Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

—
1834- SCHUMANN —1835 351
domain of critical authorship, in order to try
their strength, must have been all the more
attractive to these hot-headed youths, since
most of them had had the advantage of a sound
scholarly education and knew how to handle
their pens. On the other hand, they felt that
they were not yet strong enough to guide the
public taste into new paths by their own musical
productions ; and of all the set Schumann was
the most sensible of this fact.
Such were the grounds on which, on April 3,
1834, the first number of the Neue Zeitschrift
fur Musik saw the light. Schumann himself
called it the organ of youth and movement.
As its motto he even chose this passage from
the prologue to Shakespeare's Henry VIII. :—
Only they
Who come to hear a merry bawdy play,
A noise of targets, or to see a fellow
In a long motley coat guarded with yellow,
Will be deceived
a passage which sufficiently expresses his intention
of contending against an empty flattering
style of criticism, and upholding the dignity of
art.
'
The day of reciprocal compliments, ' says
the preliminary notice, ' is gradually d^ing out,
and we must confess that we shall do nothing
towards reviving it. The critic who dares not
attack what is bad, is but a half-hearted
supporter of what is good.' The doings of
' the three arch-foes of art—those who have no
talent, those who have vulgar talent, and those
who, having real talent, write too much,' are not
'
to be left in peace ; their latest phase, the result
of a mere cultivation of executive techniqiie,'
it is to be opposed as inartistic. 'The older
time,' on the other hand, 'and the works it
produced, are to be recalled with insistence,
since it is only at these pure sources that new
beauties in art can be found.' Moreover, the
Zeitschrift is to assist in bringing in a new
' poetic ' period by its benevolent encouragement
of the higher efforts of young artists, and to
accelerate its advent. The editing was in the
hands of Robert Schumann, Friedrich Wieck,
Ludwig Schunke, and Julius Knorr.
Of all these Schunke alone was exclusively
a musician. That gifted pianist, who belonged
to a widely dispersed family of esteemed
musicians, came to Leipzig in 1833, and
became a great friend of Schumann's, but died
at the end of the following year at the early age
of twenty-four. The three other editors were
by education half musicians and haXf lUUrateurs,
even Julius Knorr (bom 1807) having studied
philology in Leipzig. Schumann co-operated
largely in Sohunke's contributions (signed with
the figure 3), for handling the pen was not easy
to him. Hartmann of Leipzig was at first the
publisher and proprietor of the Zeitschrift,
but at the beginning of 1835 it passed into
the hands of J. A. Barth of Leipzig, Schumann
becoming at the same time proprietor and sole
editor. He continued the undertaking under
these conditions till the end of June 1844 ; so
that his management of the paper extended over
a period of above ten years. On Jan. 1, 1845,
Franz Brendel became the editor, and after the
summer of 1844 Schumann never again wrote
for it, with the exception of a short article ' on
Johannes Brahms to be mentioned hereafter.
Schumann's own articles are sometimes signed
with a number—either 2 or some combination
with 2, such as 12, 22, etc. He also concealed
his identity under a variety of names—Florestan,
Eusebius, Earo, Jeanquirit. In his articles we
meet with frequentmention of the Davidsbiindler,
a league or society of artists or friends of art who
had views in common. This was purely imaginary,
a half- humorous, half-poetical fiction of
Schumann's, existing only in the brain of its
founder, who thought it well fitted to give
weight to the expression of various views of art,
which were occasionally put forth as its utterances.
The characters which most usually appear
are Florestan and Eusebius, two personages
in whom Schumann endeavoured to embody the
dual sides of his nature. The vehement, stormy,
rough element is represented by Florestan ; the
gentler and more poetic by Eusebius. These
two figures are obviously imitated from Vult
and Walt in Jean Paul's Flegeljahre ; indeed
Schumann's literary work throughout is strongly
coloured with the manner of Jean Paul, and
frequent reference is made to his writings. Now
and then, as moderator between these antagonistic
characters, who of course take opposite
views in criticism, Master Raro comes ' ' in. In
him Schumann has conceived a character such
as at one time he had himself dreamed of
becoming. Theexplanation of thename 'Davidsbiindler
'
is given at the beginning of a ' Shrove
Tuesday discourse ' by Florestan in the year
1835. 'The hosts of David are youths and
men destined to slay all the Philistines, musical
or other. ' In the college-slang of Germany the
'
Philistine ' is the non-student who is satisfied
to live on in the ordinary routine of every-day
life, or—which comes to the same thing in the
student's mind—the man of narrow, sober,
prosaic views, as contrasted with the high-flown
poetry and enthusiasm of the social life of a
German university. Thus, in the name of Idealism,
the 'Davidsbiindler 'wage war against boorish
mediocrity, and when Schumann regarded it
as the function of his paper to aid in bringing in
a new poetical phase ' ' in music he meant just
this. Though Schumann was himself the sole
reality inthe 'Davidsbiindlerschaft,' he indulged
his 'fancy by introducing personages of his
acquaintance whose agreement with his views
he was sure of. He quietly included all the
principal co-operators in \he Zeitschrift, and even
artists such as Berlioz, whom he did not know,
but in whom he felt an interest, and was thus
justified in writing to A. von Zuccalmaglio in
1 Neue Bahnen, Oct. 28, 1853.