![]() "The blood vessels were dilated, especially at the base of the brain, there was ossification at the base of the skull, and a considerable atrophy of the brain as a whole, which weighed almost seven ounces less than it should have done in a man of Schumann's age. Whatever it was, it was devastating, and full details are available from the report of Dr. The available evidence seems compatible with the theory that Schumann died of syphilis, but there often seems to be a reluctance to say so flatly-perhaps because it introduces a jarring note into one of the world's great love stories but also because his wife and numerous children showed no sign of the disease. Similarly, the disease that destroyed his life still is treated as a sort of mystery. Even the number of fingers incapacitated is uncertain. What were the causes of the strange (and probably to some degree self-induced) disability that incapacitated his right hand, making it impossible to become a virtuoso pianist? Apparently some kind of mechananism was involved, very likely one invented by Schumann to strengthen his fingers. In spite of the uncommonly thorough documentation of his life, there are traces of mystery that probably never will be resolved to everyone's satisfaction. His last years were a time of disintegration, physical and mental, clearly traceable today not only in letters, diaries and medical reports, but in the music he continued to compose. He tried to commit suicide before being confined-at his own imperious request-to an insane asylum, where his life ebbed away a few years later. His end was tragic-even more so because he could clearly see it coming. He was haunted by aspirations slightly beyond his reach-sometimes reinforced by Clara's encouragement-as in his unfulfilled ambition to compose a great opera and his imperfectly fulfilled ambitions as a symphonist. He had a way of concentrating on one kind of music to the exclusion of all others for prolonged periods-most happily in the amazing production of piano miniatures in the late 1830s and then the even more remarkable production of his "Lieder year," 1840, when he composed some of the world's greatest song cycles as well as many individual songs of extraordinary quality. For years, her own work was sacrificed to that of her husband she gave up her own ambitions as a composer to help Robert's career, and her skills as a performer, besides helping to support the large family, were used to keep his music in the public eye.Īt its happiest and most productive, Schumann's life had a feverish taint. Clara Wieck, who became Clara Schumann, was an extraordinary woman, a child prodigy who matured into one of the great pianists of her time, a notable composer and wife and mother (eight children!) who bore extraordinary difficulties with indomitable spirit. He won this struggle, and the prize was worth it. His youth was marked by a bitter battle-finally settled in court-to win the hand of the woman he loved against the determined and scurrilous opposition of her possessive father. ![]() He lived under a shadow of doom, in an environment of constant struggle. He is now, as he was then, a biographer's dream-clearly a genius, brilliant but uneven, highly literary both in his talents and in the shape taken by his life. Biographies of Robert Schumann began appearing in print in 1858, the year after his death.
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