SCHUBERT 



5250 



SCHUMANN 



FRANZ SCHUBERT 



SCHUBERT, shoo'bert, FRANZ (1797-1828), a 

 German musician to whom the nations owe a 

 debt of gratitude, for he is the composer of 

 some of the world's greatest songs. His Erl- 

 king ; Hark, Hark the Lark; Wanderer, Serenade 

 and many others 

 are unsurpassed 

 in melody and 

 charm, and are 

 known to count- 

 less lovers of mu- 

 sic the world 

 over. Liszt char- 

 acterized Schu- 

 bert as the "most 

 poet'ic musician 

 that ever lived." 

 He was born at 

 Vienna of a musical family, and at home 

 learned the fundamentals of piano and violin 

 playing. His subsequent mastery of instru- 

 mental playing and* of composition, however, 

 came about largely through independent study 

 and association with the best musicians of his 

 time. He began to compose before he was 

 fourteen, and his famous Erlking and Wanderer 

 were created when he was only nineteen. Schu- 

 bert was long hampered by poverty and lack 

 of public recognition of his genius. He had to 

 devote much precious time to the drudgery of 

 teaching, and none of his compositions was pub- 

 lished until 1821. His immature death, when 

 he was but thirty-two, was the result of over- 

 work and a bitter struggle with poverty and 

 disappointment. 



It is a remarkable tribute to the creative 

 genius of the young composer that in spite of 

 these handicaps he left to posterity over 600 

 songs, nine symphonies, two of which the Un- 

 finished in B Minor and Symphony in C Major 

 are famous; numerous instrumental pieces 

 for piano and vioJin, masses, choruses, operas 

 and an oratorio. His songs alone would place 

 him among the immortal masters, but some of 

 his instrumental compositions are of imperish- 

 able fame. Schumann's well-known tribute to 

 Schubert is an excellent summary of his genius : 



He has strains for the most subtle thoughts and 

 feelings, nay even for the very events and condi- 

 tions of life ; and innumerable as are the shades 

 of human thought and aspiration, so various is 

 his music. Whatever his eye beholds, whatever 

 his hand touches, turns into music. 



Consult Duncan's Schubert; Mason's "Schu- 

 bert," in Romantic Composers. 



SCHUMANN, shoo'mahn, ROBERT (1810- 

 1856), a German musician who ranks with 



ROBERT SCHUMANN 



Schubert as a composer of songs, and with 

 Chopin and Liszt as a master of piano technic. 

 He was born at Zwickau, Saxony. Schumann's 

 mother wished him to become a lawyer, and 

 the boy registered as a law student at the Uni- 

 versity of Leip- 

 zig when he was 

 eighteen. His 

 musical prefer- 

 ences, however, 

 were too strong 

 to admit of his 

 adopting the le- 

 gal profession. 

 At the age of 

 eleven he had set 

 the 150th Psalm 

 to music, but he 

 seems to have 

 had no system- 

 atic instruction in music until he settled in 

 Leipzig. There he became the pupil of Fried- 

 rich Wieck, whose daughter Clara, herself a 

 skilful pianist, became his wife in 1840. Un- 

 der Wieck's instruction Schumann made rapid 

 progress, but his career as a pianist was cut 

 short by a permanent injury to one of his fin- 

 gers, the result of overzealous practice. He 

 had determined, however, to abandon the pro- 

 fession of law, and at the age of twenty-one 

 took up definitely his work as composer and 

 musical critic. 



In 1824 he joined with several other young 

 enthusiasts in founding a journal (Neue Zeit- 

 schrijt fur Musik) for the encouragement of 

 high ideals in music. Through this periodical 

 Schumann called the attention of the public to 

 the genius of Chopin, and gave loyal support 

 to such rising musicians as Schubert, Men- 

 delssohn and Berlioz. The period between 1834 

 and his marriage to Clara Wieck was rich in 

 the products of his own genius, for it gave to 

 the world his first symphony and some of his 

 finest songs. Between 1840 and 1844, when he 

 removed to Dresden, he composed the beautiful 

 Cantata Paradise and the Peri and a famous 

 quintet for the piano, and in the latter year 

 began his composition of the music for Goethe's 

 Faust. In 1850 the Schumanns removed to 

 Diisseldorf. During their sojourn here the com- 

 poser's mind and health broke down, and he 

 died in 1856 in a private asylum for the insane 

 near Bonn. 



As a song writer Schumann is regarded as a 

 disciple of Schubert, but he surpassed the lat- 

 ter in ability to make the music express the 



