HERBERT F. PEYSER
Robert Schumann
Tone-Poet
Prophet and Critic
Written for and dedicated to
the
RADIO MEMBERS
of
THE PHILHARMONIC-SYMPHONY SOCIETY
of NEW YORK
Copyright 1948
THE PHILHARMONIC-SYMPHONY SOCIETY
of NEW YORK
113 West 57th Street
New York 19, N. Y.
A boyhood picture of Schumann.
FOREWORD
It is obviously impossible in the brief space of thepresent booklet to offer more than the sketchiest outlineof Robert Schumann’s short life but amazingly richachievement. Together with Haydn and Schubert he was,perhaps, the most completely lovable of the great masters.It is hard, moreover, to think of a composer morestrategically placed in his epoch or more perfectly timedin his coming. Tone poet, fantast, critic, visionary, prophet—hewas all of these! And he passed through everyphase, it seemed, of romantic experience. The great andeven the semi-great of a fabulous period of music werehis intimates—personages like Mendelssohn, Chopin,Liszt, Moscheles, Ferdinand David, Hiller, Joachim,Brahms. He won the woman he loved after a bitter struggleagainst a tyrannical father-in-law. He created muchof the world’s greatest piano music, many of its loveliestsongs, four great symphonies, superb chamber compositionsand a good deal else which, even today, is insufficientlyknown or valued. A poetic critic, if ever therewas one, he proclaimed to a world, still indifferent oruncertain, the greatness of a Chopin and a Brahms. Hisphysical and mental decline was a tragedy even morepoignant than Beethoven’s deafness or the madness ofHugo Wolf. His life story is, in point of fact, vastly morecomplex and many-sided than the following handful ofunpretentious and unoriginal pages suggest. These willhave served their purpose if they induce the reader tofamiliarize himself more fully with the colorful andendlessly romantic pattern of Schumann’s vivid life andgrand accomplishment.
H. F. P.
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Tone-Poet
Prophet and Critic
By
HERBERT F. PEYSER
At 9:30 on the evening of June 8, 1810, (the samebeing Saint Medard’s Day), the book publisher AugustSchumann and his wife Johanne Christiane, living inthe Haus am Markt No. 5, Zwickau, Saxony, becamethe parents of a boy whom they determined to callMedardus, in honor of the saint of the occasion. Reasonablywell to do if not precisely affluent they were pleasedat the idea of another addition to their little brood ofthree boys and a girl—Eduard, Karl, Julius and Emilie,respectively. Over night they seem to have thought betterof saddling the newcomer with such a name as Medardusand six days later the infant was carried to the localChurch of Saint Mary’s there to be christened RobertAlexander. In proper season the “Alexander” seems forall practical purposes to have vanished.
August Schumann had not always dwelt on easy street.Born in 1773 in the village of Ents