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{{Short description|German composer, pianist and critic (1810–1856)}}
{{Redirect|Schumann|Robert Schumann's wife|Clara Schumann|the French statesman|Robert Schuman|other uses|Schumann (disambiguation)}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Robert Schumann
| image              = Robert Schumann 1839.jpg
| alt                = young white man in 1830s costume, seated; he has wavy dark hair of medium length and is clean-shaven
| caption            = Portrait, {{circa|1839}}
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1810|6|8|df=yes}}
| birth_place        = [[Zwickau]], Kingdom of Saxony
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1856|7|29|1810|6|8|df=yes}}
| death_place        = [[Bonn]], Rhine Province, Prussia
| occupation         = {{hlist|Composer|pianist|music critic}}
| spouse             = {{Marriage|[[Clara Schumann]]|1840}}
}}

'''Robert Schumann'''{{refn|Many sources from the 19th century onwards state that Schumann had the middle name Alexander,<ref>Liliencron, p. 44; Spitta, p. 384; Slonimsky and Kuhn, p. 3234; and Wolff p. 1702</ref> but according to the 2001 edition of ''[[Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'' and a 2005 biography by Eric Frederick Jensen there is no evidence that he had a middle name and it is possibly a misreading of his teenage pseudonym "Skülander". His birth and death certificates and all other existing official documents give "Robert Schumann" as his only names.<ref name=g760>Daverio and Sams, p. 760</ref><ref>Jensen, p. 2</ref>|group=n|name=alexander}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ʃ|uː|m|ɑː|n}}; {{IPA|de|ˈʁoːbɛʁt ˈʃuːman|lang}}; 8 June 1810{{spaced ndash}}29 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early [[Romantic music|Romantic era]]. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, [[chamber music|chamber groups]], orchestra, choir and the opera. His works typify the spirit of the Romantic era in German music.

Schumann was born in [[Zwickau]], Saxony, to an affluent middle-class family with no musical connections, and was initially unsure whether to pursue a career as a lawyer or to make a living as a pianist-composer. He studied law at the universities of [[Leipzig University|Leipzig]] and [[Heidelberg University|Heidelberg]] but his main interests were music and [[Romantic literature]]. From 1829 he was a student of the piano teacher [[Friedrich Wieck]], but his hopes for a career as a virtuoso pianist were frustrated by a worsening problem with his right hand, and he concentrated on composition. His early works were mainly piano pieces, including the large-scale {{lang|de|[[Carnaval (Schumann)|Carnaval]]}}, {{lang|de|[[Davidsbündlertänze]]}} (Dances of the League of David), {{lang|de|[[Fantasiestücke, Op. 12|Fantasiestücke]]}} (Fantasy Pieces), {{lang|de|[[Kreisleriana]]}} and {{lang|de|[[Kinderszenen]]}} (Scenes from Childhood) (1834–1838). He was a co-founder of the {{lang|de|[[Neue Zeitschrift für Musik]]}} (New Musical Journal) in 1834 and edited it for ten years. In his writing for the journal and in his music he distinguished between two contrasting aspects of his personality, dubbing these [[alter egos]] "Florestan" for his impetuous self and "Eusebius" for his gentle poetic side.

Despite the bitter opposition of Wieck, who did not regard his pupil as a suitable husband for her, Schumann married Wieck's daughter [[Clara Schumann|Clara]] in 1840. In the years immediately following their wedding Schumann composed prolifically, writing, first, songs and song‐cycles including {{lang|de|[[Frauen-Liebe und Leben|Frauenliebe und Leben]]}} ("Woman's Love and Life") and {{lang|de|[[Dichterliebe]]}} ("Poet's Love"). He turned his attention to orchestral music in 1841, completing [[Symphony No. 1 (Schumann)|the first]] of his four symphonies. In the following year he concentrated on chamber music, writing three [[string quartets]], a [[Piano Quintet (Schumann)|Piano Quintet]] and a [[Piano Quartet (Schumann)|Piano Quartet]]. During the rest of the 1840s, between bouts of mental and physical ill health, he composed a variety of piano and other pieces and went with his wife on concert tours in Europe. His only opera, ''[[Genoveva]]'' (1850), was not a success and has seldom been staged since.

Schumann and his family moved to [[Düsseldorf]] in 1850 in the hope that his appointment as the city's director of music would provide financial security, but his shyness and mental instability made it difficult for him to work with his orchestra and he had to resign after three years. In 1853 the Schumanns met the twenty-year-old [[Johannes Brahms]], whom Schumann praised in an article in the {{lang|de|Neue Zeitschrift für Musik}}. The following year Schumann's always-precarious mental health deteriorated gravely. He threw himself into the [[Rhine|River Rhine]] but was rescued and taken to a private sanatorium near [[Bonn]], where he lived for more than two years, dying there at the age of 46.

During his lifetime Schumann was recognised for his piano music – often subtly [[program music|programmatic]] – and his songs. His other works were less generally admired, and for many years there was a widespread belief that those from his later years lacked the inspiration of his early music. More recently this view has been less prevalent, but it is still his piano works and songs from the 1830s and 1840s on which his reputation is primarily based. He had considerable influence in the nineteenth century and beyond. In the German-speaking world the composers [[Gustav Mahler]], [[Richard Strauss]], [[Arnold Schoenberg]] and more recently [[Wolfgang Rihm]] have been inspired by his music, as were French composers such as [[Georges Bizet]], [[Gabriel Fauré]], [[Claude Debussy]] and [[Maurice Ravel]]. Schumann was also a major influence on the Russian school of composers, including [[Anton Rubinstein]] and [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky]].

== Life and career ==
=== Childhood ===
[[File:Schumannhaus ALT.JPG|thumb|upright=1.25|alt=Exterior of substantial town house seen from the square outside it|Schumann's birthplace, now the [[Robert Schumann House]], after an anonymous colourised lithograph]]
Robert Schumann{{refn|group=n|name=alexander}} was born in [[Zwickau]], in the [[Kingdom of Saxony]] (today the German state of [[Saxony]]), into an affluent middle-class family.<ref name=perrey6>Perrey, Schumann's lives, p. 6</ref> On 13 June 1810 the local newspaper, the {{lang|de|Zwickauer Wochenblatt}} (Zwickau Weekly Paper), carried the announcement, "On 8 June to Herr [[August Schumann]], notable citizen and bookseller here, a little son".<ref>Dowley, p. 7</ref> He was the fifth and last child of August Schumann and his wife, [[Christiane Schumann|Johanna Christiane]]. August, not only a bookseller but also a lexicographer, author, and publisher of [[chivalric romances]], made considerable sums from his German translations of writers such as [[Cervantes]], [[Walter Scott]] and [[Lord Byron]].<ref name=g760/> Robert, his favourite child, was able to spend many hours exploring the classics of literature in his father's collection.<ref name=g760/> Intermittently, between the ages of three and five-and-a-half, he was placed with foster parents, as his mother had contracted [[typhus]].<ref name=perrey6/>

At the age of six Schumann went to a private preparatory school, where he remained for four years.<ref name=c3>Chissell, p. 3</ref> When he was seven he began studying general music and piano with the local organist, [[Johann Gottfried Kuntsch]], and for a time he also had cello and flute lessons with one of the municipal musicians, Carl Gottlieb Meissner.<ref>Geck, p. 8</ref> Throughout his childhood and youth his love of music and literature ran in tandem, with poems and dramatic works produced alongside small-scale compositions, mainly piano pieces and songs.<ref name=hall1125>Hall, p. 1125</ref> He was not a musical child prodigy like [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]] or [[Felix Mendelssohn]],<ref name=perrey6/> but his talent as a pianist was evident from an early age: in 1850 the {{lang|de|[[Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung]]}} (Universal Musical Journal) printed a biographical sketch of Schumann which included an account from contemporary sources that even as a boy he possessed a special talent for portraying feelings and characteristic traits in melody:
{{blockindent|Indeed, he could sketch the different dispositions of his intimate friends by certain figures and passages on the piano so exactly and comically that everyone burst into loud laughter at the accuracy of the portrait.<ref>Wasielewski, p. 11</ref>|}}

From 1820 Schumann attended the Zwickau Lyceum, the local high school of about two hundred boys, where he remained till the age of eighteen, studying a traditional curriculum. In addition to his studies he read extensively: among his early enthusiasms were [[Friedrich Schiller|Schiller]] and [[Jean Paul]].<ref>Geck, p. 49</ref> According to the musical historian George Hall, Paul remained Schumann's favourite author and exercised a powerful influence on the composer's creativity with his sensibility and vein of fantasy.<ref name=hall1125/> Musically, Schumann got to know the works of [[Haydn]], Mozart, [[Beethoven]], and of living composers [[Carl Maria von Weber]], with whom August Schumann tried unsuccessfully to arrange for Robert to study.<ref name=hall1125/> August was not particularly musical but he encouraged his son's interest in music, buying him a [[Johann Baptist Streicher|Streicher]] grand piano and organising trips to [[Leipzig]] for a performance of ''[[Die Zauberflöte]]'' (The Magic Flute) and [[Karlovy Vary|Carlsbad]] to hear the celebrated pianist [[Ignaz Moscheles]].<ref>Chissell, p. 4</ref>

[[File:Portrait of A Young Age of Robert Schumann.png|thumb|Schumann {{circa|1826}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Schumann around 1826 |publisher=Schumann Portal |url=https://www.schumann-portal.de/um-1826.html |access-date=9 June 2024 |archive-date=5 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705233411/https://www.schumann-portal.de/um-1826.html |url-status=live }}</ref>|alt=miniature oil painting of a young, clean-shaven white youth in early-19th-century costume]]

===University===
August Schumann died in 1826; his widow was less enthusiastic about a musical career for her son and persuaded him to study for the law as a profession. After his final examinations at the Lyceum in March 1828 he entered [[Leipzig University]]. Accounts differ about his diligence as a law student. According to his roommate {{ill|Emil Flechsig|de}}, he never set foot in a lecture hall,<ref name=g761>Daverio and Sams, p. 761</ref> but he himself recorded, "I am industrious and regular, and enjoy my [[jurisprudence]]&nbsp;... and am only now beginning to appreciate its true worth".<ref>Chissell, p. 16</ref> Nonetheless reading and playing the piano occupied a good deal of his time, and he developed expensive tastes for champagne and cigars.<ref name=hall1125/> Musically, he discovered the works of [[Franz Schubert]], whose death in November 1828 caused Schumann to cry all night.<ref name=hall1125/> The leading piano teacher in Leipzig was [[Friedrich Wieck]], who recognised Schumann's talent and accepted him as a pupil.<ref>Jensen, p. 22</ref>

After a year in Leipzig Schumann convinced his mother that he should move to the [[University of Heidelberg]] which, unlike Leipzig, offered courses in [[Roman law|Roman]], [[ecclesiastical law|ecclesiastical]] and international law (as well as reuniting Schumann with his close friend Eduard Röller who was a student there).<ref>Dowley, p. 27</ref> After matriculating at the university on 30 July 1829 he travelled in Switzerland and Italy from late August to late October. He was greatly taken with [[Rossini]]'s operas and the {{lang|it|[[bel canto]]}} of the soprano [[Giuditta Pasta]]; he wrote to Wieck, "one can have no notion of Italian music without hearing it under Italian skies".<ref name=g761/> Another influence on him was hearing the violin virtuoso [[Niccolò Paganini]] play in Frankfurt in April 1830.<ref>Taylor, p. 58</ref> In the words of one biographer, "The easy-going discipline at Heidelberg University helped the world to lose a bad lawyer and to gain a great musician".<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/905534 "Robert Schumann"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240513160319/https://www.jstor.org/stable/905534 |date=13 May 2024 }}, ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 51, No. 809 (1 July 1910), p. 426</ref> Finally deciding in favour of music rather than the law as a career, he wrote to his mother on 30 July 1830 telling her how he saw his future: "My entire life has been a twenty-year struggle between poetry and prose, or call it music and law".<ref>Jensen, p. 34</ref> He persuaded her to ask Wieck for an objective assessment of his musical potential. Wieck's verdict was that with the necessary hard work Schumann could become a leading pianist within three years. A six-month trial period was agreed.<ref>Jensen, p. 37</ref>

===1830s===
[[File:Schumann-Abegg-theme.jpg|thumb|upright=2|Opening of Schumann's [[Opus number|Op.]] 1, the [[Abegg Variations|''Abegg'' Variations]]|alt=musical score for solo piano piece]]
Later in 1830 Schumann published his [[Opus number|Op.]] 1, [[Variations on the name "Abegg"|a set of piano variations]] on a theme based on the name of its supposed dedicatee, Countess Pauline von Abegg (who was almost certainly a product of Schumann's imagination).<ref>Geck, p. 62; and Jensen, p. 97</ref> The notes A-B♭-E-G-G (A-B-E-G-G in German nomenclature, which uses "B" for the note known elsewhere as B♭ and "H" for the note known elsewhere as B[♮]), played in waltz tempo, make up the theme on which the variations are based.<ref>Taylor, p. 72</ref> The use of a [[musical cryptogram]] became a recurrent characteristic of Schumann's later music.<ref name=hall1125/> In 1831 he began lessons in harmony and [[counterpoint]] with [[Heinrich Dorn]], musical director of the Saxon court theatre,<ref>Jensen, p. 64</ref> and in 1832 he published his Op. 2, {{lang|fr|[[Papillons]]}} (Butterflies) for piano, a [[program music|programmatic piece]] depicting twin brothers – one a poetic dreamer, the other a worldly realist – both in love with the same woman at a masked ball.<ref>Taylor, p. 74</ref> Schumann had by now come to regard himself as having two distinct sides to his personality and art: he dubbed his introspective, pensive self "Eusebius" and the impetuous and dynamic [[alter ego]] "Florestan".<ref>Dowley, p. 46</ref>{{refn|It is not known why Schumann picked those names for his alter egos, although there has been much conjecture over the years.<ref>Sams, Eric. [https://ericsams.org/index.php/on-music/essays/on-schumann/104-why-florestan-and-eusebius "What's in a Name?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240520171547/https://ericsams.org/index.php/on-music/essays/on-schumann/104-why-florestan-and-eusebius |date=20 May 2024 }}, ''The Musical Times'', February 1967, pp. 131–134</ref> Another of his inventions was "Master Raro", a wise musician of sound judgement, neither so dreamy as Eusebius nor so impetuous as Florestan, sometimes invoked to arbitrate between the two.<ref>Walker, pp. 55 and 58</ref>|group=n}} Reviewing an early work of [[Chopin]] in 1831 he wrote:
{{blockindent|Eusebius dropped by one evening, not long ago. He entered quietly, his pale features brightened by that enigmatic smile with which he likes to excite curiosity. Florestan and I were seated at the piano. He, as you know, is one of those rare musical persons who seem to anticipate everything that is new, of the future and extraordinary.&nbsp;... This time, however, there was a surprise in store even for him. With the words "Hats off, gentlemen, a genius!" Eusebius spread out before us a piece of music.<ref>Schumann, p. 15</ref>|}}

[[File:Neue-Zeitschrift-fur-Musik.jpg|thumb|left|upright|{{lang|de|Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik}}, edited by Schumann from 1835|alt=Front page of text of newspaper in old style Gothic German type]]

Schumann's pianistic ambitions were ended by a growing paralysis in at least one finger of his right hand. The early symptoms had come while he was still a student at Heidelberg, and the cause is uncertain.<ref name=ostwald/>{{refn|Wieck believed the damage was done by Schumann's use of a chiroplast – a finger-stretching device then favoured by pianists; the biographer [[Eric Sams]] has theorised that the affliction was caused by [[mercury poisoning]] as a side effect of treatment for [[syphilis]], a hypothesis subsequently discounted by neurologists.<ref name=ostwald>Ostwald, pp. 23 and 25</ref> Another possible cause may have been [[focal dystonia#Musician's dystonia|dystonia]], a condition afflicting several musicians over the years.<ref>Geck, p. 30; and Hallarman, Lynn. [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/oct/17/focal-dystonia-my-hand-spasmed-and-shook-why-musicians-get-the-yips "When I Tried to Play, my Hand Spasmed and Shook"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240520171444/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/oct/17/focal-dystonia-my-hand-spasmed-and-shook-why-musicians-get-the-yips |date=20 May 2024 }}, ''The Guardian'', 17 October 2023</ref>|group=n}} He tried all the treatments then in vogue including [[allopathy]], [[homeopathy]], and electric therapy, but without success.<ref name=b2>Slonimsky and Kuhn, pp. 3234–3235</ref> The condition had the advantage of exempting him from compulsory military service – he could not fire a rifle<ref name=b2/> – but by 1832 he recognised that a career as a virtuoso pianist was impossible and he shifted his main focus to composition. He completed further sets of small piano pieces and the first movement of a symphony (it was too thinly orchestrated according to Wieck and was never completed).<ref name=g764>Daverio and Sams, p. 764</ref> An additional activity was journalism. From March 1834, along with Wieck and others, he was on the editorial board of a new music magazine, {{lang|de|Neue Leipziger Zeitschrift für Musik}} (New Leipzig Music Magazine), which was reconstituted under his sole editorship in January 1835 as the {{lang|de|[[Neue Zeitschrift für Musik]]}}.<ref name=g766>Daverio and Sams, p. 766</ref> Hall writes that it took "a thoughtful and progressive line on the new music of the day".<ref name=hall1126>Hall, p. 1126</ref> Among the contributors were friends and colleagues of Schumann, writing under pen names: he included them in his {{lang|de|[[Davidsbündler]]}} (League of David) – a band of fighters for musical truth, named after [[David|the Biblical hero]] who fought against the [[wikt:philistine#Noun|Philistines]] – a product of the composer's imagination in which, blurring the boundaries of imagination and reality, he included his musical friends.<ref name=hall1126/>

During successive months in 1835 Schumann met three musicians whom he regarded with particular respect: [[Felix Mendelssohn]], Chopin and Moscheles.<ref name=chron1>Perrey, Chronology, p. xiv</ref> Of these, he was most influenced in his compositions by Mendelssohn, although the latter's restrained classicism is reflected in Schumann's later works rather than in those of the 1830s.<ref>Abraham, p. 56</ref> Early in 1835 he completed two substantial compositions: ''[[Carnaval (Schumann)|Carnaval]]'', Op. 9 and the [[Symphonic Studies]], Op.13. These works grew out of his romantic relationship with [[Ernestine von Fricken]], a fellow pupil of Wieck. The musical themes of ''Carnaval'' derive from the name of her home town, [[Aš|Asch]].<ref name=j155/>{{refn|A{{music|flat}}, C, B or in German musical notation "As-C-H"<ref name=j155>Jones, p. 155</ref>|group=n}} The Symphonic Studies are based on a melody said to be by Ernestine's father, Baron von Fricken, an amateur flautist.<ref name=g767>Davario and Sams, p. 767</ref> Schumann and Ernestine became secretly engaged, but in the view of the musical scholar [[Joan Chissell]], during 1835 Schumann gradually found that Ernestine's personality was not as interesting to him as he first thought, and this, together with his discovery that she was an illegitimate, impecunious, adopted daughter of Fricken, brought the affair to a gradual end.<ref>Chissell, p. 36</ref> According to the biographer [[Alan Walker (musicologist)|Alan Walker]], Ernestine may have been less than frank with Schumann about her background and he was hurt when he learnt the truth.<ref>Walker, p. 42</ref>
[[File:Clara-Wieck-1832-signed-illegible.png|thumb|upright|[[Clara Schumann|Clara Wieck]] in 1832|alt=Young white woman, in white gown, with elaborately arranged dark hair, seated and looking towards the artist]]

Schumann felt a growing attraction to Wieck's daughter, the sixteen-year-old [[Clara Schumann|Clara]]. She was her father's star pupil, a piano virtuoso emotionally mature beyond her years, with a developing reputation.<ref name=c37/> According to Chissell, her concerto debut at the [[Leipzig Gewandhaus]] on 9 November 1828,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stefaniak |first=Alexander |title=Becoming Clara Schumann: Performance Strategies and Aesthetics in the Culture of the Musical Canon |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-253-05826-3 |pages=Page= xi |language=en}}</ref> with Mendelssohn conducting, "set the seal on all her earlier successes, and there was now no doubting that a great future lay before her as a pianist".<ref name=c37>Chissell, p. 37</ref> Schumann had watched her career approvingly since she was nine, but only now fell in love with her. His feelings were reciprocated: they declared their love to each other in January 1836.<ref>Chissell, p. 38</ref> Schumann expected that Wieck would welcome the proposed marriage, but he was mistaken: Wieck refused his consent, fearing that Schumann would be unable to provide for his daughter, that she would have to abandon her career, and that she would be legally required to relinquish her inheritance to her husband.<ref>Geck, p. 98</ref> It took a series of acrimonious legal actions over the next four years for Schumann to obtain a court ruling that he and Clara were free to marry without her father's consent.<ref name=g770>Daverio and Sams, p. 770</ref>

Professionally the later years of the 1830s were marked by an unsuccessful attempt by Schumann to establish himself in Vienna, and a growing friendship with Mendelssohn, who was by then based in Leipzig, conducting the [[Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra|Gewandhaus Orchestra]]. During this period Schumann wrote many piano works, including ''[[Kreisleriana]]'' (1837), ''[[Davidsbündlertänze]]'' (1837), {{lang|de|[[Kinderszenen]]}} (Scenes from Childhood, 1838) and {{lang|de|[[Faschingsschwank aus Wien]]}} (Carnival Prank from Vienna, 1839).<ref name=hall1126/> In 1838 Schumann visited Schubert's brother [[Ferdinand Schubert|Ferdinand]] and discovered several manuscripts including that of the [[Symphony No. 9 (Schubert)|Great C major Symphony]].<ref name=chron2>Perrey, Chronology, p. xv</ref> Ferdinand allowed him to take a copy away and Schumann arranged for the work's premiere, conducted by Mendelssohn in Leipzig on 21 March 1839.<ref>Marston, p. 51</ref> In the {{lang|de|Neue Zeitschrift für Musik}} Schumann wrote enthusiastically about the work and described its "{{lang|de|himmlische Länge}}" – its "heavenly length" – a phrase that has become common currency in later analyses of the symphony.<ref>Maintz, p. 100; and Marston, p. 51</ref>{{refn|The Schubert symphony is not quite as long as Beethoven's ''[[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Choral]]'' Symphony but is much longer than most purely orchestral symphonies to that date, playing for an hour if all the marked repeats are taken. Many performances cut some of the repeats, but, for example, [[Colin Davis|Sir Colin Davis's]] 1996 complete recording with the [[Dresden Staatskapelle]] takes 61 minutes and 50 seconds.<ref>Notes to RCA CD set 09026-62673-2 (1996) {{oclc| 1378641722}}</ref> None of Schumann's four symphonies play for more than about 35 minutes in typical performances.<ref>Notes to: DG CD set 00028948629619 (2022) conducted by [[Daniel Barenboim]] {{oclc| 1370948560}}; Pye LP set GGCD 302 1–2 (1957)  conducted by [[Sir Adrian Boult]] {{oclc|181675364}}; EMI CD set 5099909799356 (2011) conducted by [[Riccardo Muti]] {{oclc|1184268709}}; and DG CD set 00028947779322 (2009) conducted by [[Herbert von Karajan]] {{oclc| 951273040}}</ref>|group=n}}

Schumann and Clara finally married on 12 September 1840, the day before her twenty-first birthday.<ref>Dowley, p. 66</ref> Hall writes that marriage gave Schumann "the emotional and domestic stability on which his subsequent achievements were founded".<ref name=hall1126/> Clara made some sacrifices in marrying Schumann: as a pianist of international reputation she was the better-known of the two but her career was continually interrupted by motherhood of their seven children. She inspired Schumann in his composing career, encouraging him to extend his range as a composer beyond solo piano works.<ref name=hall1126/>

===1840s===
During 1840 Schumann turned his attention to song, producing more than half his total output of {{lang|de|Lieder}}, including the cycles {{lang|de|[[Myrthen]]}} ("Myrtles", a wedding present for Clara), {{lang|de|[[Frauen-Liebe und Leben|Frauenliebe und Leben]]}} ("Woman's Love and Life"), {{lang|de|[[Dichterliebe]]}} ("Poet's Love"), and settings of words by [[Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff|Joseph von Eichendorff]], [[Heinrich Heine]] and others.<ref name=hall1126/>

In 1841 Schumann focused on orchestral music. On 31 March his [[Symphony No. 1 (Schumann)|First Symphony]], ''The Spring'', was premiered by Mendelssohn at a concert in the Gewandhaus at which Clara played Chopin's [[Piano Concerto No. 2 (Chopin)|Second Piano Concerto]] and some of Schumann's works for solo piano.<ref>Dowley, p. 74</ref> His next orchestral works were the [[Overture, Scherzo and Finale]], the Phantasie for piano and orchestra (which later became the first movement of the [[Piano Concerto (Schumann)|Piano Concerto]]) and a new symphony (eventually published as the [[Symphony No. 4 (Schumann)|Fourth, in D minor]]). 

Clara gave birth to a daughter in September 1841, the first of the Schumanns' seven children to survive.<ref name=hall1126/> 
[[File:Clara und Robert Schumann Relief MIM.jpg|thumb|upright|Medallion commemorating the Schumanns, 1846|alt=commemorative silver-coloured medallion showing left profiles of Clara and Robert Schumann]]

In 1842 Schumann turned his attention to chamber music. He studied works by Haydn and Mozart, despite an ambivalent attitude to the former, writing: "Today it is impossible to learn anything new from him. He is like a familiar friend of the house whom all greet with pleasure and with esteem, but who has ceased to arouse any particular interest".<ref>Schumann, p. 94</ref> He was stronger in his praise of Mozart: "Serenity, repose, grace, the characteristics of the antique works of art, are also those of Mozart's school. The Greeks gave to 'The Thunderer'{{refn|[[Zeus]], Greek god of thunder, known to the Romans as [[Jupiter (god)|Jupiter]], which is the nickname of Mozart's [[Symphony No. 41 (Mozart)|last symphony]].<ref>[https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-3610 "Jupiter Symphony"], ''The Oxford Companion to Music'', Oxford University Press, 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2024 {{subscription required}} {{Cite book |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-3610 |title=The Oxford Companion to Music |chapter='Jupiter' Symphony |date=January 2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-957903-7 |access-date=20 May 2024 |archive-date=20 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240520171447/https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-3610 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>|group=n}} a radiant expression, and radiantly does Mozart launch his lightnings".<ref>Schumann, pp. 94–95</ref> After his studies Schumann produced three string quartets, a [[Piano Quintet (Schumann)|Piano Quintet]] (premiered in 1843) and a [[Piano Quartet (Schumann)|Piano Quartet]] (premiered in 1844).<ref name=hall1126/>

In early 1843 there was a setback to Schumann's career: he had a severe and debilitating mental crisis. This was not the first such attack, although it was the worst so far. Hall writes that he had been subject to similar attacks at intervals over a long period, and comments that the condition may have been congenital, affecting August Schumann and Emilie, the composer's sister.<ref name=hall1126/>{{refn|According to Walker, Emilie's death in 1826 was suicide due to depression and August was unable to recover from the shock of losing his daughter.<ref>Walker, p. 21</ref>|group=n}} Later in the year, Schumann, having recovered, completed a successful secular [[oratorio]], {{lang|de|[[Das Paradies und die Peri]]}} (Paradise and the [[Peri]]), based on an [[Orientalism|oriental]] poem by [[Thomas Moore]]. It was premiered at the Gewandhaus on 4 December and repeat performances followed at Dresden on 23 December, Berlin early the following year, and London in June 1856, when Schumann's friend [[William Sterndale Bennett]] conducted a performance given by the [[Royal Philharmonic Society|Philharmonic Society]] before [[Queen Victoria]] and the [[Prince Consort]].<ref>Browne Conor. [https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/erin/2017/05/31/robert-schumanns-das-paradies-und-die-peri-and-its-early-performances/ "Robert Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri and its early performances"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240513142610/https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/erin/2017/05/31/robert-schumanns-das-paradies-und-die-peri-and-its-early-performances/ |date=13 May 2024 }}, ''Thomas Moore in Europe'', Queen's University Belfast, 31 May 2017; and "Philharmonic Concerts", ''The Times'', 24 June 1856, p. 12</ref> Although neglected after Schumann's death it remained popular throughout his lifetime and brought his name to international attention.<ref name=hall1126/> During 1843 Mendelssohn invited him to teach piano and composition at the new [[Leipzig Conservatory]],<ref name=chron3>Perrey, Chronology, p. xvi</ref> and Wieck approached him with an offer of reconciliation.<ref name=b2/> Schumann gladly accepted both, although the resumed relationship with his father-in-law remained polite rather than close.<ref name=b2/>

[[File:Robert u Clara Schumann 1847.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Robert and Clara Schumann in 1847, lithograph with a personal dedication|alt=Signed engraving of middle-aged white couple seated and looking towards the camera. The man is clean-shaven; the woman's dark hair is tied in a bun]]
Clara embarked on a concert tour of Russia In 1844; her husband joined her. They met the leading figures of the Russian musical scene, including [[Mikhail Glinka]] and [[Anton Rubinstein]] and were both immensely impressed by Saint Petersburg and Moscow.<ref name=g777>Daverio and Sams, p. 777</ref><ref>Daverio, p. 286</ref> The tour was an artistic and financial success but it was arduous, and by the end Schumann was in a poor state both physically and mentally.<ref name=g777/> After the couple returned to Leipzig in late May he sold the ''Neue Zeitschrift'', and in December the family moved to Dresden.<ref name=g777/> Schumann had been passed over for the conductorship of the Leipzig Gewandhaus in succession to Mendelssohn, and he thought that Dresden, with a thriving opera house, might be the place where he could, as he now wished, become an operatic composer.<ref name=g777/> His health remained poor. His doctor in Dresden reported complaints "from insomnia, general weakness, auditory disturbances, tremors, and chills in the feet, to a whole range of phobias".<ref>Daverio, p. 299</ref>

From the beginning of 1845 Schumann's health began to improve; he and Clara studied counterpoint together and both produced contrapuntal works for the piano. He added a slow movement and finale to the 1841 Phantasie for piano and orchestra, to create his Piano Concerto, Op. 54.<ref>Daverio, p. 305</ref> The following year he worked on what was to be published as his [[Symphony No. 2 (Schumann)|Second Symphony]], Op. 61. Progress on the work was slow, interrupted by further bouts of ill health.<ref>Daverio, p. 298</ref> When the symphony was complete he began work on his opera, ''[[Genoveva]]'', which was not completed until August 1848.<ref>Walker, p. 93</ref>

Between 24 November 1846 and 4 February 1847 the Schumanns toured to Vienna, Berlin and other cities. The Viennese leg of the tour was not a success. The performance of Schumann's First Symphony and Piano Concerto at the {{lang|de|[[Musikverein]]|italic=no}}  on 1 January 1847 attracted a sparse and unenthusiastic audience, but in Berlin the performance of ''Das Paradies und die Peri'' was well received, and the tour gave Schumann the chance to see numerous operatic productions. In the words of ''[[Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', "A regular if not always approving member of the audience at performances of works by [[Donizetti]], Rossini, [[Meyerbeer]], [[Fromental Halévy|Halévy]] and [[Friedrich von Flotow|Flotow]], he registered his 'desire to write operas' in his travel diary".<ref name=g779>Daverio and Sams, p. 779</ref> The Schumanns suffered several blows during 1847, including the death of their first son, Emil, born the year before, and the deaths of their friends Felix and [[Fanny Mendelssohn|Fanny]] Mendelssohn.<ref name=chron2/> A second son, Ludwig, and a third, Ferdinand, were born in 1848 and 1849.<ref name=chron2/>

===1850s===
[[File:Schumann-photo1850.jpg|thumb|upright|Schumann in an 1850 [[daguerreotype]]|alt=early photograph of a middle-aged white man, clean shaven, seated, leaning on the hand of his right arm, of which the elbow is on the adjacent table]]
''Genoveva'', a four-act opera based on the medieval legend of [[Genevieve of Brabant]], was premiered in Leipzig, conducted by the composer, in June 1850. There were two further performances immediately afterwards, but the piece was not the success Schumann had been hoping for. In a 2005 study of the composer, Eric Frederick Jensen attributes this to Schumann's operatic style: "not tuneful and simplistic enough for the majority, not 'progressive' enough for the [[Richard Wagner|Wagnerians]]".<ref>Jensen, p. 235</ref> [[Franz Liszt]], who was in the first-night audience, revived ''Genoveva'' at [[Weimar]] in 1855 – the only other production of the opera in Schumann's lifetime.<ref>Jensen, pp. 316–317</ref> Since then, according to ''[[The Complete Opera Book|Kobbé's Opera Book]]'', despite occasional revivals ''Genoveva'' has remained "far from even the edge of the repertory".<ref>Harewood, pp. 718–719</ref>

With a large family to support, Schumann sought financial security and with the support of his wife he accepted a post as director of music at [[Düsseldorf]] in April 1850. Hall comments that in retrospect it can be seen that Schumann was fundamentally unsuited for the post. In Hall's view, Schumann's diffidence in social situations, allied to mental instability, "ensured that initially warm relations with local musicians gradually deteriorated to the point where his removal became a necessity in 1853".<ref name=hall1127>Hall, p. 1127</ref> During 1850 Schumann composed two substantial late works – the [[Symphony No. 3 (Schumann)|Third (''Rhenish'') Symphony]] and the [[Cello Concerto (Schumann)|Cello Concerto]].<ref name=chron4>Perrey, Chronology, p. xvii</ref> He continued to compose prolifically, and reworked some of his earlier works, including the D minor symphony from 1841, published as his [[Symphony No. 4 (Schumann)|Fourth Symphony]] (1851), and the 1835 ''Symphonic Studies'' (1852).<ref name=chron4/>

In 1853 the twenty-year-old [[Johannes Brahms]] called on Schumann with a letter of introduction from a mutual friend, the violinist [[Joseph Joachim]]. Brahms had recently written the first of his three piano sonatas,{{refn|The work was published as Brahms's [[Piano Sonata No. 2 (Brahms)|Second Piano Sonata]] although it was composed before the other two.<ref>Jensen, p. 271</ref>|group=n}} and played it to Schumann, who rushed excitedly out of the room and came back leading his wife by the hand, saying "Now, my dear Clara, you will hear such music as you never heard before; and you, young man, play the work from the beginning".<ref>Walker, p. 110</ref> Schumann was so impressed that he wrote an article – his last – for the {{lang|de|Neue Zeitschrift für Musik}} titled "{{lang|de|Neue Bahnen|italic=no}}" (New Paths), extolling Brahms as a musician who was destined "to give expression to his times in ideal fashion".<ref>Schumann, pp. 252–254</ref>

Hall writes that Brahms proved "a personal tower of strength to Clara during the difficult days ahead": in early 1854 Schumann's health deteriorated drastically. On 27 February he attempted suicide by throwing himself into the [[Rhine|River Rhine]].<ref name=hall1127/> He was rescued by fishermen, and at his own request he was admitted to a private sanatorium at [[Endenich]], near [[Bonn]], on 4 March. He remained there for more than two years, gradually deteriorating, with intermittent intervals of lucidity during which he wrote and received letters and sometimes essayed some composition.<ref name=g788>Daverio and Sams, pp. 788–789</ref> The director of the sanatorium held that direct contact between patients and relatives was likely to distress all concerned and reduce the chances of recovery. Friends, including Brahms and Joachim, were permitted to visit Schumann, but Clara did not see her husband until nearly two and a half years into his confinement, and only two days before his death.<ref name=g788/> Schumann died at the sanatorium aged 46 on 29 July 1856, the cause of death being recorded as [[pneumonia]].<ref>Daverio, p. 568</ref>{{refn|As with the hand ailment earlier in his life, Schumann's decline and death have been the subject of much conjecture. One theory is that tertiary [[syphilis]], long dormant, was the cause, and the official certification as death from pneumonia was intended to spare Clara's feelings. This view is given varying degrees of credence by [[Joan Chissell]], [[Alan Walker (musicologist)|Alan Walker]], [[John Daverio]] and Tim Dowley,<ref>Chissell, p. 77</ref><ref>Walker, p. 117</ref><ref>Daverio, p. 484</ref><ref>Dowley, p. 117</ref> and is not endorsed by Eric Frederick Jensen, [[Martin Geck]] and Ugo Rauchfleisch, who regard the evidence for syphilis as unconvincing.<ref>Jensen, p. 329</ref><ref>Geck, p. 251</ref><ref>Rauchfleisch, pp. 164–170</ref> Another theory is an atrophy of the brain, linked to congenital [[bipolar disorder]]: in a 2010 symposium [[John C. Tibbetts]] quotes the psychiatrist Peter F. Ostwald: "Did the man have diabetes, did he have liver disease? We don't know. Did he have an infection? Did he have tuberculosis? We don't know. These conditions could be remedied today. We could take X-rays of the chest, we could do a test for syphilis, we could treat those conditions with antibiotics. A bipolar affective disorder is eminently treatable today".<ref>Tibbetts, pp. 388–389</ref>|group=n}}

==Works==
{{see also|List of compositions by Robert Schumann}}
{{listen
| header   = [[Kreisleriana]], Op. 16 (1838)
| filename    = Robert Schumann Kreisleriana Op. 16 N3 Giorgi Latsabidze.ogg
| title       = N8. Schnell und spielend
| description = [[Giorgi Latso]], piano
| format      = [[Ogg]]
| image=none}}
''[[Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians]]'' (2001) begins its entry on Schumann: "[G]reat German composer of surpassing imaginative power whose music expressed the deepest spirit of the [[Romantic music|Romantic era]]", and concludes: "As both man and musician, Schumann is recognized as the quintessential artist of the Romantic period in German music. He was a master of lyric expression and dramatic power, perhaps best revealed in his outstanding piano music and songs&nbsp;..."<ref name=baker>Slonimsky and Kuhn, p. 3234</ref><ref>Slonimsky and Kuhn, p. 3236</ref> Schumann believed the aesthetics of all the arts were identical. In his music he aimed at a conception of art in which the poetic was the main element. According to the musicologist [[Carl Dahlhaus]], for Schumann, "music was supposed to turn into a [[tone poem]], to rise above the realm of the trivial, of tonal mechanics, by means of its spirituality and soulfulness".<ref>Dahlhaus (1987), p. 214</ref>

In the late nineteenth century and most of the twentieth it was widely held that the music of Schumann's later years was less inspired than his earlier works (up to about the mid-1840s), either because of his declining health,<ref>Tibbetts, p. 413</ref> or because his increasingly orthodox approach to composition deprived his music of the Romantic spontaneity of the earlier works.<ref>Dahlhaus (1985), pp. 47–48</ref><ref>Jensen, p. 283</ref> The late-nineteenth century composer [[Felix Draeseke]] commented "Schumann started as a genius and ended as a talent".<ref>Batka, p. 77</ref> In the view of the composer and [[oboe]]ist [[Heinz Holliger]], "certain works of his early and middle period are praised to the skies, while on the other hand a pious veil of silence obscures the more sober, austere and concentrated works of the late period".<ref>Hiekel, p. 261</ref> More recently the later works have been viewed more favourably; Hall suggests that this is because they are now played more often in concert and in recording studios, and have "the beneficial effects of period performance practice as it has come to be applied to mid-19th-century music".<ref name=hall1126/>

===Solo piano===
{{listen
 | header       = [[Fantasie in C (Schumann)|Fantasie C major]], Op. 17 (1836, revised 1839)
 | filename     = Robert Schumann - Fantasie - Sempre Fantasticamente ed Appassionatamente.ogg
 | title        = 1. Sempre Fantasticamente ed Appassionatamente
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 | description2 =
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 | filename3    = Robert Schumann - Fantasie - Lento sostenuto Sempre piano.ogg
 | title3       = 3. Lento sostenuto Sempre piano
 | description3 =
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 | image        = none
}}{{See also|List of solo piano compositions by Robert Schumann}}{{listen
| header   = [[Arabeske (Schumann)|Arabeske in C major, Op. 18 (1839)]]
| filename    = Schumann-arabeske-andrea-valori.ogg
| title       = Arabeske (Schumann)
| description = Mario Andrea Valori, piano
| format      = [[Ogg]]
| image=none}}
Schumann's works in some other musical genres – particularly orchestral and operatic works – have had a mixed critical reception, both during his lifetime and since, but there is widespread agreement about the high quality of his solo piano music.<ref name=hall1125/> In his youth the familiar Austro-German tradition of [[Bach]], Mozart and [[Beethoven]] was temporarily eclipsed by a fashion for the flamboyant showpieces of composers such as [[Ignaz Moscheles|Moscheles]]. Schumann's first published work, the [[Abegg Variations|''Abegg'' Variations]], is in the latter style.<ref name=g762>Daverio and Sams, p. 762</ref> But he revered the earlier German masters, and in his three piano sonatas (composed between 1830 and 1836) and the [[Fantasie in C (Schumann)|Fantasie in C]] (1836) he showed his respect for the earlier Austro-German tradition.<ref>Solomon, pp. 41–42</ref> [[Absolute music]] such as those works is in the minority in his piano compositions, of which many are what Hall calls "character pieces with fanciful names".<ref name=hall1126/>

Schumann's most characteristic form in his piano music is the cycle of short, interrelated pieces, often [[program music|programmatic]], though seldom explicitly so. They include {{lang|de|[[Carnaval (Schumann)|Carnaval]], [[Fantasiestücke, Op. 12|Fantasiestücke]], [[Kreisleriana]], [[Kinderszenen]]}} and {{lang|de|[[Waldszenen]]}} (Wood Scenes). The critic [[J. A. Fuller Maitland]] wrote of the first of these, "Of all the pianoforte works [''Carnaval''] is perhaps the most popular; its wonderful animation and never-ending variety ensure the production of its full effect, and its great and various difficulties make it the best possible test of a pianist's skill and versatility".<ref>Fuller Maitland, p. 52</ref> Schumann continually inserted into his piano works veiled allusions to himself and others – particularly Clara – in the form of [[ciphers]] and musical quotations.<ref name=g768>Daverio and Sams, pp. 755 and 768</ref> His self-references include both the impetuous "Florestan" and the poetic "Eusebius" elements he identified in himself.<ref>Chissell, p. 88</ref>

Although some of his music is technically challenging for the pianist Schumann also wrote simpler pieces for young players, the best-known of which are his {{lang|de|[[Album for the Young|Album für die Jugend]]}} (Album for the Young, 1848) and Three Sonatas for Young People (1853).<ref name=hall1125/> He also wrote some undemanding music with an eye to commercial sales, including the {{lang|de|[[Blumenstück (Schumann)|Blumenstück]]}} (Flower Piece) and {{lang|de|[[Arabeske (Schumann)|Arabeske]]}} (both 1839), which he privately considered "feeble and intended for the ladies".<ref>Jensen, p. 170</ref>

===Songs===
{{See also|List of vocal compositions by Robert Schumann}}
The authors of ''[[The Record Guide]]'' describe Schumann as "one of the four supreme masters of the German {{lang|de|[[Lied]]}}", alongside Schubert, Brahms and [[Hugo Wolf]].<ref name=st686>Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, p. 686</ref> The pianist [[Gerald Moore]] wrote that "after the unparalleled Franz Schubert", Schumann shares the second place in the hierarchy of the {{lang|de|Lied}} with Wolf.<ref>Sams, p. vii</ref> ''[[Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'' classes Schumann as "the true heir of Schubert" in {{lang|de|Lieder}}.<ref>Böker-Heil, Norbert, David Fallows, John H. Baron, James Parsons, Eric Sams, Graham Johnson, and Paul Griffiths. [https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000016611 "Lied"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221007062201/https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000016611 |date=7 October 2022 }}, ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2001 {{subscription required}}</ref>

Schumann wrote more than 300 songs for voice and piano.<ref name=gj/> They are known for the quality of the texts he set: Hall comments that the composer's youthful appreciation of literature was constantly renewed in adult life.<ref name=hsong>Hall, pp. 1126–1127</ref> Although Schumann greatly admired [[Goethe]] and Schiller and set a few of their verses, his favoured poets for lyrics were the later Romantics such as [[Heinrich Heine|Heine]], [[Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff|Eichendorff]] and [[Eduard Mörike|Mörike]].<ref name=st686/>

Among the best-known of the songs are those in four cycles composed in 1840 – a year Schumann called his {{lang|de|Liederjahr}} (year of song).<ref>Daverio, p. 191</ref> These are {{lang|de|[[Dichterliebe]]}} (Poet's Love) comprising sixteen songs with words by Heine; {{lang|de|[[Frauen-Liebe und Leben#Schumann's setting|Frauenliebe und Leben]]}} (Woman's Love and Life), eight songs setting poems by [[Adelbert von Chamisso]]; and two sets simply titled {{lang|de|Liederkreis}} – German for "Song Cycle" – the [[Liederkreis, Op. 24 (Schumann)|Op. 24]] set, consisting of nine Heine settings and the [[Liederkreis, Op. 39 (Schumann)|Op. 39]] set of twelve settings of poems by Eichendorff.<ref>Daverio and Sams, pp. 797 and 799</ref> Also from 1840 is the set Schumann wrote as a wedding present to Clara, {{lang|de|[[Myrthen]]}} ([[Myrtus|Myrtles]] – traditionally part of a bride's wedding bouquet),<ref>Finson (2007), p. 21</ref> which the composer called a song cycle,  although comprising twenty-six songs with lyrics from ten different writers, this set is a less unified cycle than the others. In a study of Schumann's songs [[Eric Sams]] suggests that even here there is a unifying theme, namely the composer himself.<ref>Sams, p. 50</ref> 
[[File:Du Ring an meinem Finger.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.65|Opening of "{{lang|de|Du Ring an meinem Finger|italic=no}}" from {{lang|de|[[Frauen-Liebe und Leben|Frauenliebe und Leben]]}}|alt=Musical score with line for voice and two lines below for piano accompaniment]]

Although during the twentieth century it became common practice to perform these cycles as a whole, in Schumann's time and beyond it was usual to extract individual songs for performance in recitals. The first documented public performance of a complete Schumann song cycle was not until 1861, five years after the composer's death; the [[baritone]] [[Julius Stockhausen]] sang {{lang|de|Dichterliebe}} with Brahms at the piano.<ref name=r222>Reich p. 222</ref> Stockhausen also gave the first complete performances of {{lang|de|Frauenliebe und Leben}} and the Op. 24 {{lang|de|Liederkreis}}.<ref name=r222/>

After his {{lang|de|Liederjahr}} Schumann returned in earnest to writing songs after a break of several years. Hall describes the variety of the songs as immense, and comments that some of the later songs are entirely different in mood from the composer's earlier Romantic settings. Schumann's literary sensibilities led him to create in his songs an equal partnership between words and music unprecedented in the German {{lang|de|Lied}}.<ref name=hsong/> His affinity with the piano is heard in his accompaniments to his songs, notably in their preludes and postludes, the latter often summing up what has been heard in the song.<ref name=hsong/>

===Orchestral===
[[File:Rhenish-opening-score.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Opening of [[Symphony No. 3 (Schumann)|Schumann's Third Symphony]], the ''Rhenish''|alt=page of full orchestral score]]
Schumann acknowledged that he found orchestration a difficult art to master, and many analysts have criticised his orchestral writing.<ref>Daverio and Sams, pp. 789 and 792; and Burnham, pp. 152–153</ref>{{refn|Aspects of Schumann's orchestration for which he has been criticised include (i) string parts that are awkward to play – showing his lack of familiarity with string technique, (ii) a frequent failure to secure a satisfactory balance between melodic and harmonic lines, and, most seriously (iii) his tendency to have string, brass and wind sections playing together most of the time, giving what the composer and musicologist [[Adam Carse]] calls a "full-bodied but monotonously rich tint" to the colouring instead of letting the sections of the orchestra be heard on their own at suitable points;<ref>Carse, p. 264</ref> the analyst Scott Burnham refers to "an indistinct, muffled quality, in which bass lines can be difficult to discern".<ref>Burnham, p. 152</ref>|group=n}} Conductors including [[Gustav Mahler]], [[Max Reger]], [[Arturo Toscanini]], [[Otto Klemperer]] and [[George Szell]] have made changes to the instrumentation before conducting his orchestral music.<ref>Frank, p. 200; Heyworth, p. 36; Kapp, p. 239; and [https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/schumann-symphonies-manfred-overture "Schumann Symphonies; Manfred – Overture"], ''Gramophone'', February 1997 {{registration required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240516112713/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/schumann-symphonies-manfred-overture |date=16 May 2024 }}</ref> The music scholar [[Julius Harrison]] considers such alterations fruitless: "the essence of Schumann's warmly vibrant music resides in its forthright romantic appeal with all those personal traits, lovable characteristic and faults" that make up Schumann's artistic character.<ref>Harrison, p. 249</ref> Hall comments that Schumann's orchestration has subsequently been more highly regarded because of a trend towards playing the orchestral music with smaller forces in [[historically informed performance]].<ref name=hall1127/>

After the successful premiere in 1841 of [[Symphony No. 1 (Schumann)|the first]] of his four symphonies the {{lang|de|Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung}} described it as "well and fluently written&nbsp;... also, for the most part, knowledgeably, tastefully, and often quite successfully and effectively orchestrated",<ref>Finson (1989), p. 1</ref> although a later critic called it "inflated piano music with mainly routine orchestration".<ref>[[Gerald Abraham|Abraham, Gerald]], ''quoted'' in Burnham, p. 152</ref> Later in the year a second symphony was premiered and was less enthusiastically received. Schumann revised it ten years later and published it as his [[Symphony No. 4 (Schumann)|Fourth Symphony]]. Brahms preferred the original, more lightly scored version,<ref>Harrison, p. 247</ref> which is occasionally performed and has been recorded, but the revised 1851 score is more usually played.<ref>March, ''et al'', pp. 1139–1140</ref> The work now called the [[Symphony No. 2 (Schumann)|Second Symphony]] (1846) is structurally the most [[Classical period (music)|classical]] of the four and is influenced by Beethoven and Schubert.<ref>Harrison, pp. 252–253</ref> The [[Symphony No. 3 (Schumann)|Third Symphony]] (1851), known as the ''Rhenish'', is, unusually for a symphony of its day, in five movements, and is the composer's nearest approach to pictorial symphonic music, with movements depicting a solemn religious ceremony in [[Cologne Cathedral]] and outdoor merrymaking of Rhinelanders.<ref>Harrison, p. 255</ref>

Schumann experimented with unconventional symphonic forms in 1841 in his [[Overture, Scherzo and Finale]], Op. 52, sometimes described as "a symphony without a slow movement".<ref>Burnham, p. 157; and Abraham, p. 53</ref> Its unorthodox structure may have made it less appealing and it is not often performed.<ref>Burnham, p. 158</ref> Schumann composed six overtures, three of them for theatrical performance, preceding [[Lord Byron|Byron]]'s ''[[Manfred (Schumann)|Manfred]]'' (1852), [[Goethe]]'s [[Scenes from Goethe's Faust|''Faust'']] (1853) and his own ''Genoveva''. The other three were stand-alone concert works inspired by Schiller's ''[[The Bride of Messina]]'', Shakespeare's ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]'' and Goethe's ''[[Hermann and Dorothea]]''.<ref>Burnham, pp. 163–164</ref>

The [[Piano Concerto (Schumann)|Piano Concerto]] (1845) quickly became and has remained one of the most popular Romantic piano concertos.<ref name=tomes/> In the mid-twentieth century, when the symphonies were less well regarded than they later became, the concerto was described in ''The Record Guide'' as "the one large-scale work of Schumann's which is by general consent an entire success".<ref>Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, p. 678</ref> The pianist Susan Tomes comments, "In the era of recording it has often been paired with [[Piano Concerto (Grieg)|Grieg's Piano Concerto]] (also in A minor) which clearly shows the influence of Schumann's".<ref name=tomes>Tomes, p. 126</ref> The first movement pitches against each other the forthright Florestan and dreamy Eusebius elements in Schumann's artistic nature – the vigorous opening bars succeeded by the wistful A minor theme that enters in the fourth bar.<ref name=tomes/> No other concerto or concertante work by Schumann has approached the popularity of the Piano Concerto, but the [[Konzertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra|Concert Piece for Four Horns and Orchestra]] (1849) and the [[Cello Concerto (Schumann)|Cello Concerto]] (1850) remain in the concert repertoire and are well represented on record.<ref>March ''et al'', pp. 1134, 1138 and 1140</ref> The late [[Violin Concerto (Schumann)|Violin Concerto]] (1853) is less often heard but has received several recordings.<ref>March ''et al'', p. 1137</ref>

===Chamber===
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Schumann composed a substantial quantity of chamber pieces, of which the best-known and most performed are the [[Piano Quintet (Schumann)|Piano Quintet in E{{music|flat}} major]], Op. 44, the [[Piano Quartet (Schumann)|Piano Quartet]] in the same key (both 1842) and three piano trios, the [[Piano Trio No. 1 (Schumann)|first]] and [[Piano Trio No. 2 (Schumann)|second]] from 1847 and the [[Piano Trio No. 3 (Schumann)|third]] from 1851. The Quintet was written for and dedicated to Clara Schumann. It is described by the musicologist [[Linda Correll Roesner]] as "a very 'public' and brilliant work that nonetheless manages to incorporate a private message" by quoting a theme composed by Clara.<ref name=lcr>Roesner, p. 133</ref> Schumann's writing for piano and [[string quartet]] – two violins, one viola and one cello – was in contrast with earlier piano quintets with different combinations of instruments, such as Schubert's ''[[Trout Quintet]]'' (1819). Schumann's ensemble became the template for later composers including Brahms, [[César Franck|Franck]], [[Gabriel Fauré|Fauré]], [[Dvořák]] and [[Elgar]].<ref>[https://imslp.org/wiki/List_of_Compositions_for_Piano_Quintet "List of Compositions for Piano Quintet"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240109221040/https://imslp.org/wiki/List_of_Compositions_for_Piano_Quintet |date=9 January 2024 }}, International Music Score Library Project. Retrieved 17 May 2024</ref> Roesner describes the Quartet as equally brilliant as the Quintet but also more intimate.<ref name=lcr/> Schumann composed a set of three string quartets (Op. 41, 1842). Dahlhaus comments that after this Schumann avoided writing for string quartet, finding Beethoven's achievements in that genre daunting.<ref>Dahlhaus (1989), p. 78</ref>

Among the later chamber works are the [[Violin Sonata No. 1 (Schumann)|Sonata in A minor for Piano and Violin]], Op. 105 – the first of three chamber pieces written in a two-month period of intense creativity in 1851 – followed by the Third Piano Trio and the [[Violin Sonata No. 2 (Schumann)|Sonata in D minor for Violin and Piano]], Op. 121.<ref>Roesner, p. 123</ref>

In addition to his chamber works for what were or were becoming standard combinations of instruments, Schumann wrote for some unusual groupings and was often flexible about which instruments a work called for: in his [[Adagio and Allegro for Horn and Piano|Adagio and Allegro]], Op. 70 the pianist may, according to the composer, be joined by either a horn, a violin or a cello, and in the [[Fantasiestücke, Op. 73]], the pianist may be duetting with a clarinet, violin or cello.<ref name=g794/> His Andante and Variations (1843) for two pianos, two cellos and a horn later became a piece for just the pianos.<ref name=g794>Daverio and Sams, p. 794</ref>

===Opera and choral===
[[File:Schumann-Genoveva-score.jpg|thumb|upright|Cover of ''[[Genoveva]]'' score|alt=front cover of musical score, with name of work, librettists, composer and publisher]]

''[[Genoveva]]'' was not a great success in Schumann's lifetime and has continued to be a rarity in the opera house. From its premiere onwards the work was criticised on the grounds that it is "an evening of {{lang|de|Lieder}} and nothing much else happens".<ref name=t308/> The conductor [[Nikolaus Harnoncourt]], who championed the work, blamed music critics for the low esteem in which the work is held. He maintained that they all approached the work with a preconceived idea of what an opera must be like, and finding that ''Genoveva'' did not match their preconceptions they condemned it out of hand.<ref>Cowan, Rob. [https://www.gramophone.co.uk/reviews/review?slug=schumann-genoveva "Schumann Genoveva"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240517100711/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/reviews/review?slug=schumann-genoveva |date=17 May 2024 }}, ''Gramophone'', January 1998 {{registration required}}</ref>  In Harnoncourt's view it is a mistake to look for a dramatic plot in this opera:
{{blockindent|It is a look into the soul. Schumann didn't want anything naturalistic at all. To Schumann this seemed alien to opera. He wanted to find an opera in which the music had more to say.<ref name=harn>[https://www.harnoncourt.info/schumann-genoveva-2/ "Schumann: Genoveva"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240518105600/https://www.harnoncourt.info/schumann-genoveva-2/ |date=18 May 2024 }}, Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Retrieved 18 May 2024</ref>|}}
Harnoncourt's view of the lack of drama in the opera contrasts with that of [[Victoria Bond]], who conducted the work's first professional stage production in the US in 1987. She finds the work "full of high drama and supercharged emotion. In my opinion, it's very stageworthy, too. It's not at all static".<ref name=t308>Tibbetts, p. 308</ref>

Unlike the opera, Schumann's secular oratorio {{lang|de|[[Das Paradies und die Peri]]}} was an enormous success in his lifetime, although it has since been neglected. [[Tchaikovsky]] described it as a "divine work" and said he "knew nothing higher in all of music."<ref>Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского, том 1 (1997), p. 229–230.</ref> The conductor [[Simon Rattle|Sir Simon Rattle]] called it "The great masterpiece you've never heard, and there aren't many of those now.&nbsp;... In Schumann's life it was the most popular piece he ever wrote, it was performed endlessly. Every composer loved it. Wagner wrote how jealous he was that Schumann had done it".<ref name=lso>[https://lsolive.lso.co.uk/products/schumann-das-paradies "Schumann: Das Paradies und die Peri"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240318131449/https://lsolive.lso.co.uk/products/schumann-das-paradies |date=18 March 2024 }}, London Symphony Orchestra. Retrieved 18 May 2024</ref> Based on an episode from [[Thomas Moore]]'s epic poem ''[[Lalla Rookh]]'' it reflects the exotic, colourful tales from Persian mythology popular in the nineteenth century. In a letter to a friend in 1843 Schumann said, "at the moment I'm involved in a large project, the largest I've yet undertaken – it's not an opera – I believe it's well-nigh a new genre for the concert hall".<ref name=lso/>

{{lang|de|[[Scenes from Goethe's Faust|Szenen aus Goethes Faust]]}} (Scenes from Goethe's Faust), composed between 1844 and 1853, is another hybrid work, operatic in manner but written for concert performance and labelled an [[oratorio]] by the composer. The work was never given complete in Schumann's lifetime, although the third section was successfully performed in Dresden, Leipzig and Weimar in 1849 to mark the centenary of Goethe's birth. Jensen comments that its good reception is surprising as Schumann made no concessions to popular taste: "The music is not particularly tuneful&nbsp;... There are no arias for Faust or Gretchen in the grand manner".<ref name=j233>Jensen, p. 233</ref> The complete work was first given in 1862 in [[Cologne]], six years after Schumann's death.<ref name=j233/> Schumann's other works for voice and orchestra include a [[Requiem Mass]], described by the critic [[Ivan March]] as "long-neglected and under-prized".<ref name=march/> Like Mozart before him, Schumann was haunted by the conviction that the Mass was his own requiem.<ref name=march>March ''et al'', p. 1150</ref>

==Recordings==
All of Schumann's major works and most of the minor ones have been recorded.<ref name=march1>March ''et al'', pp. 1133–1150</ref><ref>Kapp, pp. 242 and 247</ref> From the 1920s his music has had a prominent place in the catalogues. In the 1920s [[Hans Pfitzner]] recorded the symphonies, and other early recordings were conducted by [[Georges Enescu]] and Toscanini.<ref>[https://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/login "Robert Schumann"], Naxos Music Library. Retrieved 17 May 2024 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240520173541/https://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/login |date=20 May 2024 }}</ref>  Large-scale performances with modern symphony orchestras have been recorded under conductors including [[Herbert von Karajan]], [[Wolfgang Sawallisch]] and [[Rafael Kubelík]],<ref name=m1138>March ''et al'', pp. 1138–1139</ref> and from the mid-1990s smaller ensembles such as the [[Orchestre des Champs-Élysées]] with [[Philippe Herreweghe]] and the [[Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique]] with [[John Eliot Gardiner]] have recorded [[Historically informed performance|historically informed]] readings of Schumann's orchestral music.<ref name=m1138/><ref>"Robert Schumann: Complete Symphonies", Harmonia Mundi, 2007 {{oclc|1005955733}}</ref>

The songs featured in the recorded repertoire from the early days of the gramophone, with performances by singers such as [[Elisabeth Schumann]] (no relation to the composer),<ref>Gammond, p. 191</ref> [[Friedrich Schorr]], [[Alexander Kipnis]] and [[Richard Tauber]], followed in a later generation by [[Elisabeth Schwarzkopf]] and [[Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau]].<ref>Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, pp. 688–689; and March ''et al'', p. 1148</ref> Although in 1955 the authors of ''The Record Guide'' expressed regret that so few of Schumann's songs were available on record,<ref>Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, p. 687</ref> by the early twenty-first century every song was on disc. A complete set was published in 2010 with the songs in chronological order of composition; the pianist [[Graham Johnson (musician)|Graham Johnson]] partnered a range of singers including [[Ian Bostridge]], [[Simon Keenlyside]], [[Felicity Lott]], [[Christopher Maltman]], [[Ann Murray]] and [[Christine Schäfer]].<ref name=gj>Johnson, pp. 5–24</ref> Pianists for other recordings of Schumann {{lang|de|Lieder}} have included Gerald Moore, [[Dalton Baldwin]], [[Erik Werba]], [[Jörg Demus]], [[Geoffrey Parsons (pianist)|Geoffrey Parsons]], and more recently [[Roger Vignoles]], [[Irwin Gage]] and [[Ulrich Eisenlohr]].<ref>March ''et al'', pp. 1147–1149; and [https://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/login "Robert Schumann"], Naxos Music Library. Retrieved 17 May 2024 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240520051042/https://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/login |date=20 May 2024 }}</ref>

Schumann's solo piano music has remained core repertoire for pianists; there have been numerous recordings of major works played by performers from [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]], [[Alfred Cortot]], [[Myra Hess]] and [[Walter Gieseking]] to [[Alfred Brendel]], [[Vladimir Ashkenazy]], [[Martha Argerich]], [[Stephen Hough]], [[Arcadi Volodos]] and [[Lang Lang]].<ref>March ''et al'', pp. 1144–1147; and [https://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/login "Robert Schumann"], Naxos Music Library. Retrieved 17 May 2024 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240520051042/https://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/login |date=20 May 2024 }}</ref> The chamber works are also well represented in the recording catalogues. In 2023 ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'' magazine singled out among recent issues recordings of the Piano Quintet by [[Leif Ove Andsnes]] and the [[Artemis Quartet]], String Quartets 1 and 3 by the [[Thomas Zehetmair|Zehetmair Quartet]] and the Piano Trios by Andsnes, [[Christian Tetzlaff]] and [[Tanja Tetzlaff]].<ref>[https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/robert-schumann-the-gramophone-award-winning-recordings "Robert Schumann: 12 Gramophone Award-winning Recordings"], ''Gramophone'', 15 May 2023 {{registration required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240517100712/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/robert-schumann-the-gramophone-award-winning-recordings |date=17 May 2024 }}</ref>

Schumann's only opera, ''Genoveva'', has been recorded. A 1996 complete set conducted by Harnoncourt with [[Ruth Ziesak]] in the title role followed earlier recordings under [[Gerd Albrecht]] and [[Kurt Masur]].<ref>[https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/schumann-genoveva "Schumann Genoveva"], ''Gramophone'', January 1998 {{registration required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240517100712/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/schumann-genoveva |date=17 May 2024 }}</ref> Recordings of {{lang|de|Das Paradies und die Peri}} include sets conducted by Gardiner<ref name="march"/> and Rattle.<ref name=lso/> Among the recordings of {{lang|de|Szenen aus Goethes Faust}} is one conducted by [[Benjamin Britten]] in 1972, with Fischer-Dieskau as Faust and [[Elizabeth Harwood]] as Gretchen.<ref>Stuart, Philip. [http://www.charm.rhul.ac.uk/discography/decca.html ''Decca Classical, 1929–2009''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150604115151/http://www.charm.rhul.ac.uk/discography/decca.html |date=4 June 2015 }}, AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music. Retrieved 30 May 2024</ref>

== Legacy ==
[[File:Robert-Schumann-Haus.JPG|thumb|upright|Schumann's piano in the museum in the house in which he was born in Zwickau|alt=Room in old house with grand piano in the centre]]
Schumann had considerable influence in the nineteenth century and beyond. Those he influenced included French composers such as [[Gabriel Fauré|Fauré]] and [[André Messager|Messager]], who made a joint pilgrimage to his tomb at Bonn in 1879,<ref>Nectoux, p. 277</ref> [[Georges Bizet|Bizet]], [[Charles-Marie Widor|Widor]], [[Debussy]] and [[Ravel]], along with the developers of [[Symbolism (arts)|symbolism]].<ref name=g792>Daverio and Sams, p. 792</ref> Cortot maintained that Schumann's {{lang|de|Kinderscenen}} inspired Bizet's {{lang|fr|[[Jeux d'enfants (Bizet)|Jeux d'enfants]]}}  (Children's Games, 1871), [[Emanuel Chabrier|Chabrier]]'s {{lang|fr|Pièces pittoresques}} (1881), Debussy's ''[[Children's Corner]]'' (1908) and Ravel's  {{lang|fr|[[Ma mère l'Oye]]}} (Mother Goose, 1908).<ref>Brody, p. 206</ref>

Elsewhere in Europe, [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]] called Schumann "my ideal",<ref>Moore, p. 97</ref> and Grieg's Piano Concerto is heavily influenced by Schumann's.<ref name=tomes/> Grieg wrote that Schumann's songs deserved to be recognised as "major contributions to world literature",<ref name=g792/> and Schumann was a major influence on the Russian school of composers, including [[Anton Rubinstein]] and [[Tchaikovsky]].<ref>Kapp, p. 237</ref> [[Tchaikovsky]], though critical of Schumann's orchestration, described him as a "composer of genius" and "the most striking exponent of the music of our time."<ref>Tchailkovsky, Pyotr Ilyich. [https://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/The_Second_Concert_of_the_Russian_Musical_Society._Mr_Slavyansky%27s_Russian_Concert "The Second Concert of the Russian Musical Society"], ''Contemporary Chronicle'', Tchaikovsky Research. Retrieved 7 January 2025</ref> 

Although Brahms said that all he had learned from Schumann was how to play chess,<ref name=d153/>{{refn|Dahlhaus regards Brahms's symphonies as in direct descent from Beethoven's, rather than drawing on Schumann.<ref name=d153>Dahlhaus (1989), p. 153</ref>|group=n}} the development of his writing was influenced by Schumann.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Serres |first1=Jean-Michel |title=Notes on Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) and His Works |website=www.jeanmichelserres.com |url=https://www.jeanmichelserres.com/2025/01/10/notes-on-johannes-brahms-and-his-works/#gsc.tab=0 |access-date=18 April 2025 |date=10 January 2025 |quote=Musical Influence: Schumann’s Romanticism and innovative forms influenced Brahms’s early works, though Brahms developed a more structured style later.}}</ref> Other composers in German-speaking countries whose music shows Schumann's influence include Mahler, [[Richard Strauss]] and [[Schoenberg]].<ref>Kapp, p. 245</ref> More recently, Schumann has been an important influence on the music of [[Wolfgang Rihm]], who has incorporated elements of Schumann's music into chamber works ({{lang|de|Fremde Szenen I–III}}, (Foreign Scenes, 1982–1984))<ref>Williams, p. 379</ref> and his opera {{lang|de|[[Jakob Lenz (opera)|Jakob Lenz]]}} (1977–1978).<ref>Williams, p. 380</ref>  Other twentieth and twenty-first century composers drawing on Schumann have included [[Mauricio Kagel]], [[Wilhelm Killmayer]], [[Henri Pousseur]] and [[Robin Holloway]].<ref>Williams, pp. 384–385</ref>

During the second half of the nineteenth century there developed what became known as the "[[War of the Romantics]]". Schumann's successors including Clara and Brahms, together with their supporters such as Joachim and the music critic [[Eduard Hanslick]], were seen as the proponents of music in the classic German tradition of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schumann. They were opposed by the adherents of Liszt and Wagner, including Draeseke, [[Hans von Bülow]] (for a time) and in his capacity as a music critic [[George Bernard Shaw|Bernard Shaw]], who were in favour of more extreme [[chromatic harmony|chromatic harmonies]] and explicit programmatic content.<ref>Anderson, Robert. [https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.25600 "Shaw, (George) Bernard"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2001 {{subscription required}} {{Cite web |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000025600 |title=Shaw, (George) Bernard |access-date=20 May 2024 |archive-date=20 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240520173634/https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000025600 |url-status= live }}; and Larkin, pp. 85–86, 88 and 91</ref> Wagner declared that the symphony was dead.<ref>Dahlhaus (1989), p. 265</ref> By the turn of the century critics such as Fuller Maitland and [[Henry Krehbiel]] were treating the output of both factions with equal regard.<ref>Obituary, J. A. Fuller Maitland, ''The Times'' 31 March 1936, p. 11</ref><ref>Krehbiel, p. 226</ref>

In 1991 the first volume of a complete edition of Schumann's works was published. A supposedly complete edition had been published between 1879 and 1887, edited by Clara and Brahms, but it was not complete: apart from inadvertent omissions the two editors deliberately suppressed some of Schumann's later music as they believed it had been affected by his declining mental health.<ref name=t414/> In the 1980s the [[University of Cologne]] set up a research department with the aim of locating all the composer's manuscripts. This led to the ''New Schumann Complete Edition'' which comprises 49 volumes and was completed in 2023.<ref name=t414>Tibbetts, pp. 413–414</ref><ref>[https://www.schott-music.com/en/series/robert-schumann-neue-ausgabe-saemtlicher-werke?product_list_limit=94&product_list_mode=grid "Robert Schumann: New Edition of Complete Works"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240520172748/https://www.schott-music.com/en/series/robert-schumann-neue-ausgabe-saemtlicher-werke?product_list_limit=94&product_list_mode=grid |date=20 May 2024 }}, Schott Music Group. Retrieved 20 May 2024</ref>

Schumann's birthplace in Zwickau is preserved as a museum in his honour. It hosts chamber concerts and is the focus of an annual festival commemorating him.<ref>[https://www.schumann-zwickau.de/ Robert Schumann House] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812010916/https://www.schumann-zwickau.de/ |date=12 August 2021 }}. Retrieved 16 May 2024</ref> The International Robert Schumann Competition for Piano and Voice was launched in Berlin in 1956, and later moved to Zwickau. Among the winners have been the pianists [[Dezső Ránki]], [[Yves Henry]] and [[Éric Le Sage]] and the singers [[Siegfried Lorenz (baritone)|Siegfried Lorenz]], [[Edith Wiens]] and [[Mauro Peter]].<ref>[https://www.schumann-zwickau.de/de/02/rswettbewerb.php "Internationaler Robert-Schumann-Wettbewerb"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220203212842/https://www.schumann-zwickau.de/de/02/rswettbewerb.php |date=3 February 2022 }}, Robert Schumann Haus, Zwickau (in German). Retrieved 21 May 2024</ref> In 2009 the [[Royal College of Music]] in London inaugurated the [[Joan Chissell]] Schumann Prize for singers and pianists.<ref>Warrack, John. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-100296 "Chissell, Joan Olive (1919–2007), Music Critic"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2011 {{ODNBsub}}</ref>

In 2005 the German federal government launched the online Schumann Network in collaboration with cultural institutions in Zwickau, Leipzig, Düsseldorf and Bonn. The site aims to offer the public the most comprehensive coverage of the life and works of Robert and Clara Schumann.<ref>[https://www.schumann-portal.de/startseite.html "Welcome to the Schumann Network!"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928140355/https://www.schumann-portal.de/startseite.html |date=28 September 2020 }}, Schumann Netzwerk. Retrieved 20 May 2024; and [https://www.bonn.de/bonn-erleben/kunst-kultur/clara-und-robert-schumann.php "Clara und Robert Schumann"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240528160516/https://www.bonn.de/bonn-erleben/kunst-kultur/clara-und-robert-schumann.php |date=28 May 2024 }}, City of Bonn (in German). Retrieved 28 May 2024</ref>

==Notes, references and sources==

===Notes===

{{Reflist|group=n}}

===References===

{{Reflist|25em}}

===Sources===
{{refbegin|25em}}
*{{cite book | last = Abraham | first = Gerald |authorlink=Gerald Abraham| title = A Hundred Years of Music| date = 1974| location = London| publisher = Duckworth| oclc = 3074351 | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last =Batka | first =Richard|authorlink=Richard Batka | title = Schumann | date =1891 | location =Leipzig | publisher =Reclam |language=German| url = https://archive.org/details/schumann00batk| oclc = 929462354 | ref = none}}
*{{cite journal|last=Brody|first=Elaine|title=Schumann's Legacy in France|journal=Studies in Romanticism|date=Summer 1974|volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=189–212|doi=10.2307/25599933 |jstor=25599933 | ref = none}}{{subscription required}}
*{{cite book | last =Burnham | first =Scott | chapter =Novel Symphonies and Dramatic Overtures | title =Cambridge Companion to Schumann | editor =Beate Perrey | date =2007 | location =Cambridge | publisher =Cambridge University Press | url =https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_y6q3/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access =registration | isbn =978-1-139-00154-0  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last=Carse | first= Adam|authorlink=Adam Carse| title=The History of Orchestration | orig-year=1964 | year=2012 | location=New York | publisher= Dover| isbn=978-0-48-621258-6 | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Chissell | first = Joan| authorlink=Joan Chissell| title = Schumann|edition=Fifth| date = 1989| location = London | publisher = Dent| isbn =978-0-46-012588-8  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last =Dahlhaus | first =Carl | authorlink =Carl Dahlhaus | title =Realism in Nineteenth-Century Music | date =1985 | location =Cambridge and New York | publisher =Cambridge University Press | url =https://archive.org/details/realisminninetee0000dahl/page/24/mode/2up | url-access =registration | isbn =978-0-52-126115-9  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last =Dahlhaus | first =Carl | title =Schoenberg and the New Music: Essays | date =1987 | location =Cambridge and New York | publisher =Cambridge University Press | url =https://archive.org/details/schoenbergnewmus0000dahl_u2r0/page/110/mode/2up | url-access =registration | isbn =978-0-52-133251-4  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Dahlhaus | first = Carl | title = Nineteenth-Century Music| date = 1989| location = Berkeley and Los Angeles| publisher = University of California Press| isbn =978-0-520-07644-0  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book| last = Daverio| first = John| authorlink = John Daverio| title = Robert Schumann: Herald of a "New Poetic Age"| date = 1997| location = New York and Oxford| publisher = Oxford University Press| url-access = registration| url = https://archive.org/details/robertschumannhe0000dave/page/n7/mode/| isbn = 978-0-19-509180-9 | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last =Daverio | first =John | author2 =[[Eric Sams]] | chapter =Schumann, Robert | editor =[[Stanley Sadie]] | title =The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians | volume =22 | date =2000 | location =London | publisher =Macmillan | isbn =978-1-56159-239-5 | url =https://archive.org/details/newgrovedictiona0022unse/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access =registration | oclc =905948998  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Dowley | first = Tim | title = Schumann: His Life and Times | date = 1982 | location = Neptune City | publisher = Paganiniana | url = https://archive.org/details/schumann00timd/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-0-87-666634-0  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Finson | first = Jon W. | authorlink = Jon W. Finson | title = Robert Schumann and the Study of Orchestral Composition | date = 1989 | location = Oxford | publisher = Clarendon Press | url = https://archive.org/details/robertschumannst00fins/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-0-19-313213-9  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Finson | first = Jon W. | title =Robert Schumann| date = 2007 | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | publisher = Harvard University Press | isbn = 978-0-67-402629-2| ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Frank | first = Mortimer H. | title = Arturo Toscanini: The NBC Years | date = 2002 | location = Portland | publisher = Amadeus Press | url = https://archive.org/details/arturotoscanini00mort/page/198/mode/2up | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-1-57-467069-1  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Fuller Maitland | first = J. A. | authorlink = J. A. Fuller Maitland | title = Schumann | date = 1884 | location = London | publisher = S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington | url = https://archive.org/details/cu31924022192979/page/n3/mode/2up | oclc = 9892895  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Gammond | first = Peter | authorlink = Peter Gammond | title = The Harmony Illustrated Encyclopedia of Classical Music | date = 1995 | location = London | publisher = Salamander | url = https://archive.org/details/harmonyillustrat0000gamm/page/190/mode/2up | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-0-86-101400-2  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Geck | first = Martin |authorlink=Martin Geck| title = Robert Schumann: The Life and Work of a Romantic Composer| date = 2013|orig-date=2010| location = Chicago | publisher = University of Chicago Press| isbn =978-0-22-628469-9  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book| last = Hall| first = George| chapter = Robert Schumann| title = Oxford Companion to Music| editor = Alison Latham| date = 2002| location = Oxford and New York| publisher = Oxford University Press| url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780198662129/page/1125/mode/2up| url-access = registration| isbn = 978-0-19-866212-9 | ref = none}}
* {{cite book |chapter=Robert Schumann |title=The Symphony: Haydn to Dvořák  |last=Harrison |first=Julius | authorlink=Julius Harrison|editor=Robert Simpson|editor-link=Robert Simpson (composer) |publisher=Pelican Books |location=Harmondsworth |year=1967 |oclc=221594461 | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last =Harewood | first =Earl of | authorlink=George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood|editor1=Earl of Harewood|editor2=[[Antony Peattie]]|chapter=Robert Schumann|title = The New Kobbé's Opera Book | edition=eleventh|date =2000 | location = London| publisher = Ebury Press| isbn =978-0-09-181410-6  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Heyworth | first = Peter | authorlink = Peter Heyworth | title = Conversations with Klemperer | location = London | publisher = Faber and Faber | edition = second | orig-date = 1973 | date = 1985 | isbn = 978-0-57113-561-5  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last =Hiekel | first = Jörn Peter|authorlink=Jörn Peter Hiekel | chapter = The Compositional Reception of Schumann's Music Since 1950| title =Cambridge Companion to Schumann | editor =Beate Perrey | date =2007 | location =Cambridge | publisher =Cambridge University Press | url =https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_y6q3/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access =registration | isbn =978-1-139-00154-0  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Jensen | first = Eric Frederick | title = Schumann | date = 2005 | location = Oxford | publisher = Oxford University Press | url = https://archive.org/details/schumann0000jens_l4b4/page/n3/mode/2up | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-0-19-983068-8  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Johnson| first = Graham|authorlink= Graham Johnson (musician)| title = Schumann: The Complete Songs| date = 2010| location = London| publisher = Hyperion| oclc = 680498810 | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Jones| first = J. Barrie|chapter= Piano Music for Concert Hall and Salon c. 1830–1900| title = Cambridge Companion to the Piano|editor= David Rowland| date = 1998| location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press| url =https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00rowl_0/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-1-139-00208-0 | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last =Kapp | first =Reinhard | authorlink =Reinhard Kapp | chapter =Schumann in His Time and Since | title =Cambridge Companion to Schumann | editor =Beate Perrey | date =2007 | location =Cambridge | publisher =Cambridge University Press | url =https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_y6q3/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access =registration | isbn =978-1-139-00154-0  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book| last = Krehbiel| first = Henry| authorlink = Henry Edward Krehbiel| title = The Pianoforte and its Music| date = 1911| location = New York| publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons| url = https://archive.org/details/pianoforteitsmus0000henr/page/n9/mode/2up?q=Brahms| url-access = registration| oclc = 1264303 | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Larkin | first = David |chapter= The 'War' of the Romantics| title = Liszt in Context | editor = Joanne Cormac |date = 2021| location = Cambridge | publisher =Cambridge University Press | isbn =978-1-10-842184-3  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Liliencron | first = Rochus von | authorlink = Rochus von Liliencron | title = Allgemeine deutsche Biographie | date = 1875 | language = German | location = Leipzig | publisher = Duncker & Humblot | url = https://archive.org/details/allgemeinedeutsc0033unse/page/n7/mode/2up | oclc = 311366924  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Maintz | first = Marie Luise | title = Franz Schubert in der Rezeption Robert Schumanns: Studien zur Ästhetik und Instrumentalmusik | date = 1995 | location = Kassel and New York | publisher = Bärenreiter | language = German | url = https://archive.org/details/franzschubertind0000main/page/n3/mode/2up | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-3-76-181244-0  | ref = none}}
* {{cite book|author1-last=March|author1-first=Ivan|author-link=Ivan March|author2=Edward Greenfield|author-link2=Edward Greenfield|author3=Robert Layton|author-link3=Robert Layton (musicologist)|author4= Paul Czajkowski|year=2008|title=The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2009|publisher=Penguin|location=London|isbn=978-0-141-03335-8 | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last =Marston | first =Philip | chapter =Schumann's Heroes | title =Cambridge Companion to Schumann | editor =Beate Perrey | date =2007 | location =Cambridge | publisher =Cambridge University Press | url =https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_y6q3/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access =registration | isbn =978-1-139-00154-0  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book |last=Moore |first=Jerrold Northrop|authorlink=Jerrold Northrop Moore|title=Edward Elgar: a Creative Life |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-19-315447-6 | ref = none}}
*{{cite book|last= Nectoux |first= Jean-Michel|year= 1991|authorlink=Jean-Michel Nectoux |title= Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life |location= Cambridge |publisher= Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-52-123524-2 | ref = none}}
*{{cite journal| last = Ostwald| first = Peter| title = Florestan, Eusebius, Clara, and Schumann's Right Hand| journal = 19th-Century Music| date =Summer 1980| volume = 4| issue = 1| pages = 17–31| doi = 10.2307/3519811| jstor = 3519811| url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/3519811| access-date = 17 May 2024| archive-date = 12 May 2024| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240512112318/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3519811| url-status = live | ref = none}}{{subscription required}}
*{{cite book | last =Perrey | first =Beate | chapter =Chronology | title =Cambridge Companion to Schumann | editor =Beate Perrey | date =2007 | location =Cambridge | publisher =Cambridge University Press | url =https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_y6q3/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access =registration | isbn =978-1-139-00154-0  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last =Perrey | first =Beate | chapter =Schumann's lives, and afterlives | title =Cambridge Companion to Schumann | editor =Beate Perrey | date =2007 | location =Cambridge | publisher =Cambridge University Press | url =https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_y6q3/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access =registration | isbn =978-1-139-00154-0  | ref = none}} 
*{{cite book | last =Rauchfleisch | first =Udo | title =Robert Schumann: Werk und Leben | date =1990 | language=German| location =Stuttgart | publisher =Kohlhammer | isbn =978-3-17-010945-2  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Reich | first = Nancy B.| authorlink=Nancy B. Reich|
 title = Clara Schumann: The Artist and the Woman | date = 1988| location = Ithaca | publisher = Cornell University Press | isbn = 978-0-80-149388-1 | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last =Roesner | first =Linda Correll | authorlink =Linda Correll Roesner | chapter =The Chamber Works | title =Cambridge Companion to Schumann | editor =Beate Perrey | date =2007 | location =Cambridge | publisher =Cambridge University Press | url =https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_y6q3/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access =registration | isbn =978-1-139-00154-0  | ref = none}}
* {{cite book | last = Sackville-West | first = Edward|author-link=Edward Sackville-West| author2 = [[Desmond Shawe-Taylor (music critic)|Desmond Shawe-Taylor]] | year = 1955 | title = The Record Guide | location = London | publisher = Collins | oclc = 500373060 | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Sams | first = Eric | title = The Songs of Robert Schumann | date = 1969 | location = London | publisher = Methuen | url = https://archive.org/details/songsofrobertsch0000unse/page/50/mode/2up | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-0-41-610390-8  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Schumann | first = Robert | editor = Konrad Wolff | editor-link = Konrad Wolff | title = On Music and Musicians | date = 1946 | location = New York | publisher = Norton | url = https://archive.org/details/onmusicmusicians0000unse_b6e8/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access = registration | oclc = 583002  | ref = none}} 
*{{cite book | editor1-last = Slonimsky | editor1-first = Nicolas | editor-link = Nicolas Slonimsky | editor2 = Laura Kuhn | title = Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Music and Musicians | volume = 5 | date = 2001 | location = New York | publisher = Schirmer | url = https://archive.org/details/bakersbiographic05slon/page/3234/mode/2up | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-0-02-865530-7  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book| last = Solomon| first = Yonty| authorlink = Yonty Solomon| chapter = Solo Piano Music (I): The Sonatas and Fantasie| title = Robert Schumann: The Man and His Music| editor = Alan Walker| date = 1972| location = New York| publisher = Barnes & Noble| isbn = 978-0-06-497367-0| url = https://archive.org/details/robertschumannma0000walk/mode/2up| url-access = registration| oclc = 1330614595 | ref = none}}
*{{cite book| last = Spitta| first = Philipp| authorlink = Philipp Spitta| chapter = Schumann, Robert| editor = George Grove| editor-link = George Grove| title = A Dictionary of Music and Musicians| date = 1879| location = London and New York| publisher = Macmillan| chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmusi03grov/page/384/mode/2up| chapter-url-access = registration| oclc = 1043255406 | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Taylor | first = Ronald | title = Robert Schumann: His Life and Work|orig-date=1982| date = 1985| location = London | publisher = Panther | isbn =978-0-58-605883-1  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Tibbetts | first = John C. | authorlink = John C. Tibbetts | title = Schumann: A Chorus of Voices | date = 2010 | location = New York | publisher = Amadeus Press | url = https://archive.org/details/schumannchorusof0000tibb/page/n5/mode/2up | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-1-57467-185-8  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Tomes | first = Susan | title = The Piano: A History in 100 Pieces| date = 2021| location = New Haven| publisher = Yale University Press| isbn = 978-0-30-026286-5 | ref = none}}
*{{cite book | last = Walker | first = Alan | authorlink = Alan Walker (musicologist) | title = Schumann | date = 1976 | location = London | publisher = Faber and Faber | url = https://archive.org/details/schumann0000walk/page/n7/mode/2up | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-0-57-110269-3  | ref = none}}
*{{cite book| last = Wasielewski| first = Wilhelm Joseph von| authorlink = Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski| title = Robert Schumann: Eine Biographie| date = 1869| location = Dresden| publisher = Kuntze| oclc = 492828443| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=necHAQAAMAAJ| language = German| access-date = 17 May 2024| archive-date = 20 May 2024| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240520172806/https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Robert_Schumann/necHAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0| url-status = live | ref = none}}
*{{cite journal| last = Williams| first = Alastair| title = Swaying with Schumann: Subjectivity and Tradition in Wolfgang Rihm's "Fremde Szenen" I-III and Related Scores| journal = Music and Letters| date = August 2006| volume = 87| issue = 3| pages = 379–397| doi = 10.1093/ml/gci234| jstor = 3876905| url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/3876905 | ref = none}}{{subscription required}}
*{{cite book| editor-last = Wolff| editor-first = Anita| title = Britannica Concise Encyclopedia| date = 2006| location = Chicago| publisher = Britannica| url = https://archive.org/details/016-britannica-concise-encyclopedia/page/n3/mode/2up| url-access = registration| isbn = 978-1-59339-492-9 | ref = none}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links|wikt=Schumann|v=no|s=Author:Robert Schumann}}
*[https://www.schumann-portal.de/startseite.html The Schumann Network] – German government-sponsored site
* {{BBC composer page|schumann|Schumann}}
* [https://www.schumann-zwickau.de/ The city of Robert Schumann]
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Robert Schumann |media=texts}} (texts)
* {{IMSLP|id=Schumann%2C_Robert|cname=Robert Schumann}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Robert Schumann |media=audio video}} (audio and video)
* {{Librivox author |id=16702}}

{{Robert Schumann}}
{{Romantic music}}
{{Romanticism}}
{{Portal bar|Classical music|Biography|Music}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schumann, Robert}}
[[Category:Robert Schumann| ]]
[[Category:1810 births]]
[[Category:1856 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century German classical composers]]
[[Category:19th-century German classical pianists]]
[[Category:19th-century German conductors (music)]]
[[Category:19th-century German journalists]]
[[Category:19th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig]]
[[Category:Classical music critics]]
[[Category:Composers for pedal piano]]
[[Category:Composers for piano]]
[[Category:Composers for pipe organ]]
[[Category:Deaths in psychiatric hospitals]]
[[Category:German magazine founders]]
[[Category:German male classical pianists]]
[[Category:German male conductors (music)]]
[[Category:German male journalists]]
[[Category:German male opera composers]]
[[Category:German male pianists]]
[[Category:German music critics]]
[[Category:German opera composers]]
[[Category:German Romantic composers]]
[[Category:German string quartet composers]]
[[Category:Leipzig University alumni]]
[[Category:Musicians from Düsseldorf]]
[[Category:Musicians from Leipzig]]
[[Category:Musicians from the Kingdom of Saxony]]
[[Category:Oratorio composers]]
[[Category:Lieder composers]]
[[Category:People from Zwickau]]
[[Category:Pupils of Friedrich Wieck]]
[[Category:Choral composers]]