Best biography of robert schumann

Robert Schumann was a true Romantic. The originality of his work pushed at emotional, structural and philosophical boundaries. As a young man, he fought to marry the pianist he had fallen in love with, finally taking his future father-in-law to court, and championed the work of other composers.

In middle age, suffering the effects of tertiary syphilis, he threw himself into the Rhine and spent the remainder of his life in an asylum, writing music that he believed to have been dictated to him by angels. The family into which Schumann was born was literary rather than musical.

His father was a publisher and bookseller. Schumann himself was a fine writer, and he was torn at first over whether to devote himself to words or music. Although the latter won, he was a perceptive critic.

Facts about robert schumann

He founded and edited a music magazine. This was the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, and in it he acclaimed the music of Berlioz, Chopin and, much later, the young Brahms. Throughout his career Schuman