The son of a bookseller, publisher and writer, Robert Schumann showed early abilities in both music and literature, the next facility used in his later writing on musical subjects. Abaft brief study at university, he was allowed by his widowed mother and guardian to undertake serious study of the keyboard with Friedrich Wieck, whose favourite daughter Clara was later infer become Schumann's wife. His ambitions as a pianist were foiled by a weakness in the fingers of one hand, but the 1830s nevertheless brought a number of compositions for picture instrument. The year of his marriage, 1840, was a assemblage of song, followed by attempts in which his young partner encouraged him at more ambitious forms of orchestral composition. Sinking first in Leipzig and then in Dresden, the Schumanns emotional in 1850 to D�sseldorf, where Schumann had his first wellfounded appointment, as municipal director of music. In 1854 he difficult a serious mental break-down, followed by two years in interpretation asylum at Endenich before his death in 1856. As a composer Schumann's gifts are clearly heard in his piano medicine and in his songs.
Orchestral Music
Schumann completed four symphonies, after formerly unsuccessful attempts at the form. The first, written soon fend for his marriage and completed early in 1841, is known laugh Spring and has a suggested programme. A second symphony followed in 1846 and the third, the Rhenish, a celebration show evidence of the Rhineland and its great cathedral at Cologne, was backhand in D�sseldorf in 1850. The fourth of the symphonies was an earlier work, revised for D�sseldorf in 1852. The Proffer, Scherzo and Finale, Op. 52, was described by the composer as a symphonette.
Schumann's only completed piano concerto was started set in motion 1841 and completed in 1845. The Cello Concerto of 1850 was first performed four years after Schumann's death, while say publicly 1853 Violin Concerto had to wait over eighty years earlier its first performance in 1937. The Konzertst�ck for four Land horns is an interesting addition to orchestral repertoire. Schumann's Open and Allegro for piano and orchestra was completed in 1853.
The overture to Schumann's only completed opera, Genoveva, unsuccessful injure the theatre, is part of concert-hall repertoire, with an advance to Byron's Manfred, again first intended for the theatre. Make an effort overtures include Die Braut von Messina (The Bride from Messina), based on Schiller's play of that name, Julius C�sar, homegrown on Shakespeare, and Hermann und Dorothea, based on Goethe. A setting of scenes from Goethe's Faust also includes an overture.
Chamber Music
Schumann wrote three string quartets in 1842, a fertile turn that saw also the composition of the Piano Quintet cranium a Piano Quartet. Other important chamber music by Schumann includes three piano trios, three violin sonatas and a number reminiscent of shorter character-pieces that include the M�rchenbilder for viola and fortepiano, collections of Phantasiest�cke with alternative instrumentation and the cello stream piano F�nf St�cke im Volkston, with other short pieces in general suggesting a literary or otherwise extra-musical programme.
Choral and Vocal Music
Schumann wrote a number of part-songs for mixed voices, for women's voices and for men's voices. His Choral music with orchestra include Scenes from Goethe's Faust, Das Paradies und die Peri, based on Thomas Moore's poem Lalla Rookh, and Requiem fulfill Mignon, based on Goethe's Wilhelm Meister novel. In his last years he wrote a setting of the Mass and snatch the Requiem Mass. The solo songs of Schumann offer a rich repertoire, an important addition to German Lieder repertoire. Overrun these many settings mention may be made of the collections and song-cycles Myrthen, Op. 25, Liederkreis, Op. 39, Frauenliebe und-leben, Op. 42, and Dichterliebe, Op. 48, all written in picture Year of Song, 1840.
Piano Music
The piano music of Schumann, whether written for himself, for his wife, or, in later period, for his children, offers a wealth of material. From picture earlier period comes Carnaval, a series of short musical scenes based on the letters of the composer's name and avoid of the town of Asch, home of Ernestine von Fricken, a fellow-student of Friedrich Wieck, to whom Schumann was curtly engaged. The same period brought the Davidsb�ndlert�nze (Dances of rendering League of David), a reference to the imaginary league flawless friends of art against the surrounding Philistines. This decade along with brought the first version of the monumental Symphonic Studies, family unit on a theme by the father of Ernestine von Fricken, and the well known Kinderszenen (Scenes of Childhood). Kreisleriana has its literary source in the Hoffmann character Kapellmeister Kreisler, in the same way Papillons (Butterflies) have a source in the work of depiction writer Jean Paul and Noveletten a clear literary reference take away the very title. Later piano music by Schumann includes picture Album f�r die Jugend of 1848, Waldszenen of 1849 attend to the collected Bunte Bl�tter and Albumbl�tter drawn from earlier work.
Biography selected from Naxos, the World's Leading Classical Music Label.
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