Zwielicht robert schumann biography

It is already late, it is already cold, Why are you riding alone through the woods? The woods are long, you are alone, You lovely bride! I'll lead you home! You do not know who I am. You are the witch Loreley. It is already late, it is already cold, Nevermore leave these woods! Nobody knows or guesses, How I am so happy, so happy! Oh, only one knew, only one, No other man might know!

It is not so quiet outside in the snow, Not so silent and secretive are The stars in the heavens, As my thoughts are. It can be argued that the form of "Mondnacht" is strophic , with some slight deviations from the norm. The first two stanzas of the poetry are set to identical melodies in the vocal line, and there is also very strong similarity in the piano accompaniment, with only a few chords that differ.

The digressions from the norm occur in the last stanza, where the vocal line varies in pitch, but retains the same rhythmic structure. Additionally, the repeated, blocked chords in the piano accompaniment become much thicker with the doubling of notes. It was as if the heavens had Silently kissed the earth, So that in a shower of blossoms she Must only dream of him.

The breeze wafted through the fields, The ears of corn waved gently, The woods rustled faintly, So starry-clear was the night. And my soul stretched its wings out far, Flew through the quiet lands, as if it were flying home. The treetops murmur and shudder, As though at this hour Around the half-sunken walls The old gods were doing their rounds.

Here beyond the myrtle trees In secret half-light magnificence, What do you say wildly, as in dreams, To me, fantastical night? All the stars glimmer above me With the glowing gaze of love, They speak drunkenly of the far-away As of great future happiness! Asleep on the look-out, Up there is the old knight. Above pass showers of rain, And the wood rushes through the portcullis.

Beard and hair grown into one, And breast and ruff fossilised, He sits for many hundreds of years Up there in the silent cell. Outside it is quiet and peaceful, Everyone has gone into the valley, Birds of the woods sing solitarily In the empty window arches. A wedding processes beneath On the Rhine in sunshine, Musicians play merrily, And the beautiful bride, she weeps.

I hear the brooklet rushing In the woods, to and fro, In the woods, in the rustling I do not know where I am. The nightingales sing Here in the loneliness, As though they wanted to speak Of the old, beautiful time. The moonbeams flit, As though I saw below me The castle which lies in the valley, But is so far from here! As though in the garden Full of roses white and red, My love might be waiting for me But she has been dead so long!

I can sometimes sing, As though I were cheerful, And yet secretly tears penetrate, Then my heart is freed. Nightingales allow As spring air plays outside Their song of longing to ring out From their dungeon tomb. Weimar, ; G. Forger, R. Abraham, ed. Homeyer, Grundbegriffe der Musikanschauung R. Pleasants, The Musical World of R. Plantinga, S.

As Critic New Haven , ; T. Brown, The Aesthetics of R. Gebhardt, R. Sams, The Songs of R. Walsh, The Lieder of S. London, ; J. Chissel, S. Piano Music London, ; A. Desmond, S. Songs London, ; A. Walker, ed. Hallmark, The Genesis of S. Fischer-Dieskau, R. Cycles and Songs London, ; A. Gerstmeier, Die Lieder S. Jahrhunderts Tutzing, ; H.

Fricker, Die musikkritischen Schriften R. Finson and R. Todd, eds. Otto, R. Borchard, R. Jahrhunderts Weinheim, ; D. Ostwald, S. Finson, R. Appel and I. Hermstriiwer, eds. Marston, S. Mayeda, R. Gleiss, ed. Hoffmann-Axthelm, R. Todd, S. Leven-Keesen, R. Westphal, R. Heine, op. Herrmann, R. Frobenius et al. Hotaki, R. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

January 8, Retrieved January 08, from Encyclopedia. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia. The music of the German composer and critic Robert Alexander Schumann made a significant impact on the burgeoning romantic movement in its rhythmic novelty and harmonic and lyrical expressiveness.

Robert Schumann created no intrinsically new forms, but he infused them with a personal subjectivity and emotional intensity that transformed an inherited classical tradition into the quintessence of romantic experience. Much of his music is characterized by literary allusions and autobiographical references, which are "nothing more than delicate directions for performance and understanding" added to the music to indicate the composer's poetic intent.

Yet he was not averse to experimenting with the contrapuntal devices of a J. Bach or the symphonic structures of a Beethoven. He thus stands midway between the conservatives and ultraprogressives of the 19th century. Schumann was born at Zwickau on June 8, , the youngest of the five children of Friedrich Schumann, a bookseller and publisher, and Johanna Schumann.

Robert spent hours in his father's bookshop and developed a lifelong interest in German literature , especially the works of Jean Paul Richter , Heinrich Heine , and Joseph von Eichendorff. At 7 Robert went to a private school and studied piano with the local church organist, who introduced him to the works of C. By the time Robert was 9, he had begun his first efforts at composition.

During his years in secondary school Schumann continued to practice the piano, often participating in concerts at the school and in the salons of eminent patrons. By he had made such progress in improvisation and composition that his father tried to interest Carl Maria von Weber in becoming Robert's teacher, but Weber was on his way to England and nothing came of the attempt.

The following year Schumann's sister, Emilie, committed suicide as the result of a mental disorder, and his father, also suffering from a nervous illness, died a few months later. In Schumann began to study law at his mother's request at the University of Leipzig. After a short visit to Munich, where he met Heine, Schumann returned to his law studies in earnest.

He continued his musical studies with Friedrich Wieck, an eminent piano teacher. At his teacher's home Schumann met Wieck's daughter Clara, already a remarkable pianist at the age of 9. In Schumann moved to Heidelberg, ostensibly to continue his law studies but essentially to study composition and piano. He frequented the home of the law professor Anton Thibaut, a musical amateur who was instrumental in reviving an interest in the choral music of the Renaissance and the baroque.

That summer Schumann went on holiday to Switzerland and Italy and wrote the first part of his Papillons for piano. A concert by Niccolo Paganini in in Frankfurt was the decisive factor that turned Schumann permanently to music. After some stormy correspondence with his mother, she finally agreed to let him continue his studies with Wieck.

He took up residence in the Wieck home and concentrated on developing into a virtuoso pianist. In his anxiety to make rapid progress he experimented with a sling device to strengthen his fingers; by irrevocably straining his right hand he ruined all chance of becoming a virtuoso. He therefore decided to concentrate on his composition studies and worked with Heinrich Dorn, choirmaster at the Leipzig opera, under whom Schumann completed the second part of the Papillonsand an Allegro for piano.

He also embarked on an intensive study of the music of J. Schumann edited this reforming journal until , and it became a model for music criticism. In order to observe music from all points of view, Schumann invented three artistic characters: the stormy, impetuous Florestan; the gentle, lyrical Eusebius; and the arbiter between the two, Master Raro.

In later years Schumann signed many of his own compositions with these appellations. His mother died in He stayed on in Leipzig with the Wiecks, fell in love with Clara, and, over the strong objections of her father, became engaged to her in Through the success of his journal, Schumann became an eminent voice in cultural matters and an artistic critic of European rank, more famous for his writings than for his compositions, which most musicians found too difficult to play.

On a visit to Vienna in to further the aims and influence of his journal, he made the sensational discovery of Franz Schubert 's C-Major Symphony, which Mendelssohn eventually performed. In February Schumann was honored by a doctorate from the University of Jena. Schumann married Clara, against her father's will, in September. Seven children were born of this union.

The ensuing years were a high point in Schumann's compositional activity. The next year he composed his Symphony No. A crisis of mental exhaustion followed on these productive years. Line count: 16 Word count: Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers? To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. Fuller Maitland, J. London: S.

Gammond, Peter London: Salamander. Geck, Martin []. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Hall, George In Alison Latham ed. Oxford Companion to Music. Harrison, Julius In Robert Simpson ed. Harmondsworth: Pelican Books. Harewood, Earl of In Earl of Harewood; Antony Peattie eds. London: Ebury Press. Heyworth, Peter []. Conversations with Klemperer second ed.

London: Faber and Faber. Jensen, Eric Frederick Oxford: Oxford University Press. Johnson, Graham Schumann: The Complete Songs. London: Hyperion. Jones, J. Barrie In David Rowland ed. Cambridge Companion to the Piano. Kapp, Reinhard Krehbiel, Henry The Pianoforte and its Music. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Larkin, David In Joanne Cormac ed.

Liszt in Context. Liliencron, Rochus von Allgemeine deutsche Biographie in German. Maintz, Marie Luise London: Penguin. Marston, Philip Moore, Jerrold Northrop Edward Elgar: a Creative Life. Nectoux, Jean-Michel Ostwald, Peter Summer Archived from the original on 12 May Retrieved 17 May Perrey, Beate Rauchfleisch, Udo Robert Schumann: Werk und Leben in German.

Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. Reich, Nancy B. Clara Schumann: The Artist and the Woman. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Roesner, Linda Correll The Record Guide. London: Collins. Sams, Eric The Songs of Robert Schumann. London: Methuen. Schumann, Robert Konrad Wolff ed. On Music and Musicians. New York: Norton. Slonimsky, Nicolas ; Laura Kuhn, eds.

Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Music and Musicians. New York: Schirmer. Solomon, Yonty In Alan Walker ed. Spitta, Philipp In George Grove ed. A Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London and New York: Macmillan. Taylor, Ronald []. Robert Schumann: His Life and Work. London: Panther. Tibbetts, John C. Schumann: A Chorus of Voices. New York: Amadeus Press.

Tomes, Susan The Piano: A History in Pieces. New Haven: Yale University Press. Walker, Alan Wasielewski, Wilhelm Joseph von Robert Schumann: Eine Biographie in German. Dresden: Kuntze.

Zwielicht robert schumann biography

Williams, Alastair August Music and Letters. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Chicago: Britannica. External links [ edit ]. Robert Schumann at Wikipedia's sister projects. List of compositions.