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Schumann - who is he? Failed pianist, brilliant composer or sharp music critic? Robert Schumann biography briefly Composer author of a musical story about Robert.

Introduction

Robert Schumann (German) Robert Schumann; June 8, 1810, Zwickau - July 29, 1856, Endenich (now one of the urban areas of Bonn) - German (Saxon) composer, conductor, musical critic, teacher. One of the most important composers of the first half of XIX century. (Style - German romanticism, artistic direction - Leipzig school.)

1. Biography

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 a local organist; 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 J. Byron and Jean Paul, becoming their passionate admirer. The moods and images of this romantic literature over time, reflected in the musical work of Schumann. 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. In an effort to become a real virtuoso, he practiced with fanatical persistence, but this is precisely what led to trouble: forcing exercises with a mechanical device to strengthen the muscles of the arm, he injured his right hand. The middle finger ceased to function and, despite prolonged treatment, the hand became forever incapable of virtuoso piano playing. Career Thought professional pianist had to leave. Then Schumann seriously took up composition and at the same time music criticism. 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 - the New Musical Journal, (German. Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik) who for several years edited and regularly published his articles in it. 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, Clara Wieck, in a church in Schoenfeld. 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 committed to a psychiatric hospital in Endenich near Bonn, where he died on July 29, 1856. Buried in Bonn.

2. Creativity

An intellectual and aesthete, 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 and structures, 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 the 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" (1835), in which skits, dances, masks, female images(among them Kiarina - Clara Wieck), musical portraits Paganini, Chopin. The cycles Butterflies (1831, based on the work of Jean Paul) and Davidsbündlers (1837) are close to Carnival. The Kreislerian play cycle (1838, named after literary hero 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, 1835-38, 1836), Fantasia (1836-38) , concerto for piano and orchestra (1841-45). 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 creativity Schumann developed the type lyric song 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 provides 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 the verses of G. Heine (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, J. W. Goethe, 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 upon a very wide circle plots. 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 German folk song(“Folk Song” to the verses of F. Ruckert, etc.).

In the oratorio "Paradise and Pere" (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" (1844-53, according to 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. creative success Schumann's music for the dramatic poem "Manfred" by J. Byron appeared (overture and 15 musical numbers, 1849).

In the composer's 4 symphonies (the so-called "Spring", 1841; Second, 1845-46; the so-called "Rhine", 1850; Fourth, 1841-51), 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 on the pages of his magazine the work of classical musicians, 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 of them embodied the character traits of one composer.

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 propagated by A. G. Rubinshtein, P. I. Tchaikovsky, G. A. Laroche, figures " mighty handful».

3. Major works

Here are works that are often used in concert and pedagogical practice in Russia, as well as works of a large scale, but rarely performed.

3.1. for piano

Variations on "Abegg"

Butterflies, op. 2

Dances of the Davidsbündlers, Op. 6

Carnival, op. 9
Three sonatas:
- Sonata No. 1 in F sharp minor, op. eleven
  Sonata No. 3 in F minor, op. 14
  Sonata No. 2 in G minor, op. 22

Fantastic plays, op. 12

Symphonic studies, op. 13

Children's Scenes, Op. 15

Kreislerian, op. 16

Fantasy in C major, op. 17

Arabesque, op. 18

Humoresque, op. 20

Novels, op. 21

Night Pieces, op. 23

Vienna Carnival, op. 26

Album for youth, op. 68

Forest scenes, op. 82

Variegated leaves, op. 99

3.2. Concerts

Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 54

Konzertstück for four horns and orchestra, op. 86

Introduction and Allegro Appassionato for piano and orchestra, op. 92

Concerto for cello and orchestra, op. 129

Concerto for violin and orchestra, 1853

Introduction and Allegro for piano and orchestra, op. 134

Fantasy Pieces for clarinet and piano, op.73

Marchenerzählungen, Op.132

3.3. Vocal works

"Circle of Songs", op. 35 (lyrics by Heine, 9 songs)

"Myrtle", op. 25 (on poems by various poets, 26 songs)

"Circle of Songs", op. 39 (lyrics by Eichendorff, 20 songs)

Love and Life of a Woman, op. 42 (lyrics by A. von Chamisso, 8 songs)

"The Love of a Poet", op. 48 (lyrics by Heine, 16 songs)

"Seven Songs. In memory of the poetess (Elizaveta Kuhlman), op. 104 (1851)

The Poems of Queen Mary Stuart, op. 135, 5 songs (1852)

"Genoveva". Opera (1848)

3.4. Symphonic music

Symphony No. 1 in B flat major (known as "Spring"), op. 38

Symphony No. 2 in C major, op. 61

Symphony No. 3 in E flat major "Rhenish", op. 97

Symphony No. 4 in D minor, op. 120

Overture to the tragedy "Manfred" (1848)

Overture "Bride of Messina"

5. Bibliography

Schumann R. "Franz Liszt" (Excerpts from the article)

Memoirs of Robert Schumann / Compilation, commentary, preface O. V. Losevoy. Per. A. V. Mikhailova and O. V. Loseva. - M.: Composer, 2000. ISBN 5-85285-225-2 ISBN 5-89598-076-7

Grohotov S.V. Schumann and surroundings. Romantic walks through the Album for Youth. M., 2006. ISBN 5-89817-159-2

Grohotov S.V. Schumann: Carnival. - M., 2009. ISBN 978-5-89817-285-5

Zhitomirsky D.V. Robert and Clara Schumann in Russia. - M., 1962.

Zhytomyrsky D.V. Robert Schumann: Essay on life and work. - M., 1964. (2nd ed. M., 2000.)

Karminsky M.V. Dramaturgy of the life of Robert Schumann // Kharkiv assemblies-1995. International Music Festival "Robert Schumann and the youth": Collection of materials / G.I. Hansburg. - Kharkiv, 1995. - S. 7-18.

Ganzburg G.I. Song Theater of Robert Schumann // Academy of Music. - 2005. - No. 1. - S. 106-119.

Robert Schumann and the Crossroads of Music and Literature: Sat. scientific works. / Comp. Ganzburg G.I.- Kharkov: RA - Caravel, 1997. - 272 p. ISBN 966-7012-26-3.

Sviridenko C. Schumann and his songs. - St. Petersburg, 1911.

Schumann's recordings on ArtOfPiano.ru

Robert Schumann Russian site dedicated to the composer

Robert Schumann International Music Score Library Project

Music Festival "Schumann Resonances"

Bibliography:

in some sources they add the middle name Alexander

THE WORKS OF ROBERT SCHUMANN
To the birthday of Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856)

The music of Robert Schumann captivates with poetic imagery, penetration into the depths of the psychological world, impetuosity. He opened a romantic page in piano art, saturating it with software that brings piano miniatures closer to literary short stories. New melody, harmony, texture help to reveal the image of a new hero - a romantic, endowed with complex and contradictory emotional experiences, striving for the ideal.

The piano - the cause of the sorrowful experiences of Schumann, who injured his hand with overzealous exercises and was forced to permanently abandon his career as a pianist - became the instrument of his first discoveries, the first innovative compositions that captured the insights of the 20-year-old composer. His other favorite genre is the song. More than 130 were born in the "Year of Songs" (1840), when the happiness of being reunited with his beloved after many years of fighting for her inspired Schumann to create numerous vocal cycles. They embody the subtlest, elusive shades of human feelings with amazing penetration, reflect the individual style of each of the poets who attracted the composer. And their circle is very wide: Schumann set to music the verses of almost all contemporary German and English romantics, paying tribute to the classics of Goethe.

The composer was subtly versed in poetry and himself possessed great literary talent, which was reflected in his critical activity, which differed significantly from other romantic musicians. Schumann created a music magazine and was its main contributor. His articles are real literary prose, written on behalf of musicians of various temperaments, characters invented by Schumann. The heroes - the authors of the articles Florestan and Eusebius, the personification of the two sides of romanticism in general and Schumann's worldview in particular, impulsiveness and dreaminess, are also embodied in his music, primarily in the lyrics of piano and vocal miniatures. Whereas major genres- symphonic, oratorio, opera, to which Schumann refers; in the 1840s-1850s, are more objective and far from being so original.

Literary talent and attraction to publishing Robert Schumann, born June 8, 1810 in the small town of Zwickau in Saxony, inherited from his father. A prosperous book publisher, translator of Walter Scott and Byron, for two decades engaged in periodicals, he wrote studies for reference books, biographies famous people for dictionaries and even novels. Mother was distinguished by her love of music and knew so many excerpts from operas that she was called "a living book of arias." She willingly sang in a circle of friends, learned Mozart's arias with her husband. and son with early childhood sang constantly. From the age of 7 to 15, he was taught to play the piano by Johann Gottfried Kunst, a practicing musician, self-taught, whose modest pedagogical abilities the student quickly outgrew. At the age of 7, the boy improvised on the piano, composed dance pieces, at 12 he wrote the first major work- the 150th psalm for choir and orchestra, at 17 - songs and a piano concerto, which remained, however, unfinished. Having found a score of some overture with a set of orchestral voices in his father's shop, Robert organized a home orchestra and led it, playing the piano. And since there were not enough orchestra players, he also mastered playing the flute and cello.
My father insisted on a general liberal education. It began with the study of Latin, French and Greek. For 9 years (1820-1828) Schumann attended the gymnasium, where he translated ancient authors, wrote poems and dramas that were staged in home theater, aesthetic articles and biographies of famous people for a series of books published by his father, created a literary circle and an orchestra, with which he performed as a solo pianist at home and gymnasium evenings. He was addicted to equally poetry and music, dramaturgy and philology, and at the end of the gymnasium, as stated in the certificate, "the pedagogical council recognized him in all respects as worthy of being sent to the university as a law student».

Schumann gave jurisprudence two academic years (1828-1830) - first in Leipzig, then in Heidelberg. From university subjects he was interested in philosophy, Italian and French, and then English and Spanish, literature and, of course, music. Just a few days after arriving in Leipzig, Schumann met with the famous piano teacher Friedrich Wieck and his daughter Clara, a 9-year-old child prodigy, began taking lessons from him, and in next year- perform at home concerts. Schumann soon earned a reputation as a "popular favorite" and at the age of 20 decided to change his life dramatically, devoting himself entirely to music. To do this, it was necessary to break the resistance of the mother (the father had died by that time), older brothers and guardian - a respectable merchant. The opinion of Vic, who believed that "Robert, with his talent and imagination, in about three years could become one of the greatest pianists living today," decided the matter. In the autumn of 1830, Schumann settled with Wieck and practiced the piano for 6-7 hours a day, and took composition lessons from Heinrich Dorn for 10 months.

A year of overzealous piano practice led to disaster. Schumann felt pain in his right arm. The reason was the device he invented for developing the independence of all fingers: a tendon was stretched, which led to paralysis of one finger, and then to an incurable disease of the hand. On the career of a virtuoso pianistSchumanhad to forget forever. But he could write. By this time, the first piano works came out of print, testifying to the formation of an original talent; during the 1830s, the famous cycles of miniatures "Carnival", "Kreisleriana", "Dances of the Davidsbündlers", "Symphonic Etudes", as well as sonatas interpreted in a new way, appeared.

Then Schumann begins to act as a publicist. On December 7, 1831, his first article appeared in the Leipzig music newspaper, and 2 and a half years later, the first issue of the New Music Journal he created was published. In it, he opposes philistine tastes, routine, inertia, his motto is “ Youth and moving forward". Young musicians are grouped around Schumann, forming the Davidic Brotherhood, named after the biblical king David, a musician and warrior, the winner of the Philistines (in German, the name of this hostile people coincides with the designation of the philistines-philistines - the main enemies of Schumann). The images of the Davidsbündlers are constantly found in the composer's music, as well as the image of Kiarina - Clara Wieck, the daughter of his teacher.

Settling with Wieck, Schumann composes for Clara and her younger brothers fairy tales and robber stories, plays charades. Their music is especially close. Clara is not only an outstanding pianist who has been giving independent concerts since the age of 11. She tries to compose music, and Schumann uses her themes in his sonatas, dedicating compositions to her "on behalf of Florestan and Eusebius." A feeling arises and grows stronger between them, but the father gets in the way. Vic resorts to any means for 5 years to separate the lovers. The fight is painful. In 1837, Robert and Clara are secretly engaged, and 2 years later they have to resort to the help of the court. The trial is delayed for 13 months. Wieck accuses Schumann of drunkenness and debauchery in such terms that the judge is forced to interrupt him. Many respected citizens of Leipzig speak in defense of Schumann, among them Mendelssohn. Finally, the court rules in favor of Schumann. September 12, 1840, on the eve of Clara's coming of age, they are married in a small village church not far from Leipzig, and the years of family happiness begin. Clara became for Robert not only a lover, wife, mother of 8 children, but also a true friend, muse, propagandist of his work.

40s - new stage in the work of Schumann. It is at the center of Leipzig's musical life. His journal is a recognized organ of cutting-edge musicians. He is invited to teach piano, composing and reading scores at the first conservatory in Germany opened by Mendelssohn.

The University of Jena awards him honorary title Ph.D. The circle of musical genres of interest to him is expanding: Schumann creates symphonies, a piano concerto, chamber ensembles, choirs, oratorios, music for plays, opera. 4 symphonies arose after the composer's acquaintance with Schubert's last symphony, the score of which he found during his stay in Vienna in 1839.

Going to the cemetery to bow to Beethoven and Schubert, Schumann, in his own words, "contemplated these two sacred graves for a long time, almost envying some, if I am not mistaken, Count Odonnel, who lies just between them." Then he visited Brother Schubert, a poor school teacher who lived on the outskirts of the city, and saw a lot of Schubert's manuscripts: “A joyful trembling seized me at the sight of a pile of riches lying here. Where to start, where to stop? Schumann chose the last symphony. It was soon performed under the direction of Mendelssohn, and Schumann wrote a long article about it.

In February 1844, Robert and Clara Schumann went to Russia and spent 2 months in St. Petersburg and Moscow. They met with Glinka and Rubinstein, under the direction of Schumann his First Symphony was performed (in the salon of the Vielgorsky brothers, on their initiative).

Love for Schumann was repeatedly testified by Tchaikovsky and the leaders of the Mighty Handful. Tchaikovsky spoke especially penetratingly about Schumann, noting the exciting modernity of Schumann's work, the novelty of the content, the novelty of the composer's own musical thinking. "The Music of Schumann Tchaikovsky wrote, organically adjacent to the work of Beethoven and at the same time sharply separated from him, opens up a whole world of new musical forms, touches strings that have not yet been touched by his great predecessors. In it we find an echo of those mysterious spiritual processes of our spiritual life, those doubts, despairs and impulses towards the ideal that overwhelm the heart of modern man.

Upon returning to Leipzig, Schumann's health deteriorated sharply: he experienced an attack of a nervous illness, which was discovered at the age of 23. The seizures became increasingly severe, and the composer was forced to give up his work at the magazine and move to the quieter Dresden. There he founded symphony concerts, led a male choir, and then a choral society, conducted the oratorios of Bach and Handel, his own Scenes from Faust, the oratorio Paradise and Peri.

Schumann met with Wagner, at that time Kapellmeister of the Dresden Theater, who created the first reformist operas. Unlike in the 1930s, Schumann was not attracted to innovative ideas; dialogue between the two largest German composers did not work out.

The last city with which Schumann's life is connected is Düsseldorf, where in September 1850 he took the post of city conductor - leader symphony orchestra and singing society. In honor of the composer's arrival, a solemn concert was given from his works, but already next year there were signs of dissatisfaction with his activities both from the public and from the performers. In 1853, Schumann resigned his position, although he held a grand Lower Rhine festival in May. But recognition came in other German cities. Leipzig organizes Schumann Week, in Weimar Liszt performs his music for Byron's drama Manfred. Schuman is elected an honorary member of the Royal musical society Antwerp (1852). The following year, he makes a triumphant tour of the Dutch cities, where the Second and Third Symphonies were performed, and Clara played the Piano Concerto. At the same time, a significant meeting took place between Schumann, standing on the edge of the grave, and 20-year-old Brahms. About him Schumann wrote his latest article entitled "New Ways", in which he predicted young musician great future.

A long and acute attack of nervous illness overtook Schumann in February 1854. He said that at night "the image of Schubert sent him a wonderful melody, which he wrote down and composes variations on it." This is Schumann's last notation. They did not leave him alone, but seizing the moment, he ran out of the house and rushed off the bridge into the Rhine. The composer was saved by fishermen, after which, at his insistent requests, he was placed in a psychiatric hospital in Endenich near Bonn. 4 months later, his last son was born, named after Mendelssohn Felix.

Clara did not see her husband for more than 2 years: the doctors were afraid of unnecessary unrest. However, in July 1856, she was urgently called to the hospital, and 2 days after the meeting, on July 29, Schumann died. Another 2 days later, his modest funeral took place in Bonn - the city where the life of Beethoven, whom Schumann loved so much, began.sheremained a famous pianist. In 1878Clarareceived an invitation to become "the first piano teacher" at the newly established Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main, where she taught for 14 years. ClaraSchumanedited the works of Robert Schumann and published a number of his letters. Last concertClaragave on March 12, 1891, she was 71. Five years later she suffered an apoplexy and died a few months later at the age of 76. According to the wishes of Clara Schumann, she is buried in Bonn in the Old Cemetery next to her husband.

Robert Schumann (German: Robert Schumann). Born June 8, 1810 in Zwickau - died July 29, 1856 in Endenich. German composer, educator and influential music critic. Widely known as one of the most outstanding composers era of romanticism. 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. Later, many songs were published, four symphonies, an opera and other orchestral, choral and chamber works. 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 attempting suicide in 1854, he own will was 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 musical creativity Schumann.

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 school literary writings Schumann 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 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 the year of the marriage, Schuman created about 140 songs. Some years life together Roberta 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 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.

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).

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. significant place they contain episodes of song, dance, lyrical-pictorial 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.

They are rightfully called the greatest composers of the 19th century. But more often the phrase Schumann's period is heard, this name is given to the era of romanticism in the world of music.

Childhood and youth

German composer and music critic Robert Schumann was born on June 8, 1810 in Saxony (Germany) to a loving couple Friedrich August and Johann Christiana. Because of his love for Johanna, whose parents opposed the marriage with Friedrich because of poverty, the father of the future musician, for a year of work as an assistant in a bookstore, earned money for a wedding with a girl and for starting his own business.

Robert Schumann grew up in a family with five children. The boy grew up mischievous and cheerful, like his mother, and was very different from his father, a reserved and silent person.

Robert Schumann started school at the age of six, was distinguished by leadership qualities and creativity. A year later, the parents noticed musical talent child and sent to learn to play the piano. Soon he showed the ability to compose orchestral music.

The young man for a long time could not decide on the choice of his future profession - to go in for music or go into literature, as his father wanted and insisted. But the concert of the pianist and conductor Moscheles, which Robert Schumann attended, left no chance for literature. The composer's mother had plans to make a lawyer out of her son, but in 1830 he nevertheless received the blessing of his parents to devote his life to music.

Music

After moving to Leipzig, Robert Schumann began attending piano lessons by Friedrich Wieck, who promised him a career famous pianist. But life makes its own adjustments. Schumann developed paralysis of his right hand - the problem forced the young man to abandon his dream of becoming a pianist, and he joined the ranks of composers.

There are two very strange versions of the reasons why the composer began to develop the disease. One of them is a simulator made by the musician himself to warm up his fingers, the second story is even more mysterious. It was rumored that the composer tried to remove tendons from his hand in order to achieve virtuosity on the piano.

But none of the versions has been proven, they are refuted in the diaries of his wife Clara, whom Robert Schumann knew, so to speak, from childhood. Enlisting the support of a mentor, Robert Schumann founded the New Musical Gazette in 1834. Published in the newspaper, he criticized and ridiculed indifference to creativity and art under fictitious names.

The composer challenged the depressive and miserable Germany of that time, putting harmony, colors and romanticism into his works. For example, in one of the most famous cycles for piano "Carnival" there are simultaneously female images, colorful scenes, carnival masks. In parallel, the composer developed in vocal creativity, the genre of lyrical song.

The story about the creation and the work itself "Album for Youth" deserves special attention. On the day when eldest daughter Robert Schumann turned 7 years old, the girl received a notebook with the title "Album for Youth" as a gift. The notebook consisted of works by famous composers and 8 of them were written by Robert Schumann.

The composer attached importance to this work not because he loved his children and wanted to please, he was disgusted by the artistic level music education- songs and music that children studied at school. The album includes the plays "Spring Song", "Santa Claus", "Merry Peasant", "Winter", which, in the author's opinion, are easy and understandable for children's perception.

During the period of creative upsurge, the composer wrote 4 symphonies. The main part of the works for piano consists of cycles with a lyrical mood, which are connected by one storyline.

During his lifetime, the music written by Robert Schumann was not perceived by his contemporaries. Romantic, sophisticated, harmonious, touching thin strings human soul. It would seem that Europe, shrouded in a series of changes and revolutions, was unable to appreciate the style of a composer who kept pace with the times, who fought all his life to face the new without fear.

Colleagues "in the shop" also did not perceive his contemporary - he refused to understand the music of a rebel and a rebel, Franz Liszt, being sensitive and romantic, included only the work "Carnival" in the concert program. The music of Robert Schumann accompanies contemporary cinema: House, M.D. grandfather lung behavior", " Misterious story Benjamin Button.

Personal life

The composer met his future wife Clara Josephine Wieck at a young age in the house of a piano teacher - the girl turned out to be the daughter of Friedrich Wieck. In 1840, the marriage of the young took place. This year is considered the most fruitful for the musician - 140 songs were written, and the year is also notable for the award of a Ph.D. degree from the University of Leipzig.

Clara was famous for being a famous pianist, she traveled to concerts in which her husband accompanied her beloved. The couple had 8 children, the first years of their life together were like a fairy tale about love with a happy ending. After 4 years, Robert Schumann begins to show acute attacks of nervous breakdown. Critics suggest that the reason for this is the composer's wife.

Before the wedding, the musician fought for the right to become the husband of the famous pianist, mostly with the girl's father, who categorically disapproved of Schumann's intentions. Despite the obstacles created by the future father-in-law (it came to litigation), Robert Schumann married for love.

After the marriage, I had to deal with the popularity and recognition of my wife. And although Robert Schumann was a recognized and famous composer, the feeling that the musician was hiding in the shadow of Clara's fame did not leave. As a result emotional experiences Robert Schumann takes a break of two years in creativity.

Love story about romantic relationship The creative couple of Clara and Robert Schumann was embodied in the film "Song of Love", which was released in America in 1947.

Death

In 1853 famous composer and the pianist set off to travel around Holland, where the couple was received with honors, but after a while the symptoms of the disease worsened sharply. The composer attempted suicide by jumping into the Rhine River, but the musician was saved.

After this incident, he was placed in a psychiatric clinic near Bonn, meetings with his wife were rarely allowed. On July 29, 1856, at the age of 46, the great composer died. According to the results of the autopsy, the cause of illness and death at an early age is blood vessels overflowing with blood and damage to the brain.

Artworks

1831 - "Butterflies"
1834 - "Carnival"
1837 - "Fantastic Fragments"
1838 - "Children's scenes"
1840 - "The Love of a Poet"
1848 - "Album for youth"

“The mind is wrong, the feeling is never” - these words of Schumann could become the motto of all romantic artists who firmly believed that the most precious thing in a person is his ability to feel the beauty of nature and art and sympathize with other people.

Schumann's work attracts us, first of all, with its richness and depth of feelings. And his sharp, penetrating, brilliant mind has never been a cold mind, it has always been illuminated and warmed by feeling and inspiration.
Schumann's rich talent did not immediately manifest itself in music. Literary interests predominated in the family. Schumann's father was an enlightened book publisher and sometimes acted as an author of articles himself. And Robert in early years seriously engaged in linguistics, literature, wrote plays that were staged in the home circle of amateurs. He also studied music, played the piano, and improvised. Friends admired his ability to paint a portrait of someone he knew with music in such a way that one could easily recognize his mannerisms, gestures, whole appearance and character.

Clara Vic

At the request of his relatives, Robert entered the university (Leipzig, and then Heidelburg). He intended to combine his studies at the Faculty of Law with music. But over time, Schumann realized that he was not a lawyer, but a musician, and began to persistently seek the consent of his mother (his father had died by that time) to devote himself entirely to music.
Consent was finally given. An important role was played by the guarantee of the prominent teacher Friedrich Wieck, who assured Schumann's mother that her son, subject to serious studies, would turn out outstanding pianist. Vic's authority was indisputable, because his daughter and student Clara, then still a girl, was already a concert pianist.
Robert again moved from Heidelberg to Leipzig and became a diligent and obedient student. Considering that he needed to make up for lost time as soon as possible, he worked tirelessly, and in order to achieve freedom of movement of his fingers, he invented a mechanical device. This invention played fatal role in his life - it led to an incurable disease of the right hand.

Fatal blow of fate

It was a terrible blow. After all, Schumann, with great difficulty, obtained permission from his relatives to abandon his almost completed education and devote himself entirely to music, and in the end he could only somehow play something “for himself” with his naughty fingers ... There was something to despair from. But without music, he could no longer exist. Even before the accident with his hand, he began to take theory lessons and seriously study composition. Now this second line has become the first. But not the only one. Schumann began to act as a music critic, and his articles are apt, sharp, penetrating to the very essence. piece of music and features of musical performance - immediately attracted attention.

Schumann the critic

The fame of Schumann as a critic preceded that of Schumann as a composer.

Schuman was only twenty-five years old when he ventured into starting his own music magazine. He became the publisher, editor, and primary contributor to articles appearing on behalf of members of the Davidsbund, the Brotherhood of David.

David, the legendary biblical psalmist king, fought against the hostile people - the Philistines and defeated them. The word "Philistine" is consonant with the German "philistine" - a tradesman, a layman, a retrograde. The goal of the members of the "brotherhood of David" - the Davidsbündlers - was to fight against philistine tastes in art, with clinging to the old, obsolete, or, conversely, with the pursuit of the latest, but empty fashion.

That brotherhood, on behalf of which Schumann's New Musical Journal spoke, did not really exist, it was a literary hoax. There was a small circle of like-minded people, but Schumann considered all leading musicians to be members of the brotherhood, in particular Berlioz and, whose creative debut he welcomed with an enthusiastic article. Schumann himself signed with two pseudonyms, in which different sides of his contradictory nature and different facets of romanticism were embodied. The image of Florestan - a romantic rebel and Eusebius - a romantic dreamer, we find not only in Schumann's literary articles, but also in his musical works.

Schumann composer

And he wrote a lot of music during these years. One after another, his notebooks were created piano pieces under unusual names for that time: "Butterflies", " fantasy plays”, “Kreisleriana”, “Children's Scenes”, etc. The titles themselves indicate that these plays reflected the various life and artistic impressions of Schumann. “In Kreislerian, for example, the image of the musician Kreisler, created by the romantic writer E. T. A. Hoffmann, challenged the bourgeois environment surrounding him with his behavior and even his very existence. "Children's scenes" - fleeting sketches of children's lives: games, fairy tales, children's fantasies, sometimes scary ("Scare"), sometimes bright ("Dreams").

All this belongs to the field of program music. The titles of the pieces should give a boost to the listener's imagination, direct his attention in a certain direction. Most of the plays are miniatures, in a laconic form embodying one image, one impression. But Schumann often combines them into cycles. The most famous of these compositions, Carnival, consists of a series of short pieces. Here are waltzes and lyrical scenes meetings at the ball, and portraits of real and fictional characters. Among them, along with the traditional carnival masks of Pierrot, Harlequin, Columbine, we meet Chopin and, finally, we will meet Schumann himself in two persons - Florestan and Eusebius, and the young Chiarina - Clara Vik.

Love of Robert and Clara

Robert and Clara

Brotherly tenderness for this talented girl, the daughter of the teacher Schumann, eventually turned into a deep heartfelt feeling. Young people realized that they were made for each other: they had the same life goals, the same artistic tastes. But this conviction was not shared by Friedrich Wieck, who believed that Clara's husband should, above all, provide for her financially, and this is nothing to expect from a failed pianist, as Wik Schumann was in the eyes. He was also afraid that marriage would interfere with Clara's concert triumphs.

The "fight for Clara" lasted for five whole years, and only in 1840, having won trial, young people received official permission to marry. Robert and Clara Schumann

Schumann's biographers call this year the year of songs. Schumann then created several song cycles: “The Love of a Poet” (to the verses of Heine), “The Love and Life of a Woman” (to the verses of A. Chamisso), “Myrtle” - a cycle written as a wedding gift to Clara. The ideal of the composer was a complete fusion of music and words, and he really achieved this.

Thus began the happy years of Schumann's life. The horizons of creativity have expanded. Previously, his attention was almost entirely focused on piano music, then now, after the year of songs, it's time to symphonic music, music for chamber ensembles, the oratorio "Paradise and Peri" is being created. Schumann starts and pedagogical activity at the newly opened Leipzig Conservatory, he accompanies Clara on her concert tours, thanks to which his compositions are gaining more and more fame. In 1944, Robert and Clara spent several months in Russia, where they were greeted with warm, friendly attention from musicians and music lovers.

The last blow of fate

Together forever

But the happy years were overshadowed by Schumann's imperceptibly creeping illness, which at first seemed like a simple overwork. The matter, however, turned out to be more serious. It was mental illness, sometimes receding - and then the composer returned to creative work and his talent remained just as bright and original, sometimes aggravated - and then he could no longer work or communicate with people. The disease gradually undermined his body, and he spent the last two years of his life in the hospital.

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