Robert Schumann was born in Zwickau, Germany, on June 8, 1810. Though he
demonstrated an unusual gift for music from earliest childhood he was
directed by his father to law. While attending the Leipzig Conservatory
in 1828 he studied the piano with Friedrich Wieck. In 1829, in
Heidelberg, where he had come to continue his law study, he completed
the first of his works to get published, the _Abegg Variations_ for
piano. He returned to Leipzig in 1829, having come to the decision to
make music and not law his lifework, and plunged intensively into study.
His ambition was to become a great virtuoso of the piano. In his efforts
to master his technique he so abused his hands that a slight paralysis
set in, putting to rest all hopes of a career as pianist. He now decided
on composition. After an additional period of study with Heinrich Dorn,
he completed his first major work, the _Paganini Etudes_ for piano, and
started work on his first symphony. He became active in the musical life
of Leipzig by helping found and editing the _Neue Zeitschrift fuer
Musik_, which became a powerful medium for fighting for the highest
ideals in music. He also formed a musical society called the
_Davidsbuendler_ made up of idealistic young musicians who attacked
false values and philistinism in music. All the while his creative life
was unfolding richly. He wrote two unqualified masterworks for piano
between 1833 and 1835, the _Carnaval_ and the _Études symphoniques_. In
1840 Schumann married Clara Wieck, daughter of his one-time piano
teacher. Their love affair had been of more than five years’ duration,
but Clara’s father was stubbornly opposed to their marriage and put
every possible obstacle in their way. Schumann finally had to seek the
sanction of the law courts before his marriage could be consummated. He
now entered upon his most productive period as composer, completing four
symphonies, three string quartets, a piano quartet, numerous songs, a
piano concerto among other works. In 1843, he helped found the Leipzig
Conservatory where for a while he taught the piano, and between 1850 and
1853 he was municipal music director for the city of Duesseldorf. After
1853 there took place a startling deterioration of his nervous system,
bringing on melancholia, lapses of memory, and finally insanity. The
last two years of his life were spent in an asylum at Endenich, Germany,
where he died on July 29, 1856.
Schumann was a giant in German Romantic music. His works abound with the
most captivating lyricism, heartfelt emotion, subtle moods, and an
unrestricted imagination. There is not much in this wonderful literature
that falls naturally within the category of semi-classics—only three
piano pieces familiar in transcriptions, and a song.
_Abendlied_ (_Evening Song_), a gentle mood picture in the composer’s
most rewarding Romantic vein, comes from _Twelve Four-Hand Pieces for
Younger and Older Children_, op. 85 (1849) where it is the final number.
“_Die beiden Grenadiere_” (_The Two Grenadiers_) op. 49, no. 1 (1840) is
probably the most familiar of Schumann’s many songs. The poem is by
Heine. The music describes with telling effect the reaction of two
French grenadiers on learning that their Emperor Napoleon has been
captured. The song reaches a powerful climax with a quotation from the
_Marseillaise_.
The _Traeumerei_ (_Dreaming_) is the seventh number in a set of thirteen
piano pieces collectively entitled _Scenes from Childhood_
(_Kinderscenen_), op. 15, (1838). Like the _Abendlied_, it is an
atmospheric piece, perhaps one of the most popular compositions by
Schumann.
_Wild Horseman_ (_Wilder Reiter_) can be found in the _Album for the
Young_ (_Album fuer die Jugend_), op. 68, no. 3 (1848). It was made into
an American popular song in the early 1950’s by Johnny Burke.