Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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352 1835 SCHUMANN 1835
1836 : 'By the Davidsbund is figured an intelleotual
brotherhood which ramifies widely, and
I hope may bear golden fruit.' He brings in
the brethren, who are not actually himself,
from time to time in the critical discussions
and the way in which he contrives to make this
motley troop of romantic forms live and move
before the eyes of the reader is really quite
magical. He could
'
say with justice : We are
now living a romance the like of which has
perhaps never been written in any book.' We
meet with a Jonathan, who may perhaps
stand for Sohunke (on another occasion, however,
Schumann designates himself by this
name) ; a Fritz Friedrich probably meant for
Lyser ' the painter, a lover of music ; Serpentin
is Carl Banck, a clever composer of songs, who
at the outset was one of his most zealous and
meritorious fellow-workers ; Gottsehalk Wedel
is Anton von Zuooalmaglio, then living in
Warsaw, who had made a name by his collection
of German and foreign Volkslieder ;
Ohiara is
of course Clara Wieck, and Zilia (apparently
shortened from Cecilia) is probably the same.
Felix Mendelssohn appears under the name of
Felix Meritis, and the name Walt occurs once
(in 1836, Avs den BUchem der Davidsbiindler,
ii. Tanzlitteratur). It cannot be asserted that
any particular person was meant, still his direct
reference to Jean Paul's Flegeljahreia interesting.
There is also a certain Julius among the ' Davidsbiindler,'
probably Julius Knorr. The name
occurs in Schumann's first essay on music, Ein
'
opus ii.' This is not included in the Neue
ZeUsehrift, but appears in No. 49 of the
Allgemevne Musikalische Zeitung for 1831 (then
edited by Fink). The editor has prefixed a
note to the effect that ' it is by a young man,
a pupil of the latest school, who has given his
name,' and contrasts it with the anonymous
work of a reviewer of the old school discussing
the same piece of music. The contrast is indeed
striking, and the imaginative flights of
enthusiastic young genius look strange enough
among the old-world surroundings of the rest of
the paper.
Schumann placed this critique—which deals
with Chopin's variations on La ' ci darem '—at
the beginning of his collected writings, which
he published towards the close of his life
{GeSammelte Schriften, i vols. Georg Wigand,
Leipzig, 1854). It is a good example of the
tone which he adopted in the Neue ZeUsehrift.
His fellow-workers fell more or less into the
same key, not from servility, but because they
were all young men, and because the reaction
against the Philistine style of criticism was
just then in the air. This may be plainly
detected, for instance, in a critique written by
Wieck for the periodical called Ooecilia, on
Chopin's airs with variations. It is easy to
of
1 Author of the sketch of Beethoven engraved at p. 225 of vol. 1.
this Dictionary.
understand that the total novelty of the style
of writing of the Neue Zeitschrift should have
attracted attention to music ; the paper soon
obtained a comparatively large circulation;
and as, besides the charm of novelty and style,
it offered a variety of instructive and entertaining
matter, and discussed important subjects
earnestly and cleverly, the interest of the
public was kept up, and indeed constantly
increased, from year to year. The influence
exerted by Schumann on musical art in Germany
through the medium of this paper, cannot but
be regarded as very important.
It has been sometimes said that Schumann's
literary labours must have done him mischief,
by taking up time and energy which might
have been better employed in composition.
But this view seems to me untenable. Up to
the period at which we have now arrived,
Schumann, on his own statement, had merely
dreamed away his life at the piano. His
tendency to self- concentration, his shyness,
and his independent circumstances, placed him
in danger of never achieving that perfect
development of his powers which is possible
only by vigorous exercise. Now the editing of
a journal is an effectual remedy for dreaming ;
and when, at the beginning of 1835, he became
sole editor, however much he may have felt
the inexorable necessity of satisfying his readers
week after week, and of keeping his aim
constantly in view, it was no doubt a most
He
beneficial exercise for his will and energies.
was conscious of this, or he certainly would
not have clung to the paper with such affection
and persistency ; and it is a matter of fact that
the period of his happiest and most vigorous
creativeness coincides pretty nearly with that
during which he was engaged on the ZeUsehrift.
Hence, to suppose that his literary work was
any drawback to his artistic career is an error,
though it is true that as he gradually discovered
the inexhaustible fertility of his creative genius,
he sometimes complained that the details of an
editor's work were a burthen to him. Besides,
the paper was the medium by which Schumann
was first brought into contact and intercourse
with the most illustrious artists of his time
and living as he did apart from all the practically
musical circles of Leipzig, it was almost
the only link between himself and the contemporary
world.
Nor must we overlook the fact that certain
peculiar gifts of Schumann's found expression
in his writings on musical subjects, gifts which
would otherwise scarcely have found room for
display. His poetic talent was probably
neither rich enough nor strong enough for the
production of large independent poems ; but,
on the other hand, it was far too considerable
to be condemned to perpetual silence. In his
essays and critiques, which must be regarded
rather as poetic flights and sympathetic inter-