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Born June 8, 1810. Died July 29, 1856. Robert Schumann born at Zwickau (Saxony); his father, a book seller and author, encouraged the lad's inclination to literature and music, but his mother opposed it. The elder Schuman died when robert was sixteen, and the latter was entered in the University of Leipzig as a student of law. When he was twenty he protested so strongly against the legal profession that his mother yielded and he took up musical studies with a view to becominga concert painist. His teacher was wieck, father of clara wieck, who afterward became schumann's wife. He devised a mechanical means to hasten the development of his hand for piano playing, and injured it to such an xtent that he had to give up hope of becoming a player. Therefore he turned his attention to composition and musical literature. He was married in 1840, and his wife, who was a great player, devoted the rest of her life to popularizing her husband's compositions. As early as 1833 he showed symptoms of mental disease which culminated in his confinement in an insane asylum in 1854. His works include piano pieces, songs, cantatas, chamber music, symphonies and other large works for orchestra. |
