167
See also: “Eroica” Symphony 136–139 ■ Die schöne Müllerin 148–153 ■
Symphonie fantastique 162–163 ■ Faust Symphony 176 –17 7Robert Schumann
Born in the Saxon city of
Zwickau (now part of
Germany) in 1810, Schumann
began composing music as a
young boy. No less interested
in literature, he wrote a
number of youthful novels
before heading to Leipzig to
study law. Schumann gave up
his studies in order to become
a concert pianist, but a hand
injury prevented him from
achieving his goal. Instead,
he focused on composition and
musical criticism, becoming
editor of the New Journal for
Music, through which he
introduced the world to the
music of Chopin and Brahms.
His novel piano works, often
inspired by literature, quickly
became popular. After
marrying Clara Wieck, a
famous pianist herself, he
began to concentrate on other
musical genres. His last years
were plagued with mental
illness, and he died in an
asylum in 1856.works include Hector Berlioz’s
Symphonie fantastique, Franz
Liszt’s Faust Symphony, and Robert
Schumann’s Symphony No. 1,
known as the “Spring” Symphony.Schubert’s influence
At the same time that Beethoven
was writing his last symphony,
Schubert was also working on his
mature works in the genre. In 1822,
he started on his Ninth Symphony,
now known as the “Great C Major”
Symphony. Unperformed in his
lifetime, it was discovered by
Schubert’s friend Schumann, ona visit to Vienna after Schubert’s
death. Schumann took a copy of the
manuscript back to Leipzig, where
Felix Mendelssohn conducted its
premiere in 1839.
While Beethoven’s works
focused on an intense musical
argument and inner drive, Schubert
approached the form as a more
gentle and discursive structure,
reminiscent of the romantic novels
of the period. In Schubert’s Ninth
Symphony, unexpected and
nontraditional keys are used to
produce a greater range of moods.
Taking some 55 minutes to
perform, a long work for the period,
the piece extends many traditional
features of the symphony, such as
the introduction to the first
movement (almost a complete
sonata in itself) and the numerous
thematic elements in the last.Taking up the baton
It was only after hearing Schubert’s
Ninth Symphony that Robert
Schumann was inspired to begin
working on his own first symphony,
in 1841. Until then, he had mainly
been known as a composer of
piano pieces. For the most part
eschewing large-scale works, he
had concentrated on collections or
cycles of smaller pieces, cementing
his reputation as a miniaturist.
As such, writing a symphony was
a new challenge for Schumann.
Extraordinarily, he sketched the
whole work in just four days.
Five weeks later, the fully
orchestrated work premiered in ❯❯ROMANTIC 1810 –1920
Other key works1838 Kreisleriana, Op. 16
1840 Dichterliebe, Op. 48
1845 Piano Concerto in
A minor, Op. 54
1850 Symphony No. 3, Op. 97Nothing right in art can
be accomplished
without enthusiasm.
Robert SchumannSchumann’s wife, Clara, was the
daughter of his first piano instructor,
Friedrich Wieck. Both Clara and her
father were celebrated for their skills
on the keyboard.US_166-169_Schumann.indd 167 27/03/18 4:49 PM