Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann - one of the greatest German composers, born in Zwickau, Germany on 8th of June, 1810 in the family of Friedrich August Schumann and Johanna Christiane Schnabel.. Robert was one of five children, and was the youngest. With seven years he began to compose. Already at school, Schumann showed an intense interest in music and literature.
At Schumann’s instance, his mother enabled piano lessons from Friedrich Wieck. Wieck took Schumann under his wardship. With some time Schumann achieved virtuoso standards. He also was inloved with Wieck’s daughter Clara.
During 1838-1839, Schumann composed a wonderful piano work for Clara, the great Arabesque in C Major, Op. 18. This composition became a good example of Schumann’s style. At this time Schumann composed 140 art songs, including many of his best works in this genre. Among this songs were "Liederkreis" written on the words of Eichendorff, "Frauenliebe und Leben" and "Dichterliebe" (A Poet's Love).
As opposed to his contemporaries, Schumann apted to work in only one genre at a time. In 1841, he turned his attentions to orchestra. Schumann created a gorgeous, poetic piece for piano and orchestral music for his love Clara. Some time Later he promoted it as the first movement of his Piano Concerto in A minor. In 1842, while Clara was on a concert tour, he payed more attention to chamber music, and composed his three string quartets and three works with piano, among which the Piano Quintet is the most famous because of its evergreen Romantic appeal.
In 1844, during his concert tour with Clara to Russia, Schumann has got a nervous breakdown. Schumann suffered from heavyness – with changing happy and sad spells and it can be noticed in his music. His heavyness complicated his creativity. In 1846-1848 he was again able to create as a composer, writing chamber music, songs, and his opera Genoveva which he performed first in Leipzig in 1850 with very modest success.. Schumann's Concert Overtures include "Die Braut von Messina" (The Bride from Messina), premised on Schiller's play of that name, "Julius Casar", premised on Shakespeare, and "Hermann und Dorothea", premised on Goethe.
In 1850 he assume an office in Dusseldorf of town musical director. This was remarked as a productive phase in Schumann's career and he wrote the eloquent Cello Concerto and the Rhenish Symphony.
Robert Schumann's heavyness in February 1854 had a complicated background: an elated state, some marital problems, and a strained journey with musical perfomances. Schumann had often thought of suicidal death. Later that month he threw himself into the river Rhine. He was saved and directed to a mental home where he spent the last two years of his life. He died on 29 July 1856.