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Robert Schumann: Summary of Life and Etc

Robert Schumann was a prominent German composer and influential music critic of the Romantic era. He left his law studies to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. In 1840, after a long legal battle, he married Clara Wieck, himself an established pianist, beginning a lifelong musical partnership. Schumann composed exclusively for piano until 1840, later writing for piano, orchestra, and voice. He is renowned for works like Carnaval, Symphonic Studies, and Kinderszenen. Schumann suffered from a mental illness that led to periods of depression, mania, and delusions, and he died in an asylum in 1856.

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60 views

Robert Schumann: Summary of Life and Etc

Robert Schumann was a prominent German composer and influential music critic of the Romantic era. He left his law studies to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. In 1840, after a long legal battle, he married Clara Wieck, himself an established pianist, beginning a lifelong musical partnership. Schumann composed exclusively for piano until 1840, later writing for piano, orchestra, and voice. He is renowned for works like Carnaval, Symphonic Studies, and Kinderszenen. Schumann suffered from a mental illness that led to periods of depression, mania, and delusions, and he died in an asylum in 1856.

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Abigail Briguel
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Robert Schumann

SUMMARY OF LIFE AND ETC.


Robert Schumann (German: [ˈʃuːman]; 8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential
music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era.Schumann left the study
of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist.
Born: 8 June 1810, Zwickau
Profession: Composer, Pianist
Died: 29 July 1856, Endenich
Nationality: German
In 1840, after a long and acrimonious legal battle with Wieck, who opposed the marriage, Schumann married
Wieck's daughter Clara. A lifelong partnership in music began, as Clara herself was an established pianist and
music prodigy. Clara and Robert also maintained a close relationship with German composer Johannes
Brahms.
Until 1840, Schumann wrote exclusively for the piano. Later, he composed piano and orchestral works, and
many Lieder (songs for voice and piano). He composed four symphonies, one opera, and other
orchestral, choral, and chamber works. His best-known works include Carnaval, Symphonic
Studies, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, and the Fantasie in C. Schumann was known for infusing his music with
characters through motifs, as well as references to works of literature. These characters bled into his editorial
writing in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal for Music), a Leipzig-based publication that he co-founded.
Schumann suffered from a mental disorder that first manifested in 1833 as a severe melancholic
depressive episode—which recurred several times alternating with phases of "exaltation" and increasingly also
delusional ideas of being poisoned or threatened with metallic items. What is now thought to have been a
combination of bipolar disorder and perhaps mercury poisoning led to "manic" and "depressive" periods in
Schumann's compositional productivity. After a suicide attempt in 1854, Schumann was admitted at his own
request to a mental asylum in Endenich near Bonn. Diagnosed with psychotic melancholia, he died two years
later at the age of 46 without recovering from his mental illness.
Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
How to say the name:
‘Schumann’ is said like Shoe-man. ‘Robert’ is easy to
say.
Born:
8th June 1810 in Zwickau, Saxony, Germany.

Schumann’s grave in Bonn


Died:
29th July 1856 in Bonn, Germany.
Buried:
Alter Friedhof (Old Cemetery) in Bonn, Germany (in the same
grave as his wife Clara Schumann).
Type of Music:
Classical music from the romantic period.
A famous piece:
Träumerei (Dreaming) from Kinderszenen (Scenes from
Childhood) for the piano. (See below for a video.)
Some Great Pieces:
Piano Concerto. (See below for a video.)
Piano Quintet in E flat, Op. 44.
Many songs.
Many piano pieces, such as Papillons (Butterflies),
Carnaval, Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) and
Kreisleriana.

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