The famous German composer Robert Schumann, a romantic, a dreamer with a tender and vulnerable soul, brought progress and innovation to the traditional classical rhythm of world musical art. Combining poetics, harmony and philosophy in his work, he ensured that his works were not just melodic and beautiful in sound, but were an external reflection of a person’s inner worldview, his desire to express his state of mind. Schumann can rightfully be considered an innovator who strived for progress in European classical music of the 19th century.
Years of life
Schumann did not live a very long life, marked by the stamp and suffering of a serious and painful illness. He was born June 8, 1810, and died July 29, 1856. His family of origin was not at all musical. He was born into a bookseller's family, where in addition to him there were four older children. At the age of seven, the boy began studying music with a local organist, and at the age of 12 he tried to create his own piece of music.
His parents dreamed of their son becoming a lawyer and Robert spent several years studying to please them, but it turned out that his calling to music was much stronger than the desire to please his parents and create a prosperous future for himself. While studying law in Leipzig, she devoted all her free time to music.
His acquaintance with Franz Schubert, a trip to the Italian Mecca of art - Venice, the delight of attending Paganini concerts, strengthened his desire to devote himself to music. He begins taking piano lessons from Friedrich Wieck, where he meets his future wife Clara, who becomes his faithful soulmate and companion for the rest of his life. The hated jurisprudence remains aside, and Schumann devotes himself entirely to music.
His aspirations to become a pianist ended almost tragically. To increase finger fluency, which is very important for a performer, Schumann had an operation, which was unsuccessful, and he lost the opportunity to make a career as a musician. But now he devoted all his time to composing musical works. Together with other young musicians, Schumann begins to publish the magazine “New Musical Newspaper”. For this magazine, Schumann writes a large number of critical articles about modern musical art.
The works of Robert Schumann, starting from his very first works, are full of romanticism, idyllic dreaminess and filled with echoes of his own feelings. But, despite the touch of sentimentality so fashionable for his time, he developed a desire for material success. This was especially evident when Schumann decided to start a family. His chosen one was Clara Wieck, the daughter of his music teacher and mentor. Clara was a gifted and very successful pianist, so the union of these two musically talented people was very harmonious and happy.
Almost every year another child appeared in the family of Robert and Clara, there were eight of them in total. But this did not stop the couple from successfully touring European cities. In 1844 they visited Russia with concerts, where they were given a very warm welcome. His wife was an amazing woman! An excellent pianist herself, she, aware of her husband’s extraordinary talent, tried to protect him from everyday difficulties, and Schumann was able to devote himself entirely to composing.
Fate gave Schumann sixteen happy married years, and only severe mental illness overshadowed this happy union. In 1854, the disease worsened and even voluntary treatment in an advanced clinic did not help. In 1856, Schumann died.
The composer's work
Robert Schumann left behind a huge musical legacy. Starting from the first printed works “Butterflies”, “Davidsbündlers”, “Fantastic Pieces”, “Kreisleriana” - such airy, gentle, transparent miniatures filled with air and light, and ending with the operas “Faust”, “Manfred”, symphonies and oratorios, he always remained true to his ideal in music.
Robert Schumann, undoubtedly a subtle and talented master, brilliantly conveys all shades of feelings and moods, which is why his famous lyrical cycles “The Circle of Songs”, “The Poet’s Love”, “The Love and Life of a Woman” continue to enjoy extraordinary popularity among performers and listeners . Many, like his contemporaries, consider his works difficult and difficult to perceive, but Schumann’s works are an example of the spirituality and nobility of human nature, and not just the glitter and tinsel of glamor.
Creative path. Musical and literary interests of childhood. University years. Musical-critical activity. Leipzig period. Last decade
Robert Schumann was born on June 8, 1810 in the city of Zwickau (Saxony) into the family of a book publisher. His father, an intelligent and outstanding man, encouraged the artistic inclinations of his youngest son *.
* It is known that Schumann’s father even went to Dresden to see Weber to persuade him to take charge of his son’s musical studies. Weber agreed, but due to his departure to London, these classes did not take place. Schumann's teacher was organist I. G. Kuntsch.
Schumann began composing at the age of seven, but he early attracted attention as a promising pianist, and for a long time the center of his musical activity was piano performance.
Literary interests occupied a huge place in the spiritual development of the young man. During his school years, he was deeply impressed by the works of Goethe, Schiller, Byron and the ancient Greek tragedians. Later, the now half-forgotten favorite of the German romantics, Jean Paul, became his literary idol. The exaggerated emotionality of this writer, his desire to depict the unusual, unbalanced, his peculiar language, overloaded with complex metaphors, had a great influence not only on Schumann’s literary style, but also on his musical creativity. The continuity of literary and musical images is one of the most characteristic features of Schumann art.
With the death of his father in 1826, the composer’s life turned, in his own words, into “a struggle between poetry and prose.” Under the influence of his mother and guardian, who did not sympathize with the young man’s artistic aspirations, after completing his gymnasium course, he entered the law faculty of the University of Leipzig. The university years (1828-1830), full of inner restlessness and tossing, turned out to be very significant in the spiritual formation of the composer. From the very beginning, his passionate interest in music, literature, and philosophy came into sharp conflict with academic routine. In Leipzig he began studying with Friedrich Wieck, a good musician and piano teacher. In 1830, Schumann heard Paganini for the first time and realized what enormous possibilities lay in the performing arts. Impressed by the playing of the great artist, Schumann was overcome by a thirst for musical activity. Then, even without a composition director, he began composing. The desire to create an expressive virtuoso style subsequently brought to life “Etudes for Piano after Paganini’s Caprices” and “Concert Etudes after Paganini’s Caprices.”
A stay in Leipzig, Heidelberg (where he transferred in 1829), trips to Frankfurt, Munich, where he met Heine, a summer trip to Italy - all this greatly expanded his general horizons. Already in these years, Schumann acutely felt the irreconcilable contradiction between advanced social aspirations and the reactionary essence of the German philistinism. Hatred of philistines, or “grandfathers” (as provincial philistines were called in student jargon), became the dominant feeling of his life*.
* Schumann even depicted philistines in his music, using the melody of the ancient dance “Grossvatertanz”, that is, “Grandfather’s Dance” (finals of the piano cycles “Butterflies” and “Carnival”).
In 1830, the composer's mental discord, forced to practice law, led to Schumann leaving Heidelberg and its academic environment and returning to Leipzig to Wieck to devote himself entirely and forever to music.
The years spent in Leipzig (from late 1830 to 1844) were the most fruitful in Schumann's work. He seriously injured his hand, and this deprived him of any hope of a career as a virtuoso performer*.
* Schumann invented a device that allows the development of the fourth finger. Working long hours, he permanently injured his right hand.
Then he turned all his outstanding talent, energy and propaganda temperament to composition and musical critical activity.
The rapid flowering of his creative powers is amazing. The bold, original, complete style of his first works seems almost implausible *.
* Only in 1831 did he begin to systematically study composition with G. Dorn.
“Butterflies” (1829-1831), variation “Abegg” (1830), “Symphonic Etudes” (1834), “Carnival” (1834-1835), “Fantasy” (1836), “Fantastic Pieces” (1837), “ Kreisleriana" (1838) and many other works for piano from the 1930s opened a new page in the history of musical art.
Almost all of Schumann's remarkable journalistic activity also occurred in this early period.
In 1834, with the participation of a number of his friends (L. Schunke, J. Knorr, T. F. Wieck), Schumann founded the “New Musical Journal”. This was the practical realization of Schumann’s dream of a union of advanced artists, which he called the “Brotherhood of David” (“Davidsbund”) *.
* This name corresponded to the ancient national traditions of Germany, where medieval guilds were often called “David brotherhoods.”
The main goal of the magazine was, as Schumann himself wrote, to “raise the fallen importance of art.” Emphasizing the ideological and progressive nature of his publication, Schumann provided it with the motto “Youth and Movement.” And as an epigraph to the first issue, he chose a phrase from Shakespeare’s work: “...Only those who came to watch a cheerful farce will be deceived.”
In the “era of Thalberg” (Schumann’s expression), when empty virtuoso plays thundered from the stage and entertainment art filled concert and theater halls, Schumann’s journal as a whole, and its articles in particular, made a stunning impression. These articles are remarkable primarily for their persistent propaganda of the great heritage of the past, a “pure source,” as Schumann called it, “from which one can draw new artistic beauties.” His analyzes, which revealed the content of the music of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, and Mozart, are striking in their depth and understanding of the spirit of history. The crushing, ironic criticism of modern pop composers, whom Schumann called “art merchants,” has largely retained its social relevance for the bourgeois culture of our days.
No less striking is Schumann's sensitivity in recognizing genuine new talents and in appreciating their humanistic significance. Time has confirmed the accuracy of Schumann's musical forecasts. He was one of the first to welcome the work of Chopin, Berlioz, Liszt, and Brahms *.
* Schumann’s first article about Chopin, containing the famous phrase: “Hats off, gentlemen, before you is a genius,” appeared in 1831 in the “General Musical Newspaper” before the founding of Schumann’s journal. The article on Brahms - Schumann's last article - was written in 1853, after many years of interruption in critical activity.
In Chopin's music, behind its graceful lyricism, Schumann was the first to see the revolutionary content, saying about the works of the Polish composer that they were “cannons covered with flowers.”
Schumann drew a sharp line between the leading innovative composers, the true heirs of the great classics, and the epigones, who resembled only “the pathetic silhouettes of the powdered wigs of Haydn and Mozart, but not the heads that wore them.”
He rejoiced at the development of national music in Poland and Scandinavia and welcomed the features of nationality in the music of his compatriots.
During the years of unbridled enthusiasm in Germany for foreign entertainment opera, he raised his voice for the creation of a national German musical theater in the tradition of Beethoven's Fidelio and Weber's The Magic Marksman. All his statements and articles are permeated by a belief in the high ethical purpose of art.
A characteristic feature of Schumann the critic was the desire for a deep aesthetic assessment of the content of the work. Analysis of form played a subordinate role in it. Schumann's articles provided an outlet for his need for literary creativity. Often, topical journalistic topics and professional analysis were presented in fictional form. Sometimes these were scenes or short stories. This is how Schumann’s favorite “Davidsbündlers” appeared - Florestan, Eusebius, Maestro Raro. Florestan and Eusebius personified not only two sides of the composer’s personality, but also two dominant trends in romantic art. Both heroes - the ardent, energetic and ironic Florestan and the young elegiac poet and dreamer Eusebius - often appear in Schumann's literary and musical works *.
* The prototypes of Florestan and Eusebius are found in Jean Paul’s novel “The Mischievous Years” in the images of twin brothers Vult and Valt.
Their extreme points of view and artistic sympathies are often reconciled by the wise and balanced maestro Raro.
Sometimes Schumann wrote his articles in the form of letters to a friend or a diary (“Notebooks of the Davidsbündlers,” “Aphorisms”). All of them are distinguished by ease of thought and beautiful style. They combine the conviction of a propagandist with a flight of fancy and a rich sense of humor.
The influence of the literary style of Jean Paul and partly Hoffmann is noticeable in some increased emotionality, in the frequent use of figurative associations, in the “capriciousness” of Schumann’s writing style. He strove to make with his articles the same artistic impression that the music they were devoted to the analysis caused in him.
In 1840, a milestone emerged in Schumann’s creative biography.
This coincided with a turning point in the composer's life - the end of a painful four-year struggle with F. Vic for the right to marry his daughter Clara. Clara Wieck (1819-1896) was a remarkable pianist. Her playing amazed not only with its rare technical perfection, but even more with its deep penetration into the author's intention. Clara was still a child, a “child prodigy,” when a spiritual closeness arose between her and Schumann. The views and artistic tastes of the composer greatly contributed to her formation as an artist. She was also a creatively gifted musician. Schumann repeatedly used Clara Wieck's musical themes for his compositions. Their spiritual interests were closely intertwined.
In all likelihood, Schumann's creative blossoming in the early 40s was associated with marriage. However, the impact of other strong impressions of this period should not be underestimated. In 1839, the composer visited Vienna, a city associated with the sacred names of the great composers of the recent past. True, the frivolous atmosphere of the musical life of the capital of Austria repelled him, and the police censorship regime discouraged him and prompted him to abandon his intention to move to Vienna in order to establish a music magazine there. Nevertheless, the significance of this trip is great. Having met Schubert’s brother Ferdinand, Schumann found the composer’s C major (last) symphony among the manuscripts he kept and, with the help of his friend Mendelssohn, made it public property. Schubert’s work awakened in him a desire to try his hand at romance and chamber symphonic music. The Schumann artist could not help but be influenced by the revival of public life on the eve of the 1848 revolution.
“I care about everything that happens in this world: politics, literature, people; I think about all this in my own way, and then it all comes out, seeks expression in music,” Schumann said even earlier about his attitude to life.
Schumann's art of the early 40s is characterized by a significant expansion of creative interests. This was expressed, in particular, in a consistent passion for various musical genres.
By the end of 1839, Schumann seemed to have exhausted the field of piano music. Throughout 1840 he was absorbed in vocal creativity. In a short time, Schumann created more than one hundred and thirty songs, including all of his most outstanding collections and cycles (“Circle of Songs” based on texts by Heine, “Myrtles” based on poems by various poets, “Circle of Songs” based on texts by Eichendorff, “Love and Life of a Woman” "to poems by Chamisso, "The Love of a Poet" to texts by Heine). After 1840, interest in the song fades away for a long time, and the next year passes under the sign of the symphony. In 1841, four major symphonic works by Schumann appeared (the First Symphony, the Symphony in d minor, known as the Fourth, the Overture, Scherzo and Finale, the first movement of the piano concerto). The year 1842 gives a number of wonderful works in the chamber-instrumental field (three string quartets, a piano quartet, a piano quintet). And finally, having composed the oratorio “Paradise and Peri” in 1843, Schumann mastered the last area of music that he had not touched upon - vocal-dramatic.
A wide variety of artistic ideas also characterizes the next period of Schumann’s work (until the end of the 40s). Among the works of these years we find monumental scores, works in the contrapuntal style influenced by Bach, song and piano miniatures. Since 1848, he has composed choral music in the German national spirit. However, it was precisely in the years of the composer’s greatest maturity that contradictory features of his artistic appearance were revealed.
Undoubtedly, severe mental illness left its mark on the music of the late Schumann. Many works of this period (for example, the Second Symphony) were created in the struggle of “the creative spirit with the destructive power of illness” (as the composer himself said). Indeed, the temporary improvement in the composer's health in 1848-1849 immediately manifested itself in creative productivity. He then completed his only opera, Genoveva, composed the best of the three parts of the music for Goethe's Faust (known as the first part), and created one of his most outstanding works, the overture and music for Byron's dramatic poem Manfred. During these same years, he revived his interest in piano and vocal miniatures, forgotten during the previous decade. A surprising number of other works appeared.
But the results of the vigorous creative activity of the late period were not equal. This is explained not only by the composer’s illness.
It was in the last decade of his life that Schumann began to gravitate toward generalizing, monumental genres. This is evidenced by “Genoveva” and several unrealized opera plans based on the plots of Shakespeare, Schiller and Goethe, music for Goethe’s “Faust” and Byron’s “Manfred”, the intention to create an oratorio about Luther, the Third Symphony (“Rhenish”). But, an outstanding psychologist, who with rare perfection reflected the flexible change of mental states in music, he did not know how to embody objective images with the same force. Schumann dreamed of creating art in the classical spirit - balanced, harmonious, harmonious - but his creative individuality manifested itself much more clearly in the depiction of impulse, excitement, and dreams.
Schumann's major dramatic works, for all their undeniable artistic qualities, did not achieve the perfection of his piano and vocal miniatures. Often the embodiment and the composer's plan were strikingly different from each other. Thus, instead of the folk oratorio he had conceived, in the last years of his life he created only choral works based on texts by romantic poets, written in a patriarchal-sentimental style rather than in the Handelian or Bach traditions. He managed to complete only one opera, and only overtures remained from his other theatrical plans.
A certain milestone in Schumann's creative path was marked by the revolutionary events of 1848-1849.
Schumann's sympathies for revolutionary popular movements were repeatedly felt in his music. Thus, back in 1839, Schumann introduced into his “Vienna Carnival” the theme of “La Marseillaise,” which became the anthem of the revolutionary students, banned by the Viennese police. There is an assumption that the inclusion of the Marseillaise theme in the overture to Hermann and Dorothea was a disguised protest against the monarchical coup carried out in France by Louis Napoleon in 1851. The Dresden uprising of 1849 evoked a direct creative response from the composer. He composed three vocal ensembles for male voices, accompanied by a brass band, based on the poems of revolutionary poets (“To Arms” to the text by T. Ulrich, “Black-Red-Gold” - the colors of the democrats - to the text by F. Freiligrath and “Song of Freedom” to the text I. Furst) and four piano marches op. 76. “I couldn’t find a better outlet for my excitement - they were written literally in a fiery outburst...” the composer said about these marches, calling them “republican.”
The defeat of the revolution, which led to the disappointment of many figures of the Schumann generation, was also reflected in its creative evolution. During the years of the ensuing reaction, Schumann's art began to decline. Of the works he created in the early 60s, only a few are on the level of his previous best works. The picture of the composer’s life in the last decade was also complex and contradictory. On the one hand, this is a period of gaining fame, which is undoubtedly the merit of Clara Schumann. Concerting a lot, she included her husband's works in her programs. In 1844, Schumann traveled to Russia with Clara, and in 1846 - to Prague, Berlin, Vienna, and in 1851-1853 - to Switzerland and Belgium.
The performance of scenes from Faust during the celebration of the centenary of Goethe's birth (Dresden, Leipzig, Weimar) was widely successful.
However, during the years of growing recognition (from the mid-40s), the composer became increasingly isolated in himself. The progressive disease made it extremely difficult to communicate with people. He had to give up his journalistic activities back in 1844, when, in search of a secluded place, the Schumanns moved to Dresden (1844-1849). Due to his painful reticence, Schumann was forced to stop his teaching work at the Leipzig Conservatory, where in 1843 he taught composition and score reading classes. The position of city conductor in Düsseldorf, where the Schumanns moved in 1850, was painful for him, since he could not command the attention of the orchestra. The leadership of the city's choral societies was no less burdensome because Schumann did not sympathize with the atmosphere of sentimentality and bourgeois complacency that reigned in them.
At the beginning of 1854, Schumann's mental illness took on threatening forms. He was placed in a private hospital in the city of Endenich near Bonn. There he died on June 29, 1856.
Belongs to the 2nd generation of romantics. I felt even more acutely the difference between the subtle, sensitive nature of the artist and the world around him. All his life he rebelled against philistinism. This also manifests itself in music.
Schumann's music is distinguished by its particularly acute psychologism and penetrates deeply into the state of the human soul. He very subtly reflected the change of these states in music. He has a direct contact between a passionate impulse and immersion in a world of dreams. In many ways, he reflected the properties of his nature - duality.
An important property of Schumann’s music is fantasy, but this is not folk fantasy, but, as it were, the world of his soul, visions, dreams, very individualized. This is also evident in musical criticism. He was very gifted in the field of literature. He wrote novels, stories, as well as articles in the genre of short stories, plays, letters, dialogues and other works. The heroes of these articles were very unusual characters. He invented for himself the “Brotherhood of David” - a society. Its members are Davidsbündlers. There he included Mozart, Paganini, Chopin, as well as Clara Wieck (his wife), as well as Florestan and Eusebius. Florestan and Eusebius are fictitious names (these are, as it were, two halves of his personality that argued with each other). He used them as pseudonyms. Maestro Raro reconciled the dreamy Eusebius and the stormy Florestan.
Schumann supported the best in art. He was the first to talk about Chopin, supported Berlioz, and wrote articles about Beethoven. His last article was an article on Brahms. In 1839 he found Schubert's symphony - C major and performed it, and in 1950 he became one
from the organizers of the Beethoven Society. Schumann's work is associated with German romantic literature. His favorite poet is Jeanne Paul (real name is Richter). Under the impression of the works of this writer, a play was written - "Butterflies". Loved the poet Hoffmann. Kreisleriana was written under the influence of his works. Heine had a great influence. Vocal cycles were written based on his poems - “Circle of Songs” and “Love of a Poet”.
Schumann liked to use carnival in his works (because there is a change of characters). Schumann's musical language is very subtle. The connection with folk music is not the same as Schubert's. There is no obvious example. The melodies are more declamatory. The harmonic language becomes more complex. The texture is subtle, melodic and polyphonic. The rhythm is capricious, whimsical.
Schumann wrote many works: about 50 collections of pieces for piano, variations on the theme of Abegg, "Butterflies", "Carnival", symphonies, etudes, "Dances of the Davidsbündlers", fantastic plays, "Kreisleriana", "Vienna Carnival", short stories, etc. , 3 sonatas for piano, fantasy, more than 200 songs, vocal cycles: “The Love of a Poet”, “Circle of Songs” on Hein, “Myrtles”, “Circle of Songs” on poems by Eichendorff, “Love and Life of a Woman” on poems by Chamisso, Spanish love songs, songs from "Wilhelm Meister" (Goethe), 4 symphonies, concertos for piano, cello and violin and orchestra, Stück concerto for piano and orchestra, Stück concerto for 4 horns and orchestra, 3 string quartets, piano quartet, piano quintet, 3 piano trios, 2 violin sonatas, other chamber ensembles, oratorio "Rye and Perry", opera "Genoveva", music for dramatic performances, about 200 critical articles - selected articles about music and musicians.
Zwickau
Schumann was born into the family of a book publisher. Since childhood, both literary and musical abilities have manifested themselves. Until the age of 16, Schumann did not know who he would be. He studied at the gymnasium, composed poetry, wrote comedies and dramas. He studied Schiller, Goethe, and ancient literature. Organized a literary circle. I was very interested in Jeanne Paul. I wrote a novel under his influence. He has been writing music since he was seven years old. As a child, I was impressed by the playing of pianist Moscheles. The first teacher is organist Kunsht. Under his leadership, Schumann achieved great success. He studied the music of Mozart and Weber. Wrote musical sketches (depiction of a person in music). He fell in love with Schubert and wrote several songs.
In 1828, under the influence of his mother, he entered the Faculty of Law at the University of Leipzig. In addition, he studies piano with Friedrich Wieck - 30 years old. Schumann hears Paganini and wants to become a virtuoso. Subsequently, he wrote etudes based on Paganini's caprices and concert etudes. Schumann formed a circle of music lovers (while studying at the university). Writes a cycle of pieces "Butterflies" for piano.
In 1829 he transferred to the University of Heidelberg. In 1830 he quit. While studying at the university, he visited Munich, where he met Heine, and also in Italy. During this period he wrote: Variations “Abegg”, toccata, “Butterflies”, adaptation of Paganini’s caprices. After university he lived with Wik in Leipzig. Damaged, beat the hand. He began studying composition and transcriptions with Dorn.
30s. The dawn of piano creativity. Wrote: symphonic studies, carnival, fantasy, fantastic plays. Publicistic activity begins. 1st article about Chopin “I’ll take my hat off to you, genius!” In 1834 he founded the New Musical Newspaper. He opposed conservatism, philistinism, and entertainment. Berlioz, Liszt, Brahms, and composers from Poland and Scandinavia were promoted there. Schumann called for the creation of a German musical theater in the tradition of Fidelio and The Magic Marksman.
The style of all articles was very emotional. In 1839, Schumann found the score of Schubert's C major symphony, and his friend Mendelssohn performed it. In 1840 he married Clara Wieck. He wrote many songs: “Myrtles”, “Love and Life of a Woman”, “Love of a Poet”.
The 40s - early 50s brought symphonies, chamber ensembles, concerts for piano, violin, cello, the oratorio "Paradise and Perry", scenes from Goethe's Faust, music to Manfred Byron. In 1843, Mendelssohn opened the Leipzig Conservatory and invited Schumann there to teach piano, composition and score reading. In 1844, Schumann had to resign his music newspaper and conservatory. Traveled to Russia as the husband of Clara Wieck. Mendelssohn and Italy were fashionable in Russia. Not many people understood the significance of Schumann: Anton Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky, members of the “Mighty Handful”. The disease progressed and the family left for Dresden. Schumann wants to get a job as head of a musical theater, but it doesn’t work out. Meeting with Wagner. Wagner's music was alien to Schumann.
1848 - there was a revolution in France and Germany. He wrote 4 republican marches, 3 male choirs based on revolutionary texts. A few years later he reacts to the revolution differently. At 50 Schumann's family leaves for Düsseldorf. There he directed the orchestra and choral societies.
53 - Schumann meets Brahms. Schumann's last article on Brahms. In 1854, Schumann tries to commit suicide. He wanted to drown himself, but he was saved. He was cured, but he went crazy and after 2 years of unsuccessful treatment in a psychiatric hospital in 1856, Schumann died.
Piano creativity
Music is psychological. It displays different contrasting states and the change of these states. Schumann was very fond of piano miniatures, as well as cycles of piano miniatures, since they can express contrast very well. Schumann turns to programming. These are program plays, often associated with literary images. They all have names that are a little strange for that time - “Rush”, “From WhatN”, variations on the theme of Abegg (this is the surname of his girlfriend), he used the letters of her surname as notes (A, B, E, G); “Asch” is the name of the city in which Schumann’s former love lived (these letters, like keys, were included in “Carnival”). Schumann was very fond of the carnival nature of music, because of its diversity. For example: "Butterflies", "Hungarian Carnival", "Carnival". Variation method of development - "Abegg", "Symphonic Etudes" - a cycle of genre-characteristic variations on one theme, which is transformed from a funeral march (at the beginning) to a solemn march (at the end). They are called etudes, since each variation contains new virtuosic etude techniques. They are symphonic because the piano sound in them resembles an orchestra (powerful tutti, emphasis on individual lines).
Carnival
In 1834, the New Musical Newspaper was published under the leadership of Schumann. This "Carnival" is, as it were, a musical embodiment of Schumann's aesthetic ideas (the fight against philistinism). The genre is associated with Schumann's essay, in which the newspaper correspondent Jankiri comes to the editor's ball, where new musical releases are shown. At this ball there is a fight between the Davidsbündlers and the philistines. Davidsbündlers win.
"Carnival" is a cycle of 20 contrasting program piano miniatures, united by 4 notes (Schumann called it "Miniature Scenes on 4 Notes"). These notes are Asch (name of the city) - A, Es, C, H. Sch - these are also the first letters of Schumann's name. These 4 notes exist in 3 combinations. These notes are dissolved at the beginning of each piece. Therefore, there are only traces of variation, but not variations on the theme.
+Manfred
I. With the work of Robert Schumann, musical romanticism entered a new phase of its development. This is the mature stage of romanticism, the time of its flowering in music, which gave the world in the 30-40s of the 19th century Chopin, Berlioz, Paganini, Bellini, who began their activities with Verdi, Liszt and Wagner. (In Russian music, this was the heyday of Glinka’s genius, the diversity of which also included romantic traits).
Schumann's work, associated with previous (Schubert, Beethoven) traditions, has many points of contact with the late romantics - Liszt, Wagner, Bruckner, and especially directly leads to Brahms. Schumann (together with Chopin) occupies a central position in the history of musical romanticism. Schumann's romanticism undergoes a significant evolution: it begins to form in the late 20s - a connection with Jean Paul (Jena school), Hoffmann, the 30s - a stormy climax (the Sturmer years), the mid-40s - it evolves towards the objectification of the artist. method, emotional balance. There are noticeable connections with classical traditions (symphonies, vocal-oratory genres). At the very end of his career, Schumann loses his artistic originality.
Such qualities were concentrated in him. romanticism as intimacy, sincerity, psychologism. And another pole of German romance. essence - irony, imbued with pain and longing for unattainable beauty. Two facets, two types of hero, reflecting the two-sided essence of Schumann’s conflict perception = Florestan and Eusebius. A generalization of the two principles of Schumann's romanticism - the all-pervasive, spiritual quiet tone of dreams and the rebelliousness of the impulse, the frenzy of fantasy, irony, laughter. Both images are closely related to each other.
There is another antithesis - images of folk-national tradition, the sphere of the epic. Hence Schumann’s two lines - subjective-psychological (fortune and vocal lyrics) and objective-genre, legendary-epic (symphonies, oratorios), which oppose each other (intertwined with each other in fantasy in C major - contrasting planes of images). And yet the main thing for Schumann is the sphere of spirituality and intimacy of feelings. And in this emphasis on the inner, psychological world (increased in comparison with Schubert), Sh. reflected the general direction of the evolution of romanticism.
The method of revealing Schumann's spiritual, lyrical world - through the contrasts of emotional movements, the internal thread of psychological development is shown. Attention to psychological analysis (similar to Schumann's fortification and vocal miniatures and Wagner's operas). For Schumann, the symbolic connection within the antithesis is important - the real world and fantasy (universal for all romanticism). Sh.’s figurative contrasts are the essence of life, its new comprehension. Schumann strives to understand life in all its manifestations, the philosophical embrace of reality, the reaction to everything that happens in the world, and especially in his country.
Attitude to form. A new musical form born of romantic aesthetics. Free alternation of images, frequent and sudden changes of mood, switching from one plane to another. There are a lot of cycles!
Schumann's method was based on a romantically understood dialectic based on the idea of the incompatibility of the ideal and reality, the desired and the existing, the duality of the external and the internal.
The spiritual formation of Sh. began in the 20s, when Romanticism in Germany had its heyday in literature. The impulses all came from literature. In Schumann, music and literature are very closely intertwined. Synthesis of arts, penetration of the musical principle into literature, especially poetry, and vice versa. Combination in vocal genres, in reference to literary images and plots. Next - “Novelettes”, short story cycles, lyrical miniatures (A leaf from an album, plays with the titles “The Poet Speaks”, etc.) Schumann believed that the title of a work enhances the power of music. The literary-plot principle is reflected not in direct programming (which also occurs), but more internally and freely - in the peculiarities of the course of musical development.
Features of creative evolution: mastered it systematically: piano - vocals - chamber genres - concert - symphony - oratorio - opera - sacred music. There are 147 published opuses in various genres: miniatures, songs, symphonies, oratorios, operas. There were a number of pre-release works of different genres - piano, songs, youth. symphonies, quartets. In fact, I received a good musical education. Then I spent my whole life educating myself - gaining knowledge. This is a composer with excellent technique, incl. polyphonic.
(1810-1856) the same age as Chopin, Liszt, Wagner, Mendelssohn - he knew everyone. Not many people spent more than 20 years in an active period of creativity. 2.5 years in a hospital at the end of life. Created a lot. Continuator of Beethoven's line. Schumann is both a classicist and a romantic. Schumann's universalism is also reflected in the choice of genres: there are lyrical rhapsodic plays and classical genres - sonatas, symphonies, ensembles. The synthesis of the classical and the romantic is important. In all periods of creativity, both are natural. I didn’t play the organ, but there are 6 fugues on BACH - and this is how I entered organ music. Children's music (for youth - not the author's title - “43 characteristic pieces”). Opera - it’s hard to imagine the development of opera without Genoveva. Those. in all areas in which he worked he left a significant mark.
The question of periodization of creativity very important. Each period has its own tone, character, and has its own dominant.
Early period - late 20s and early 30s (before Carnival) passes under a sign of literary and pianistic studies, the struggle for the right to become a musician. Student years - first Leipzig, then Heidelberg. Traveling in Italy and Switzerland.
30-egg- search in the genre sphere, composing style. The period of “Sturm and Drang”, the rapid rise of his genius. Creator of his own romantic piano style. He is all about artistic impulse, creative movement. Creates: “Carnival”, “Symphonic Etudes”, sonatas “Kreisleriana”, fantasy in C major, “Dances of the Davidsbündlers”, short stories, “Fantastic Pieces”, “Children’s Scenes”, “Night Pieces”. His literary-critical activity is actively developing. In 1834, in Leipzig, Schumann created his magazine "New Musical Journal". Schumann's responsibilities in the magazine were multifaceted - he was the publisher, editor, and author of most of the articles. He defended the traditions of the classics and paved the way for true innovation for the future generation. Articles about Chopin, Berlioz, Brahms. Schumann is credited with discovering the symphonic genius of Schubert.
Middle period - 40s- marriage, going beyond piano music. Growing creative activity, expansion of the genre system. Leipzig stage (before the trip to Russia in 1844) and Dresden stage (1844-1850) Shift to other genres. Songs: 1840 – “Circle of Songs” (Heine), “Myrtles” and the second “Circle of Songs” (Eichendorff), “Love and Life of a Woman” (Chamisso) “Love of a Poet” (Heine). Then he turns to large forms of instrumental and vocal music. Piano concerto, first symphony, three string quartets, fort. ensembles (quintet and quartet in Es major), oratorio “Paradise and Peri”. The development of the lyrical-romantic channel, the implementation of classical forms along with the objectification of the theme.
Dresden (after a trip to Russia).New sides of creativity. Dresden played a prominent role in the history of German romantic opera (Weber arrives, Wagner). Opera "Genoveva". Another line of Schumann's interests is the classics (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven). He takes part in a meeting of the Bach Society, studies the scores of Mozart's operas, and listens to Fidelio. He writes “Requiem for Mignon” to the poems of Goethe’s “Wilhelm Meister”. The idea of the oratorio “Scenes from Goethe’s Faust” (finished in Düsseldorf in 1853). Many choral works (connected with his activities) were stimulated by the revolution (48-49) and the uprising in Düsseldorf in 1849. "Manfred." 1844 - seriously ill. It took a long time to come out - immersion in Bach - a change in the type of composition, in the way of composing music. Baroque flow, polyphony intensifies.
Late period 50s. The internal struggle is the struggle between creativity and the extinction of spiritual forces. Schumann's last years - meeting and communication with Brahms (1853). I spent 2.5 years in a hospital.
Many genres are associated with life circumstances. For example, the choirs - Dresden and Düsseldorf - were led by different groups. Music for children - 2 albums, 3 sonatas, a lot for 4 hands - was written just in those years when his eldest daughters were growing up.
Schumann, the son of a publisher, also wrote, and made translations. Schumann has been involved in this since childhood. Later, when publishing, I took into account all aspects of the practical component.
Together with Schumann, high literature came to music, often in an untouched form, unadapted. Experiments, innovations of Schumann. He was interested in new things in literature - a very short time period separated the publication of literature and its use by Schumann.
He made a huge contribution to the development of musical expressive means - harmony, recitation, form - monothematic compositions - 4th symphony, piano concert. The innovation of the carnival is provocative names, in short, the technique of working with four notes.
Special genre mixes - concert piece, oratorio and opera, theater play and oratorio, vocal cycle and memorial article?
The periods of creativity are illuminated and presented in concert practice unevenly. More attention is paid to the early, from the middle sample, the late - a huge number of works, but we know very little.
Even during his lifetime they began to say: “Schumann began as a genius, but ended as a talent.” Not entirely true. Nowadays the creative heritage is overestimated.
"Manfred"- an outstanding example of romantic symphonism. The overture was written in 1848, music for the poem by Manfred Byron. She defined many of the characteristic features of the new stage of musical romanticism. The image of the hero himself - “Faust of the 19th century”, the composition of the overture, its expressive means bring Schumann’s work closer to Liszt’s poetic symphonism and the stylistic features of Wagner’s dramas. [Music of Austria and Germany].
Biography of Schumann - the great German composer - like the life of any famous person, was filled with both curious, anecdotal incidents and tragic twists of fate. Why didn’t Schumann become a virtuoso pianist, as he dreamed of in his youth, and why did he have to choose the path of composing? How did this affect his mental health, and where did the famous author end his life?
Composer Schumann (biography): childhood and youth
Schumann was born on June 8, 1810 in Germany. His hometown was the town of Zwickau. The father of the future composer was a book publisher and a wealthy man, so he strove to give his son a decent education.
The boy showed literary abilities from childhood - when Robert was studying at the gymnasium, in addition to composing poetry, dramas and comedies, he also organized a literary circle on his own. Under the influence of Jean Paul, the young man even composed a literary novel. Taking into account all these facts, Schumann's biography could have turned out completely differently - the boy could well have followed in the footsteps of his father. But the world of music worried Robert more than literary activity.
Schumann, whose biography and work throughout his life were tightly connected with the art of music, wrote his first at the age of ten. Perhaps this was the first sign that another great composer was born.
Robert Schumann (short biography): career as a pianist
Schumann began to show interest in playing the piano from an early age. He was very impressed by the playing of the pianist Moscheles, as well as Paganini. The young man was inspired by the idea of becoming a virtuoso instrumentalist and spared no effort to achieve this.
At first, the future composer took lessons from organist Kunsht. Under the strict guidance of his first teacher, the boy began to create his own musical works - mostly sketches. After becoming acquainted with Schubert's work, Robert wrote several songs.
However, his parents insisted that their son have a serious education, so Robert goes to Leipzig to study as a lawyer. But Schumann, whose biography, it seemed, could not have turned out differently, is still drawn to music, and therefore continues to study piano under the guidance of a new teacher, Friedrich Wieck. The latter sincerely believed that his student could become the most virtuoso pianist in Germany.
But Robert pursued his goal too fanatically, so he overdid it with his studies - he suffered a tendon sprain and said goodbye to his career as a pianist.
Education
As mentioned above, Schumann studied law at and then at Heidelberg. But Robert never became a lawyer, preferring music.
Beginning of composing activity
Robert Schumann, whose biography after his injury was entirely devoted to his work as a composer, was most likely very worried about the fact that he would never be able to fulfill his dream of becoming a famous pianist. The character of the young man changed after that - he became taciturn, too vulnerable, stopped joking and pranking his friends the way only he knew how to do it. Once, while still a young man, Schumann went into a musical instrument store and jokingly introduced himself as the chamberlain of an English lord, who instructed him to choose a piano for music lessons. Robert played all the expensive instruments in the salon, thereby amusing onlookers and buyers. As a result, Schumann said that in two days he would give the owner of the salon an answer regarding the purchase, and he himself, as if nothing had happened, left for another city on his own business.
But in the 30s. I had to say goodbye to my pianist career, and the young man devoted himself entirely to creating musical works. It was precisely during this period that his composing creativity flourished.
Music Features
Schumann worked in the era of romanticism and, of course, this was reflected in his work.
Robert Schumann, whose biography was in some sense filled with personal experiences, wrote psychological music that was far from folklore motifs. Schumann's works are something "personal". His music is very changeable, which reflects the illness with which the composer gradually began to fall ill. Schumann himself did not hide the fact that his nature was characterized by duality.
The harmonious language of his works is more complex than that of his contemporaries. The rhythm of Schumann's works is quite whimsical and capricious. But this did not prevent the composer from gaining national fame during his lifetime.
One day, while walking in the park, the composer whistled the theme from Carnival to himself. One of the passers-by made a remark to him: they say, if you have no hearing, then it is better not to “spoil” the works of a respected composer.
Among the composer's most famous works are the following:
- romance cycles “The Poet’s Love”, “Circle of Songs”;
- piano cycles “Butterflies”, “Carnival”, “Kreisleriana”, etc.
Music newspaper
Schumann, whose short biography would not be complete without his studies in literature, did not give up his hobby, and applied his talent as a writer to journalism. With the support of his many friends connected with the world of music, Schumann founded the New Musical Newspaper in 1834. Over time, it turned into a periodical and quite influential publication. The composer wrote many articles for the publication with his own hand. He welcomed everything new in music, so he supported young composers. By the way, Schumann was one of the first to recognize Chopin’s talent and wrote a separate article in his honor. Schumann also supported Liszt, Berlioz, Brahms and many other composers.
Often, in his articles, the hero of our story had to rebuff many music critics who spoke unflatteringly about his work. Schumann also “created” not entirely in the spirit of the times, so he had to defend his views on the art of music.
Personal life
In 1840, closer to 30 years old, Robert Schumann got married. His chosen one was the daughter of his teacher, Friedrich Wieck.
Clara Wieck was a fairly famous and virtuoso pianist. She was also involved in the art of composition and supported her husband in all his endeavors.
Schumann, whose short biography by the age of 30 was full of musical activity, was never married, and it seemed that his own personal life bothered him little. But before the wedding, he honestly warned his future wife that his character was very difficult: he often acts contrary to close and dear people, and for some reason it turns out that he hurts those he loves.
But the bride was not very frightened by these shortcomings of the composer. The wedding took place, and Clara Wieck and Robert Schumann lived in marriage until the end of their days, left behind eight children and were buried in the same cemetery.
Health problems and death
Schumann's biography was full of various events; the composer left behind a rich musical and literary heritage. Such obsession with one’s work and life could not pass without leaving a trace. At about 35 years old, the composer began to show the first signs of a serious nervous disorder. For two years he wrote nothing.
And although the composer was given various honors and invited to serious positions, he could no longer return to his former life. His nerves were completely shaken.
At 44, the composer attempted suicide for the first time after a bout of prolonged depression by throwing himself off a bridge into the Rhine. He was saved, but there were no significant changes in his health. Schumann spent two years in a psychiatric hospital and died at 46. During all this time, the composer did not create a single work.
Who knows how the composer’s life would have turned out if he had not injured his fingers and nevertheless became a pianist... Perhaps Schumann, whose biography was cut short at the age of 46, would have lived a longer life and would not have gone crazy with his mind.
By the way, there is a version that the composer injured his fingers by creating a homemade simulator for them, similar to the instruments of Henry Hertz and Tiziano Poli. The essence of the simulators is that the middle finger of the hand was tied to a string, which was attached to the ceiling. This instrument was designed to train endurance and range of finger opening. But if used improperly, it is possible to tear the tendons in this way.
There is another version according to which Schumann had to be treated for syphilis in the then fashionable way - inhaling mercury vapor, which caused a side effect in the form of paralysis of the fingers. But Schumann’s wife did not confirm any of these versions.
International Composer Competition
Schumann's biography and his work are so popular in the musical world that personalized competitions and awards are often organized in honor of the famous composer. Back in 1956, the first competition for academic music performers was held in Berlin, called the Internationaler Robert-Schumann-Wettbewerb.
The first event was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death, and the first winners of the competition were the representative of the GDR, Annerose Schmidt, in the “Piano” category, as well as representatives of the USSR: Alexander Vedernikov, Kira Izotova in the “Vocal” category. Subsequently, competitors from the USSR took prizes almost every year until 1985. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was only in 1996 that a representative from Russia, Mikhail Mordvinov, managed to win the competition in the “Piano” category.
Robert Schumann Prize
R. Schumann, whose biography and creative heritage have become the pride of world art, donated his name and the prize, which has been awarded to performers of academic music since 1964. The award was established by the administration of the composer's hometown, Zwickau. It is awarded only to those figures who promote the composer’s music and bring it to the masses. In 2003, the material component of the award was equal to the amount of 10,000 euros.
Until 1989, the names of Soviet artists were often included in the list of prize winners. A representative from Russia then appeared on the list of laureates only in 2000. The winner of the prize that year was Olga Loseva; since then the prize has never been awarded to people from the CIS countries.
