Schumann, R.: Overtures

Description

Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) Overtures Robert Schumannmust seem in many ways typical of the age in which he lived, combining a number of theprincipal characteristics of Romanticism in his music and in his life. Born in Zwickau in1810, the son of a book seller, publisher and writer, he showed an early interest inliterature and later made a name for himself as a writer and editor of the Neue Zeitschrift f??r Musik, a journal launched in1834. After a period at university to satisfy the ambitions of his widowed mother, butstill showing the wide interests of a dilettante, Schumann was able to turn more fully tomusic under the tuition of Friedrich Wieck, a famous teacher, whose energies had beenlargely directed towards the training of his beloved daughter Clara, a pianist ofprodigious early talent.Schumann's ownambitions as a pianist were to be frustrated by a weakness of the fingers, the result, itis supposed, of mercury treatment for syphilis, which he perhaps had contracted from aservant-girl in Wieck's employment. Nevertheless he wrote a great deal of music for thepiano during the 1830s, much of it in the form of shorter genre pieces, often enough withsome extra-musical, literary or autobiographical association. The end of the decadebrought a prolonged quarrel with Wieck, who did his utmost, through the courts, to preventhis daughter from marrying Schumann, bringing in support evidence of the latter'sallegedly dissolute way of life. He might have considered, too, a certain mentalinstability, perhaps in part inherited, which brought periods of intense depression.In 1840 Schumannand Clara married, with the permission of the court. The year brought the composition of alarge number of songs and was followed by a period during which Clara encouraged herhusband to tackle larger forms of orchestral music, while both of them had to makeadjustments in their own lives to accommodate their differing professional requirementsand the birth of children. A relatively short period in Leipzig was followed, in 1844, byresidence in Dresden, where Wagner was now installed at the Court Theatre, his conversation causingSchumann to retire early to bed with a headache in 1850 the couple moved to D??sseldorf,where Schumann had been appointed director of music, a position the demands of which hewas unable to meet, a fact that contributed to his suicidal depression and finalbreak-down in 1854, leading to his death in the asylum at Endenich two years later Schumanncompleted his first symphony early in 1841 and it was performed on 31st March that year bythe Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Mendelssohn In April he set to work on anOverture, intended as part of an orchestral suite, to which he added a Scherzo and aFinale, to be performed in Leipzig on 6th December. The Finalewas later revised by the composer. The Overtureopens with a brief introduction, marked Andante con moto, based on a brief motif ofdramatic implication. An Allegro follows, with an initial theme th