During the period when he was studying with Wieck, Schumann permanently injured his
right hand. One view is that his right-hand disability was caused by syphilis medication.
Another view is that he attempted a radical procedure to separate the tendons of the
fourth finger from those of the third finger. The ring finger musculature is linked to that
of the third finger making it the weakest finger. Yet another view is that he damaged his
finger by the use of a mechanism of his own invention which was designed to hold back
one finger while he practised exercises with the others. Because of the restrictions
imposed by his injury Schumann devoted himself to composition and began a course of
theory under Heinrich Dorn, the conductor of the Leipzig Opera.
The fusion of the literary idea with its musical illustration took place in Schumann’s
‘Papillons’ (‘Butterflies’) opus 2, for piano, composed in 1829-31. By 1834 among his
associates were the composers Ludwig Schunke, the dedicatee of his Toccata in C major
for piano opus 7 composed in 1829-1833, and Norbert Burgmüller.
‘Carnaval’ opus 9, for piano, composed in 1834, is one of Schumann’s most
characteristic and popular piano works. Schumann begins nearly every sections of
Carnaval with the musical notes signified in German by the letters that spell Asch (A, E
flat, C and B, or, alternatively, A flat, C and B). Asch was the name of the town (then in
Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic) in which his former fiancée Ernestine von Fricken
was born. The notes are also the musical letters in Schumann’s own name. Schumann
named sections after both Ernestine (‘Estrella’) and Clara Wieck (‘Chiarina’). Eusebius
and Florestan, the imaginery figures appearing so often in his critical writings, also
appear, alongside brilliant imitations of Chopin and Paganini. The work comes to a close
with a march of the Davidsbündler – the league of the men of David – against the
Philistines in which there is a quotation from the seventeenth century ‘Grandfather’s
Dance’. In ‘Carnaval’ Schumann went further than in ‘Papillons, for in it he himself
conceived the story.
In 1835 Schumann met Felix Mendelssohn at Wieck’s house in Leipzig and his
appreciation of his great contemporary was shown with the same generous freedom that
distinguished him in all his relations to other musicians This later enabled him to
recognise the genius of Johannes Brahms, whom he first met in 1853 before Brahms had
established a reputation.
In 1836 Schumann’s acquaintance with Clara Wieck, already famous as a pianist, ripened
into love. A year later he asked her father’s consent to their marriage but was refused.
In his ‘Fantasiestücke’ (‘Fantasy Pieces’) for the piano opus 12, Schumann again fused
his literary and musical ideas. The collection opens with ‘In Des Abends’ (‘In the
Evening’). This is a good example of Schumann’s rhythmic ambiguity, as unrelieved
syncopation plays heavily against the time signature. ‘Warum’ (‘Why’) and ‘In der
Nacht’ (‘In the Night’) are other popular pieces in the collection.