interesting for its attempt to abolish the recitative, which Schumann regarded as an interruption to the musical flow. The subject of Genoveva, based on Tieck and Hebbel, was in itself not a particularly happy choice; but it is worth remembering that as early as 1842 the possibilities of German opera had been keenly realized by Schumann, who wrote, “Do you know my prayer as an artist, night and morning? It is called ‘German Opera.’ Here is a real field for enterprise . . . something simple, profound, German.” And in his notebook of suggestions for the text of operas are found amongst others: Nibelungen, Lohengrin and Till Eulenspiegel. The music to Byron's Manfred is pre-eminent in a year (1849) in which he wrote more than in any other. The insurrection of Dresden caused Schumann to move to Kreischa, a little village a few miles outside the city. In the August of this year, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Goethe's birth, such scenes of Schumann's Faust as were already completed were performed in Dresden, Leipzig and Weimar, Liszt as always giving unwearied assistance and encouragement. The rest of the work was written in the latter part of the year, and the overture in 1853. From 1850 to 1854 the text of Schumann's works is extremely varied. In 1850 he succeeded Ferdinand Hiller as musical director at Düsseldorf; in 1851-1853 he visited Switzerland and Belgium as well as Leipzig. In January 1854 Schumann went to Hanover, where he heard a performance of his Paradise and the Peri. Soon after his return to Düsseldorf, where he was engaged in editing his complete works and making an anthology on the subject of music, a renewal of the symptoms that had threatened him before showed itself. Besides the single note he now imagined that voices sounded in his ear. One night he suddenly left his bed, saying that Schubert and Mendelssohn had sent him a theme which he must write down, and on this theme he wrote five variations for the pianoforte, his last work. On the 27th of February he threw himself into the Rhine. He was rescued by some boatmen, but when brought to land was found to be quite insane. He was taken to a private asylum in Endenich near Bonn, and remained there until his death on the 29th of July 1856. He was buried at Bonn and in 1880 a statue by A. Donndorf was erected on his tomb.
His wife, Clara Schumann (1819-1896), trained from an early age by Wieck, had a brilliant career as a pianist from the age of thirteen up to her marriage. In the various tours on which she accompanied her husband, she extended her own reputation beyond the borders of Germany, and it was thanks to her efforts that his compositions became generally known in Europe. From the time of her husband's death she devoted herself principally to the interpretation of her husband's works, but when in 1856 she first visited England the critics received Schumann's music with a chorus of disapprobation. She returned to London in 1865 and continued her visits annually, with the exception of four seasons, until 1882; and from 1885 to 1888 she appeared each year. In 1878 she was appointed teacher of the piano at the Hoch Conservatorium at Frankfurt, a post which she held until 1892, and in which she contributed greatly to the modern improvement in technique. As an artist she will be remembered, together with Joseph Joachim, as one of the first executants who really played like composers. Besides being remembered for her eminence as a performer of nearly all kinds of pianoforte music, at a time when such technical ability was considerably rarer than in the present day, she was herself the composer of a few songs and of some charming music, mainly for the piano, and the authoritative editor of her husband's works for Breitkopf and Härtel.
The following are the chief compositions of Robert Schumann.
Pianoforte Works. | ||
Papillons (op. 2) | 1829-1831 | |
Études symphoniques (op. 13) | 1834 | |
Carnaval (op. 9) | 1834-1835 | |
Sonata in F sharp minor (op. 11) | 1835 | |
Sonata in G minor (op. 22) | 1833-1835 | |
Kinderszenen (op. 15) | 1836 | |
Fantasia in C (op. 17) | 1836 | |
Fantasiestücke (op. 12) | 1837 | |
Kreisleriana (op. 16) | 1838 | |
Novelletten (op. 21) | 1838 | |
Faschingschwank aus Wien (op. 26) | 1839 | |
Songs and Choral Works. | ||
Songs: — “Liederkreis” (Heine), nine songs (op. 24) | 1840 | |
“Myrthen,” twenty-six songs (4 books) (op. 25) | 1840 | |
“Liederkreis” (Eichendorff), twelve songs (op. 39) | 1840 | |
“Frauenliebe und Leben”
(Chamisso), eight songs (op. 42) |
1840 | |
“Dichterliebe,” sixteen songs from Heine's
Buch der Lieder (op. 48) |
1840 | |
“Belsatzar,” ballad (Heine) (op. 57) | 1840 | |
Song, “Tragödie” (Heine) from op. 64 | 1841 | |
Ballad,
“Der Handschuh” (Schiller)
probably |
1851 | |
Songs from Wilhelm Meister and Requiem for Mignon for
chorus (op. 98) |
1849 | |
Spanische Liebeslieder (op. 138) | 1849 | |
Choral and Dramatic Works: —
“Paradise and the Peri,” for solos, chorus and orchestra (op. 50) |
1843 | |
Faust music | 1844-1853 | |
“Genoveva,” opera | 1848 | |
Manfred music | 1849 | |
“Der Rose Pilgerfahrt”
(Moritz Horn), for solos, chorus and orchestra (op. 112) |
1851 | |
“Der Königssohn” (Uhland),
for solos, chorus and orchestra (op. 103) |
1851 | |
“Des Sängers Fluch” (Uhland)
for solos, chorus and orchestra (op. 139) |
1852 | |
Mass for four part chorus and orchestra (op. 148) | 1852 | |
“Vom Pagen und der
Königstochter,” four ballads (Geibel) for solos, chorus and orchestra (op. 135) |
1852 | |
“Das Glück von Edenhall,”
ballad (Uhland); for solos, chorus and orchestra (op. 143) |
1853 | |
Festival overture on the
Rheinweinlied for orchestra and chorus (op. 123) |
1853 | |
Chamber Music. | ||
Three quartets for strings in A minor, F and A (op. 41) | 1842 | |
Quintet for pianoforte and strings in E flat (op. 44) | 1842 | |
Quartet for pianoforte and strings in E flat (op. 47) | 1842 | |
Fantasiestücke for pianoforte, violin and violoncello (op. 88) | 1842 | |
Andante and variations for two pianofortes (op. 46)[1] | 1843 | |
Trio for pianoforte and strings in D minor (op. 63) | 1847 | |
Trio for pianoforte and strings in F (op. 80) | 1847 | |
Fantasiestücke for clarinet and pianoforte (op. 73) | 1849 | |
Five “Stücke im Volkston” for piano and
violoncello (op. 102) |
1849 | |
Three Romances for oboe and piano (op. 94) | 1849 | |
“Märchenbilder” for pianoforte and viola (op. 113) | 1851 | |
Sonata for pianoforte and violin in A minor (op. 105) | 1851 | |
Trio for pianoforte and strings in G minor (op. 110) | 1851 | |
Sonata for pianoforte and violin in D minor (op. 121) | 1851 | |
“Märchenerzählungen,” four pieces for
clarinet, viola and pianoforte
probably written in |
1853 | |
Orchestral Works. | ||
B flat Symphony (op. 38) | 1841 | |
Fourth Symphony in D minor (op. 120)[2] | 1841 | |
Overture, Scherzo and Finale | 1841 | |
Second Symphony in C (op. 61) | 1846 | |
Third or “Rhenish” Symphony in E flat (op. 97) | 1850 | |
Concertos and Concert-Stücke. | ||
For Pianoforte in A minor (op. 54) | 1841-1845 | |
Concert-stück for four horns (op. 86) | 1849 | |
Introduction and Allegro-appassionato for Pianoforte (op. 92) | 1849 | |
Concerto for Violoncello (op. 126) | 1852 |
Bibliography. — Wasielewski, Robert Schumann; A. Reismann, Robert Schumanns Leben und Werke; J. A. Fuller Maitland, Schumann (“Great Musicians” series); The Life of Robert Schumann told in his Letters (with a preface by J. G. Jansen), translated from the German by May Herbert; Letters of R. Schumann, edited by Karl Storck (Eng. trans, by Hannah Bryant); V. Joss, Der Musikpädagoge Friedrich Wieck und seine Familie; Litzmann, Clara Schumann (1902); Moser's Joseph Joachim and the first volume of Kalbeck's Brahms contain much that is important as to Schumann's later years. See also W. H. Hadow, Studies in Modern Music, first series (1894).