Two symphonies, the first version of what would become the Piano Concerto, and more songs appeared in 1841 and the following year Schumann turned to chamber music, producing three beautiful string quartets, the ebullient Piano Quintet and the Piano Quartet. Themes of love gained or thwarted, marriage, anticipation, loneliness and loss constantly appear, his chosen poets including Goethe, Eichendorff, Byron, Ruckert and the bitter-edged Heine, the poet of Schumann’s arguably greatest song-cycle, Dichterliebe, Op. They featured in his critical writings before finding their way into music. Schumann’s two contrasting alter-egos in fictionalised form were dominant characters at this time: ‘Florestan’, the extrovert, passionate self and ‘Eusebius’, the introverted, lyrical counterpart. Works drawing on his favourite writers, Jean-Paul Richter ( Papillons) and ETA Hoffmann ( Kreisleriana) followed episodes of their books. 16 (1838) were the musical equivalent of novels.
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His unprecedented piano cycles, such as Papillons Op. Schumann’s predilection for composing for one medium at a time has often been seen as a sign of unhealthy obsessiveness but it could have been a means to deepen his understanding of a genre. His greatest battles were against depression. Schumann edited a musical journal, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, which he had founded in 1834, as well as composing prolifically and, on occasion, attempting to become a conductor. The pressures of managing two musical careers in a house with thin walls were difficult even before adding seven children. The pair took Wieck to court and won the right to marry, which they did the day before Clara’s 21st birthday in September 1840. Clara’s image returned constantly in Schumann’s compositions, as in the feverish G minor sonata. Wieck did all he could to keep them apart, to no avail. Herr Wieck can hardly be blamed for objecting: Schumann did not seem a suitable husband for a precious prodigy, with his reputation for dissolute living. But as Clara grew up, so did her relationship with Schumann.
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While Clara was still too young, Schumann was engaged to a girl named Ernestine von Fricken, whom he portrayed musically as ‘Estrella’ in Carnaval. Clara was on hand to become Schumann’s pianistic amanuensis. Either way, a performing career was not a viable proposition.
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Schumann soon suffered a hand injury – the result, some said, of a contraption he had built to encourage independence of the fingers, but according to others a side effect of mercury poisoning after treatment for syphilis. When he decided, despite early studies in law, to become a musician, he lodged with his piano teacher, Friederich Wieck, in Leipzig and there met Wieck’s small daughter, Clara, a child prodigy pianist. He was born in 1810 in Zwickau, the son of a publisher initially he was torn between writing and composing.