Schumann's Timeline
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By Patrick Imialek
1810 (birth) - Robert Schumann is born in Zwickau, Saxony on June 8, the fifth and last child in the family. His father August Schumann is a bookseller, publisher and novelist.
1824 (age 14) - Schumann writes an essay on the aesthetics of music and also contributes to a volume titled Portraits of Famous Men. As a schoolboy his major influences are Jean Paul, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lord Byron and the Greek playwrights.
1826 - August Schumann dies.
1828 (age 18) - Schumann graduates and, before beginning his law studies in Leipzig, tours Germany, meeting Heinrich Heine in Munich.
1829 (age 19) - Schumann continues his laws studies in Heidelberg.
1830 (age 20) - In the spring, Schumann is inspired after hearing Niccolo Paganini play in Frankfurt. He writes to his mother in July: "My whole life has been a struggle between Poetry and Prose, or call it Music and Law." He abandons his law studies and by December is back in Leipzig taking lessons from his old teacher, Friedrich Wieck. During his studies Schumann permanently injured his right hand. This injury forced him to abandon his dreams of becoming a concert pianist and instead focus on composition.
1831 (age 21) - Schumann's first critical piece of writing, an essay on Fryderyk Chopin's variations of a theme from Mozart's Don Giovanni, is published in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung. Later in the year Schumann composes Papillons and in a letter to his brothers writes: "read the last scene in Jean Paul's Flegelijahre as soon as possible, because the Papillons are intended as a musical representation of that masquerade.
1832 (age 22) - Schuman visits his relations in Zwickau and performs the first movement of his Symphony in G minor at a concert given by Friedrich Wieck's daughter Clara, who is 11 years old at the time. On this occasion, Robert's mother says to Clara, "You must marry my Robert one day." Schumann never did publish the G minor Symphony, but it has been played and recorded since its composition.
1833 (age 23) - Schumann is greatly affected by the deaths of his brother Julius and his sister-in-law Rosalie. He attempts to commit suicide, but fails.
1834 (age 24) - Schumann composes Carnaval (op. 9).
By spring, Schumann is feeling well enough to inaugurate Die Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik (New Journal in Music), first published on April 3, 2008. Most of Schumann's critical writings are published in the Journal. He supports the revival of interest in major composers of the past, such as Mozart, Beethoven and Weber. Regarding contemporary composers, Schumann promotes the work of Chopin and Berlioz, while criticizing the bombastic school of Liszt and Wagner.
In the summer Schumann becomes engaged to Ernestine von Fricken, a girl of 16 and the adopted daughter of a rich Bohemian.
1835 (age 25) - Schumann's blossoming love for 15-year-old Clara Wieck and his fear that Ernestine von Fricken is of illegitimate birth, meaning that she would have no dowry, convince him to break off the engagement. Schumann and Clara exchange a kiss in the spring and begin to see each other secretly in the evenings. Clara's father puts an end to the meetings when he finds out about them, and forbids the lovers to ever meet again in private.
While at the Wieck house in Leipzig, Schumann meets Felix Mendelssohn, whose work he appreciates.
1836 (age 26) - Schumann composes the Fantasia in C (op. 17).
1837 (age 27) - Undeterred by Friedrich Wieck's disapproval, Schumann formally asks him for the hand of his daughter Clara, which Wieck flatly refuses to give. Schumann publishes his Études symphoniques, a complex set of variations written in 1834-35.
1838 (age 28) - Schumann finishes composing Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood), one of his most famous piano works, and Kreisleriana, one of his greatest.
1839 (age 29) - Schumann composes the Faschingsschwank aus Wien (The Carnival Prank from Vienna).
1840 (age 30) - After a long and bitter legal battle with Friedrich Wieck, Schumann marries Clara on September 12, 1840, in Schönefeld.
Schumann writes 168 lieder (songs for piano and voice) and is awarded a doctoral degree by the University of Jena for his achievements.
1841 (age 31) - Schumann composes two of his four symphonies.
1842 (age 32) - Devoting himself to the composition of chamber music, Schumann composes, amongst other works, the piano quintet (op. 44), now one of his best known and most admired works.
1843 (age 33) - Schumann receives a professorship in the Conservatorium of Leipzig and composes the oratorio Paradise and the Peri.
1844 (age 34) - Schumann spends the first half of the year in Russia, where his his wife is a concert tour. On returning to Germany, Schumann abandoned is editorial work due to poor mental health. Schumann writes in his diaries that he is consatntly suffering from imagining that the note A is sounding in his ears.
1846 (age 36) - Recovering from his malady, Schumann travels to Vienna.
1847 (age 37) - Schumann travels to Prague and Berlin in the spring, and in the summer to Zwickau.
1848 (age 38) - Schumann finishes his only opera, Genoveva (op. 81).
1849 (age 39) - Schumann composes music to Byron's Manfred, amongst a number of other works, as this year he writes more than in any other.
The insurrection in Dresden forces Schumann to move to Kreischa, a village situated a few miles outside the city.
To celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Goethe's birth, the scenes from Schumann's Faust which have already been completed are performed in Dresden, Leipzig and Weimar with the help of Franz Liszt. Schumann completes the work in its entirety at the end of the year.
1850 (age 40) - Schumann succeeds Ferdinand Hiller as musical director at Düsseldorf, but shortly afterwards his contract is terminated due to his being a poor conductor.
1851 (age 41) - Schumann completes the Rhenish Symphony and revises what will be published as his Fourth Symphony.
1853 (age 43) - A 20-year-old Johannes Brahms is introduced to the Schumann family by Joseph Joachim. He impresses the Schumanns with his music and becomes eventually becomes a close family friend.
Schumann composes the overture to Faust, describing it as "one of the sturdiest of my creations".
1854 (age 44) - Schumann travels to Hannover, where he hears a performance of his Paradise and the Peri organized by Joachim and Brahms. Upon his return to Düsseldorf, his mental state once again begins to deteriorate.
He awakes one night and leaves his bed, telling Clara that Schubert and Mendelssohn sent him a theme — in fact, he is simply recalling his own violin concerto — which he must write down, and on this theme he writes five variations for the piano, his last work.
On February 27, Schumann attempts suicide by throwing himself from a bridge into the Rhine. Rescued by boatmen and taken home, he asks to be committed to an insane asylum, where he will remain until his death.
1856 (age 46) - On July 29, Schumann passes away and is buried at the Zentral Friedhof in Bonn.