Robert Schumann
Robert Alexander Schumann was born in the small riverside town of
Zwickau, Saxony, in 1810.The youngest of five children, was
brought up in comfortable, middle-class respectability. As a child, he
apparently exhibited no remarkable abilities.
At the age of six, Robert was sent to the local preparatory school, run
by Archdeacon Dohner. He had in fact already begun his education, with the young
tutor who gave lessons in exchange for board and lodging at the Schumann home.
At the age of seven Robert received his first piano lessons, from Johann
Gottfried Kuntzsch, organist at St. Mary's Church, and schoolmaster at the
Zwickau Lyceum. Kuntzsch was a kindly, conservative musician of ...
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in several concerts at the Zwickau Lyceum.
He once played Moscheles' Alexander March variations, which demanded
considerable dexterity.
At the public Lyceum Robert was active as both pianist and public
speaker. When he was fourteen, Kuntzsch decided that his pupil had progressed
beyond the point where he could give further help, and declined to teach him
anymore.
Shortly before leaving the Lyceum, Schumann collaborated with his
brother Karl in preparing a new edition of Forcellini's Latin dictionary,
Lexicon Totius Latinatinis.
Although now very busy as a composer, Robert yearned for affection. He
soon fell for seventeen-year-old Ernestine von Fricken, who came to Leipzig in
April 1834 to live in at the Wiecks', and to study with Clara's father. She had
grown up in the little town of Asch with her father, Baron von Fricken, and was
the illegitimate daughter of Countess Zedtwitz.
At the beginning of September 1835 Robert and Ernestine were secretly
engaged. Within days, Baron von ...
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and that ridgity should be avoided.
At about this time, too, Robert met both Chopin and Ignaz Moscheles at the
Wieck's. Throughout the autumn of 1835 Schumann was a regular visitor at the
Wieck's home, seeing much of Clara, who was now sixteen. He had been following
her career as a virtuoso closely since she was nine.when he was depressed, she
cheered him up. Their talent affection was now becoming increasingly evident.
Robert had now finished his first piano sonata, dedicated "The evening Clara
set out on an important concert tour, Robert came to wish her well, and kissed
her good-bye. They saw each other again in Zwickau, and kissed again. In the new
year Robert traveled to Dresden, ...
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"Robert Schumann." Essayworld.com. June 8, 2004. Accessed April 25, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Robert-Schumann/9126.
"Robert Schumann." Essayworld.com. June 8, 2004. Accessed April 25, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Robert-Schumann/9126.
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