German
romantic composer, born in
Zwickau on 8 June 1810, died near
Bonn on 29 July 1856. He was married to the great pianist
Clara Wieck, who played his music in concerts; they encouraged the young
Johannes Brahms, and Brahms comforted Clara, whom he loved, while Robert spent much of his later life
mad.
He wrote music for a wide variety of instruments, though piano predominated: the piano pieces including Kreisleriana, Davidsbündlertänze, Humoreske, Albumblätter, and Fantasiestücke. He wrote four symphonies, and song cycles including Dichterliebe, Liederkreise, and Frauenliebe und Leben.
He developed a literary taste from his father, a bookseller, and much of his work is imbued with overt romanticism. He early on played well at the piano, and sought lessons with Weber, who was too busy, and then with Friedrich Wieck. He studied law at Leipzig and Heidelberg but neglected it. In 1832 he ended his potential career as a pianist witb a device he had invented for exercising the fingers... and his potential career as an inventor too, let's be frank... so devoted himself to what he was best at, composition.
Robert met Wieck's daughter Clara in 1836. He was 26 and she was 17, but already a pianist of genius. Wieck strongly opposed the match, and they took legal action against him in 1839, and they married on 12 November 1840, the day before she came of age.
He attempted suicide in 1833, suffered breakdowns in 1843 and 1844, and in February 1854, hearing hellish music, threw himself into the Rhine. Upon his rescue by fishermen he asked to be put in an asylum, and it was here, at Endenich near Bonn, that he ended his days. His production of opus numbers can be correlated with his mental life: he was prodigiously productive in 1840 and in 1849-1851, and composed almost nothing in the years of his mental crises. Mental illness, depression, and suicide ran in Schumann's family.