridge. He was rescued, but placed in a hospital for the mentally ill, where he spent two years. In his life, the closest friend was Johann Brahms, who most often saw the composer and reported on all the changes in Schumann's health. Clara during this period gave concerts and earned money to feed the children. Death came at the age of 46. The biography of the great composer ended too early.
Robert Schumann (German: Robert Schumann). Born June 8, 1810 in Zwickau - died July 29, 1856 in Endenich. German composer, teacher and influential music critic. Widely known as one of the most prominent composers of the Romantic era. His teacher Friedrich Wieck was sure that Schumann would become the best pianist in Europe, but due to an injury to his hand, Robert had to leave his career as a pianist and devote his life to composing music.
Until 1840, all of Schumann's compositions were written exclusively for the piano. Many songs, four symphonies, an opera and other orchestral, choral and chamber works were later published. He published his articles on music in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (Neue Zeitschrift für Musik).
Against his father's wishes, in 1840 Schumann marries the daughter of Friedrich Wick Clara. His wife also composed music and had a significant concert career as a pianist. Concert profits made up the bulk of her father's fortune.
Schumann suffered from a mental disorder that first manifested itself in 1833 with an episode of severe depression. After a suicide attempt in 1854, he was voluntarily placed in a psychiatric clinic. In 1856, Robert Schumann died without being cured of his mental illness.
Born in Zwickau (Saxony) on June 8, 1810 in the family of the book publisher and writer August Schumann (1773-1826).
Schumann took his first music lessons from local organist Johann Kunzsch. At the age of 10, he began to compose, in particular, choral and orchestral music. He attended a gymnasium in his native city, where he got acquainted with the works of Jean Paul, becoming their passionate admirer. The moods and images of this romantic literature were eventually reflected in Schumann's musical work.
As a child, he joined the professional literary work, writing articles for an encyclopedia published by his father's publishing house. He was seriously fond of philology, carried out pre-publishing proofreading of a large Latin dictionary. And Schumann's school literary works were written at such a level that they were posthumously published as an appendix to the collection of his mature journalistic works. At a certain period of his youth, Schumann even hesitated whether to choose the field of a writer or a musician.
In 1828 he entered the University of Leipzig, and the following year he moved to the University of Heidelberg. At the insistence of his mother, he planned to become a lawyer, but the young man was increasingly drawn to music. He was attracted by the idea of becoming a concert pianist.
In 1830, he received his mother's permission to devote himself entirely to music and returned to Leipzig, where he hoped to find a suitable mentor. There he began to take piano lessons from F. Wieck and composition from G. Dorn.
During his studies, Schumann gradually developed paralysis of the middle finger and partial paralysis of the index finger, which forced him to abandon the idea of a career as a professional pianist. There is a widespread version that this injury happened due to the use of a finger simulator (the finger was tied to a cord that was suspended from the ceiling, but could “walk” up and down like a winch), which Schumann allegedly made himself according to the type Henry Hertz's "Dactylion" (1836) and "Happy Fingers" by Tiziano Poli, which were popular at the time, were used for finger trainers.
Another unusual but common version says that Schumann, in an effort to achieve incredible virtuosity, tried to remove the tendons on his hand that connected the ring finger with the middle and little fingers. Neither of these versions has confirmation, and both of them were refuted by Schumann's wife.
Schumann himself attributed the development of paralysis to excessive handwriting and excessive piano playing. A contemporary study by musicologist Eric Sams, published in 1971, suggests that the paralysis of the fingers may have been caused by the inhalation of mercury vapor, which Schumann, on the advice of doctors of the time, may have tried to cure syphilis. But medical scientists in 1978 considered this version doubtful as well, suggesting, in turn, that the paralysis could result from chronic nerve compression in the area of the elbow joint. To date, the cause of Schumann's malaise remains unidentified.
Schumann took up composition and music criticism at the same time. Having found support in the person of Friedrich Wieck, Ludwig Schunke and Julius Knorr, Schumann was able in 1834 to found one of the most influential musical periodicals in the future - the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (German: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik), which he edited and regularly edited for several years. published his articles. He proved himself an adherent of the new and a fighter against the obsolete in art, with the so-called philistines, that is, with those who, with their narrow-mindedness and backwardness, hampered the development of music and represented a stronghold of conservatism and burgherism.
In October 1838, the composer moved to Vienna, but already in early April 1839 he returned to Leipzig. In 1840, the University of Leipzig awarded Schumann the title of Doctor of Philosophy. In the same year, on September 12, Schumann married the daughter of his teacher, an outstanding pianist, in the church in Schoenfeld - Clara Josephine Wick.
In the year of the marriage, Schuman created about 140 songs. Several years of marriage between Robert and Clara passed happily. They had eight children. Schumann accompanied his wife on concert tours, and she, in turn, often performed her husband's music. Schumann taught at the Leipzig Conservatory, founded in 1843 by F. Mendelssohn.
In 1844, Schumann, together with his wife, went on a tour to St. Petersburg and Moscow, where they were received with great honor. In the same year, Schumann moved from Leipzig to Dresden. There, for the first time, signs of a nervous breakdown appeared. It was not until 1846 that Schumann recovered sufficiently to be able to compose again.
In 1850, Schumann received an invitation to the post of city director of music in Düsseldorf. However, disagreements soon began there, and in the autumn of 1853 the contract was not renewed.
In November 1853, Schumann, together with his wife, went on a trip to Holland, where he and Clara were received "with joy and with honors." However, in the same year, the symptoms of the disease began to appear again. In early 1854, after an aggravation of his illness, Schumann tried to commit suicide by throwing himself into the Rhine, but was saved. He had to be placed in a psychiatric hospital in Endenich near Bonn. In the hospital, he almost did not compose, sketches of new compositions have been lost. Occasionally he was allowed to see his wife Clara. Robert died July 29, 1856. Buried in Bonn.
The work of Robert Schumann:
In his music, Schumann, more than any other composer, reflected the deeply personal nature of romanticism. His early music, introspective and often whimsical, was an attempt to break with the tradition of classical forms, in his opinion, too limited. Much akin to the poetry of H. Heine, Schumann's work challenged the spiritual wretchedness of Germany in the 1820s-1840s, calling to the world of high humanity. The heir of F. Schubert and K. M. Weber, Schumann developed the democratic and realistic tendencies of German and Austrian musical romanticism. Little understood in his lifetime, much of his music is now regarded as bold and original in harmony, rhythm and form. His works are closely connected with the traditions of German classical music.
Most of Schumann's piano works are cycles of small pieces of lyrical-dramatic, visual and "portrait" genres, interconnected by an internal plot-psychological line. One of the most typical cycles is "Carnival" (1834), in which skits, dances, masks, female images (among them Chiarina - Clara Wieck), musical portraits of Paganini, Chopin pass in a motley string.
The cycles Butterflies (1831, based on the work of Jean Paul) and Davidsbündlers (1837) are close to Carnival. The cycle of plays "Kreisleriana" (1838, named after the literary hero of E. T. A. Hoffmann - the musician-dreamer Johannes Kreisler) belongs to the highest achievements of Schumann. The world of romantic images, passionate melancholy, heroic impulse are displayed in such works for piano by Schumann as "Symphonic etudes" ("Studies in the form of variations", 1834), sonatas (1835, 1835-1838, 1836), Fantasia (1836-1838) , concerto for piano and orchestra (1841-1845). Along with works of variation and sonata types, Schumann has piano cycles built on the principle of a suite or an album of pieces: “Fantastic Fragments” (1837), “Children's Scenes” (1838), “Album for Youth” (1848), etc.
In vocal work, Schumann developed the type of lyrical song by F. Schubert. In a finely designed drawing of songs, Schumann displayed the details of moods, the poetic details of the text, the intonations of the living language. The significantly increased role of piano accompaniment in Schumann gives a rich outline of the image and often proves the meaning of the songs. The most popular of his vocal cycles is "The Poet's Love" to verse (1840). It consists of 16 songs, in particular, “Oh, if only the flowers guessed”, or “I hear songs sounds”, “I meet in the garden in the morning”, “I'm not angry”, “In a dream I cried bitterly”, “You are evil , evil songs. Another plot vocal cycle is "Love and Life of a Woman" to the verses by A. Chamisso (1840). Diverse in meaning, the songs are included in the cycles "Myrtle" to the verses of F. Rückert, R. Burns, G. Heine, J. Byron (1840), "Around the Songs" to the verses of J. Eichendorff (1840). In vocal ballads and song-scenes, Schumann touched on a very wide range of subjects. A striking example of Schumann's civil lyrics is the ballad "Two Grenadiers" (to the verses of G. Heine).
Some of Schumann's songs are simple scenes or everyday portrait sketches: their music is close to a German folk song ("Folk Song" to the verses of F. Ruckert and others).
In the oratorio "Paradise and Peri" (1843, based on the plot of one of the parts of the "oriental" novel "Lalla Rook" by T. Moore), as well as in "Scenes from Faust" (1844-1853, after J. W. Goethe), Schumann came close to realizing his old dream of creating an opera. Schumann's only completed opera, Genoveva (1848), based on the plot of a medieval legend, did not win recognition on the stage. Schumann's music for the dramatic poem "Manfred" by J. Byron (overture and 15 musical numbers, 1849) was a creative success.
In 4 symphonies of the composer (the so-called "Spring", 1841; Second, 1845-1846; the so-called "Rhine", 1850; Fourth, 1841-1851) bright, cheerful moods prevail. A significant place in them is occupied by episodes of a song, dance, lyric-picture character.
Schumann made a great contribution to music criticism. Promoting the work of classical musicians on the pages of his magazine, fighting against the anti-artistic phenomena of our time, he supported the new European romantic school. Schumann castigated the virtuoso smartness, the indifference to art, which is hidden under the guise of benevolence and false scholarship. The main fictional characters, on whose behalf Schumann spoke on the pages of the press, are the ardent, fiercely daring and ironic Florestan and the gentle dreamer Euzebius. Both symbolized the polar traits of the composer himself.
Schumann's ideals were close to the leading musicians of the 19th century. He was highly valued by Felix Mendelssohn, Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt. In Russia, Schumann's work was promoted by A. G. Rubinshtein, P. I. Tchaikovsky, G. A. Laroche, and the leaders of the Mighty Handful.
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was a German composer, music critic and teacher. One of the outstanding musicians of the era of such an artistic direction in art as romanticism. He was predicted the future of the best pianist in Europe, but Robert injured his hand and could no longer play a musical instrument, in connection with this he devoted his life to writing music.
Parents
Robert was born on June 8, 1810 in the German town of Zwickau, located in picturesque Saxony.
The head of the family, Friedrich August Schumann, was the son of an impoverished priest from Ronnenburg. He had a natural talent for poetry. However, the poverty in which his childhood and youth passed made the guy part with his dreams of poetry and engage in trading. After graduating from school, he entered the service of a merchant as an apprentice. But trade was extremely disgusting to him, while Friedrich August read books to the point of madness. In the end, he left the merchant, returned home to his parents and took up the literary business. The novel he wrote was not published, but became an occasion to get acquainted with booksellers. Schumann was invited to work as an assistant in a bookstore, and he gladly accepted.
Soon, Friedrich August met a charming girl, Johann Christiana Schnabel, whom he loved with all his heart. Their marriage was opposed by the bride's parents due to the extreme poverty of the groom. But the persistent Schumann worked so hard for a year that he saved up money not only for the wedding, but also to open his own bookstore. When the trading business went especially well, Friedrich August moved them to the city of Zwickau, where he opened a shop called the Schumann Brothers.
Robert Schumann's mother, Johann Christian, in contrast to her withdrawn and serious husband, was a cheerful, hot-tempered, sometimes quick-tempered, but very kind woman. She took care of the house and the upbringing of children, of whom there were five in the family - sons (Karl, Edward, Julius, Robert) and daughter Emilia.
The future composer was the youngest child in the family. After his birth, his mother fell into some kind of exalted delight and concentrated all her maternal love on Robert. She called the youngest child "a bright spot on her life path."
Childhood
Schumann grew up as a playful and cheerful child. The boy was very handsome, with a delicately shaped face, which was framed by long blond curls. He was not only his mother's favorite son, but also the darling of the whole family. Adults and children calmly endured Robert's pranks and whims.
At the age of six, the boy was sent to Dener's school. Among classmates, Schumann immediately began to stand out and excel. In all games, he was the leader, and when they played their favorite game - soldiers, Robert was certainly elected commander and led the battle.
It cannot be said that Schumann studied brilliantly at school, but his rich creative nature manifested itself immediately. Having discovered an excellent ear for music in the child, at the age of seven, his parents sent him to a local organist to learn to play the piano. In addition to musicality, paternal genes also appeared in Robert, the boy composed poetry, a little later, tragedies and comedies, which they learned with comrades and demonstrated, sometimes even for a moderate fee.
As soon as Robert learned to play the piano, he immediately began to improvise and write music. At first, he composed dances, which he painstakingly wrote down in a thick music notebook. The most unique thing that he managed to do on a musical instrument was to depict character traits with the help of sounds. This is how he painted his friends on the piano. It came out so great that the boys, gathered around the young composer, rolled with laughter.
Passion for music
Schumann hesitated for a long time, what should he devote his life to - music or literature? The father, of course, wanted his son to fulfill his unfulfilled dreams and become a writer or poet. But everything was decided by chance. In 1819, in Karlsbad, the boy got to the concert of Moscheles. The virtuoso's playing made an extraordinary impression on the young Schumann, he then kept the concert program for a long time, like a shrine. From that day on, Robert realized that his heart finally and irrevocably belonged to music.
In 1828, the young man graduated from the gymnasium, receiving a diploma of the first degree. The joy of this was slightly overshadowed by the upcoming choice of career and profession. By this time, his father had died, and Robert had lost all creative support. Mom insisted on further legal education. After listening to her persuasion, Robert became a student at the University of Leipzig. In 1829, he transferred to one of the most prestigious institutions of higher education in Germany - the University of Heidelberg.
But the heart of the young composer yearned for music, and in 1830 Schumann received permission from his mother to quit his law studies and engage in creative activities.
Creation
He returned to Leipzig, found good mentors and took up piano lessons. Robert wanted to become a virtuoso pianist. But during his studies, he suffered a paralysis of the middle and index fingers, because of which he had to give up his dream and focus on musical writing. Simultaneously with the composition, he took up music criticism.
In 1834 he founded an influential periodical, the New Musical Gazette. For several years he was its editor and published his articles there.
Robert wrote most of his works for the piano. Basically, these are “portrait”, lyrical-dramatic and visual cycles of several small plays, which are interconnected by a plot-psychological line:
- "Butterflies" (1831);
- "Carnival" (1834);
- The Davidsbündlers, Fantastic Fragments (1837);
- "Kreisleriana", "Children's Scenes" (1838);
- "The Love of a Poet" (1840);
- "Album for Youth" (1848).
In 1840, Robert was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Leipzig. This year in general became the most fruitful for the composer in his work, inspired by his marriage to his beloved woman, he wrote about 140 songs.
In 1843, Felix Mendelssohn founded the Higher School of Music and Theater in Leipzig (now a conservatory), Schumann taught there composition and piano, and read scores.
In 1844, Robert interrupted his teaching and work in a musical newspaper, as he went with his wife on a tour to Moscow and St. Petersburg. They were received very warmly there. Clara played with the Empress herself, and Schumann made many useful contacts. The spouses were especially impressed by the luxury of the Winter Palace.
Returning from Russia, Robert refused to continue to publish a newspaper and devoted himself entirely to writing music. But such a diligent zeal for work began to have a detrimental effect on his condition. The composer was also upset by the fact that he was met everywhere as the husband of the famous pianist Clara Wieck. Traveling with his wife on tour, he became more and more convinced that his fame did not go beyond Leipzig and Dresden. But Robert never envied his wife's success, because it was Clara who was the first performer of all Schumann's works and made his music famous.
Personal life
In September 1840, Robert married the daughter of his musical mentor Friedrich Wieck. This marriage met many obstacles along the way. With all due respect to Schumann, Friedrich Wieck wanted a more suitable suitor for his daughter. The lovers even resorted to the last resort - they went to court with a request to decide their fate.
The court ruled in favor of the young, and they played a modest wedding in the village of Shenfeld. Schumann's dream came true, now his beloved Clara Wieck and the piano were next to him. A brilliant pianist joined with a great composer, they had eight children - four girls and four boys. The couple were insanely happy until Robert began to have mental disorders.
last years of life
In 1850, Schumann was invited to Dusseldorf to take the place of the city director of music. Arriving with his wife in this city, they were amazed at the warm welcome they received. Robert happily began to work in a new position: he led spiritual concerts in the church, worked with the choir every week, and managed symphony orchestras.
Under fresh impressions in Düsseldorf, the composer created the Rhine Symphony, the Bride of Messina, overtures to Shakespeare's drama Julius Caesar and Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea.
However, quarrels with the orchestra soon began, and in 1853 Schumann's contract was not renewed. He and his wife left to travel to Holland, but symptoms of mental illness began to appear there. Back in Germany, things didn't get any easier. On the contrary, apathy and signs of illness intensified. The consciousness of such a sad state prompted Robert to commit suicide, he tried to commit suicide by throwing himself into the Rhine River from the bridge. The composer was rescued and placed in a psychiatric clinic near Bonn.
At first, he was allowed to correspond with Clara and receive friends. But soon the doctors noticed that after the visits, Schumann was wildly excited, and his comrades were forbidden to come to the patient. Robert fell into a state of profound melancholy, in addition to auditory and visual hallucinations of smell and taste. Mental strength faded away, physical health dried up even faster, as the composer completely refused food. He passed away on July 29, 1856 as a result of exhaustion of the body.
When the skull was opened, it was found that the cause of the disease was right here: Schumann's blood vessels were overflowing, the bones at the base of the skull became thickened and let out a new bone mass, which broke through the outer brain cover with sharp tips.
The body of the great composer was transported to Bonn and interred with a huge crowd of people.
Born June 8, 1810 in the German city of Zwickau in the family of a bookseller. From a very young age, young Robert showed a vivid talent for both music and literature. The boy learned to play the organ, improvised the piano, created his first work - a Psalm for the choir - at the age of thirteen, and in the gymnasium he made great strides in studying literature. Undoubtedly, if his line of life had gone in this direction, then we would have a bright and outstanding philologist and writer here too. But the music still won!
At the insistence of his mother, the young man studies law in Leipzig, then in Heidelberg, but this does not attract him at all. He dreamed of becoming a pianist, studied with Friedrich Wieck, but injured his fingers. Without thinking twice, he began to write music. Already his first published works - "Butterflies", "Variations on the theme of Abegg" - characterize him as a very original composer.
Schumann is a recognized and undoubted romanticist, thanks to whom we now fully know this direction - romanticism. The nature of the composer was completely permeated with subtlety and dreaminess, as if he always hovered above the ground and went into his fantasies. All the contradictions of the surrounding reality are aggravated to the limit in this nervous and receptive nature, which leads to withdrawal into one's inner world. Even the fantastic images in Schumann's work are not the fantasy of legends and legends, like many other romantics, but the fantasy of their own visions. Close attention to every movement of the soul determines the attraction to the piano miniature genre, and such pieces are combined into cycles (“Kreisleriana”, “Novelettes”, “Night Pieces”, “Forest Scenes”).
But at the same time, the world knows another Schumann - an energetic rebel. His literary talent also finds a "point of application" - he publishes the "New Musical Journal". His articles take on a variety of forms - dialogues, aphorisms, scenes - but they all sing of true art, which is not characterized by either blind imitation or virtuosity as an end in itself. Schumann sees such art in the works of the Viennese classics, Berlioz, Paganini. Often he writes his publications on behalf of fictional characters - Florestan and Eusebius. These are members of the "Davidsbund" ("David's Brotherhood") - a union of musicians who oppose themselves to a philistine attitude towards art. And even though this union existed only in the creator's imagination, musical portraits of its members are included in the piano cycles "Davidsbundlers" and "Carnival". Among the Davidsbundlers, Schumann includes Paganini, and, and - under the name of Chiarina - Clara Wieck, the daughter of his mentor, a pianist who began her performing career at the age of eleven.
Attachment to Clara Wick Robert felt already when she was a child. Over the years, his feeling grew with her - but Friedrich Wieck wanted a more wealthy husband for his daughter. The struggle of lovers for their happiness dragged on for years - in order to prevent their meetings, the father planned many tours for the girl, forbade her to correspond with Robert. The desperate Schumann was engaged for some time to another - Ernestine von Fricken, who also fell into the number of Davidsbundlers under the name Estrella, and the name of the city in which she lived - Ash (Asch) - is encrypted in the main theme of "Carnival" ... But he could not forget Clara , in 1839 Schumann and Clara Wieck go to court - and only in this way did they manage to get Wieck's consent to marriage.
The wedding took place in 1840. It is noteworthy that in that year Schumann wrote many songs to the verses of Heinrich Heine, Robert Burns, George Gordon Byron and other poets. It was a marriage not only happy, but also musically fruitful. The couple traveled all over the world and performed in a wonderful duet - he composed, and she played his music, becoming the first performer of many of Robert's works. Until now, the world has not known such couples and will not know, apparently, for a long time ...
The Schumanns had eight children. In 1848, for the birthday of his eldest daughter, the composer created several piano pieces. Later, other plays appeared, combined into a collection called "Album for Youth". The very idea of creating light piano pieces for children's music-making was not new, but Schumann was the first to fill such a collection with concrete images that were close and understandable to a child - "The Brave Rider", "Echoes of the Theatre", "The Merry Peasant".
From 1844 the Schumanns lived in Dresden. At the same time, the composer experienced an exacerbation of a nervous breakdown, the first signs of which appeared as early as 1833. He was able to return to composing music only in 1846.
In the 1850s Schumann creates quite a few works, among which are symphonies, chamber ensembles, program overtures, teaches at the Leipzig Conservatory, acts as a conductor, directs the choir in Dresden, and then in Düsseldorf.
Schuman treated young composers with great attention. His last publicistic work is the article "New Ways", where he predicts a great future.
In 1854, after an exacerbation of a mental disorder that led to a suicide attempt, Schumann ended up in a psychiatric hospital and died on July 29, 1856.
Music Seasons
