Robert Alexander Schumann                       

The son of a bookseller,  Robert became a well known composer and music critic. Born June 8th 1810 in Zwickau, Saxony, Germany, Robert showed ability as a pianist and an interest in composing. In 1821 he went to Leipzig to study law but instead spent his time in musical activities.

 

He wrote some piano music and took lessons from Friedrich Wieck.  In 1830 he went to live with Wieck at Leipzig but soon had trouble with his hands. Robert put weights on his fingers to help him play the piano better...in doing this he damaged his hands. 

 

Composition continued.  In 1834 Schumann founded a music journal, the "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik"; he was its editor and leading writer for ten years.

 

He was a brilliant critic.  By 1835 he was in love with Wieck's young daughter Clara, but Wieck did his best to separate them. They were apart so much that Schumann went through deep depressions. After fighting with Clara's dad they were married in 1840.

 

Schumann, as a pianist composer, made the piano partake fully in the expression of emotions in songs. In 1841 Schumann turned to orchestral music: he wrote symphonies and a beautiful, poetic piece for piano and orchestra for Clara that he later reworked as the first movement of his Piano Concerto.

 

In 1842, when Clara was away on a concert tour (he disliked being in her shadow and remained at home), he turned to chamber music, and wrote his three string quartets and three works with piano, of which the Piano Quintet has always been a favourite for the freshness and Romantic warmth of its ideas.

 

In 1843, he turned to choral music, working at a secular oratorio and at setting part of Goethe's "Faust." He also took up a teaching post at the new conservatory.