Robert Schumann (1810–1856)

The son of a bookseller and publisher, Robert Schumann grew up surrounded by books and hesitated for years between literature and music. He studied law, then devoted himself to the piano with Friedrich Wieck; an injury to his right hand ended his hopes as a virtuoso and turned him towards composition. In 1840, despite Wieck’s opposition, he married Wieck’s daughter Clara, one of the great pianists of the century.

In 1834 he founded the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, a journal in which he championed Chopin, Berlioz and later the young Brahms. He signed his articles with imaginary characters, the fiery Florestan and the dreamy Eusebius, two sides of his personality that also appear in his music.

The 1830s were devoted almost entirely to the piano: Papillons, Carnaval, Kreisleriana, the Fantasie Op. 17, Scenes from Childhood. Then came the “year of song” (1840), symphonies, the Piano Concerto and, in 1848, the Album for the Young, written for his daughters. Suffering from severe mental illness, he spent his last years in an asylum at Endenich, near Bonn, where he died in 1856.

Schumann teaches pianists to make several voices sing within one hand, to establish a character in a few bars and to play with rhythm (syncopations, displaced accents). His collections for children are among the finest teaching pieces ever written.