Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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1835
SCHUMANN -1839 353
pretations than as examples of incisive analysis,
his poetical gift found a natural outlet, and
literature is by so much the richer for them.
Nay, it is a not unreasonable speculation
whether, if his imaginative powers had not
found this vent they might not have formed a
disturbing and marring element in his musical
creations. Even as it is, poetical imagery plays
an important part in Schumann's music, though
without seriously overstepping the permissible
limits. This, too, we may safely say, that in
spite of his silent and self-contained nature,
there was in Schumann a vein of the genuine
agitator, in the best and noblest sense of the
word ; he was possessed by the conviction that
the development of German art, then in progress,
had not yet come to its final term, and that
a new phase of its existence was at hand.
Throughout his writings we find this view
beautifully and poetically expressed, as for
instance, ' Consciously or unconsciously a new
and as yet undeveloped school is being founded
on the basis of the Beethoven-Schubert romanticism,
a school which we may venture to
expect will mark a special epoch in the history
of art. Its destiny seems to be to usher in a
period which will nevertheless have many links
to connect it with the past century. ' Or again :
'
A rosy light is dawning in the sky ; whence
it Cometh I know not ; but in any case, O
youth, make for the light.'
To rouse fresh interest and make use of that
already existing for the advancement of this
new movement was one of his deepest instincts,
and this he largely accomplished Uy means of
his paper. From his pen we have articles on
almost all the most illustrious composers of his
generation— -Mendelssohn, Taubert, Chopin,
Hiller, Heller, Henselt, Sterndale Bennett,
Gade, Kirchner, and Franz, as well as Johannes
Brahms, undoubtedly the most remarkable
composer of the generation after Schumann.
On some he first threw the light of intelligent
and enthusiastic literary sympathy ; others he
was actually the first to introduce to the musical
world ; and even Berlioz, a Frenchman, he
eulogised boldly and successfully, recognising
in him a champion of the new idea. By degrees
he would naturally discern that he had thus
prepared the soil for the reception of his own
works. He felt himself in close affinity with
all these artists, and was more and more confirmed
in his conviction that he too had something
to say to the world that it had not heard
before. In the Zeitsehrift he must have been
aware that he controlled a power which would
serve to open a shorter route for his own musical
'
productions. If the publisher were not afraid
of the editor, the world would hear nothing of
me— perhaps to the world's advantage. And
yet the black heads of the printed notes are
very pleasant to behold.' 'To give up the
paper would involve the loss of all the reserve
VOL. IV
force which every artist ought to have if he is
to produce easily and freely.'
So he wrote in 1836 and 1837. But at the
same time we must emphatically contradict the
suggestion that Schumann used his paper for
selfish ends. His soul was too entirely noble
and his ideal aims too high to have any purpose
in view but the advancement of art ; and it
was only in so far as his own interests were
inseparable from those of his whole generation,
that he would ever have been capable of forwarding
the fortunes of his own works. The
question even whether, and in what manner,
his own works should be discussed in the Neue
Zeitsehrift he always treated with the utmost
tact. In one of his letters he clearly expresses
his principles on the subject as follows.: ' I am,
to speak frankly, too proud to attempt to influence
Hartel through Fink (editor of the
Allgemeine mus. Zeitung) ; and I hate, at all
times, any mode of instigating public opinion
by the artist himself. What is strong enough
works its own way.
His efforts for the good cause indeed went
beyond essay-writing and composing. Extracts
from a note -book published by Wasielewski
prove that he busied himself with a variety of
plans for musical undertakings of general utility.
Thus he wished to compile lives of Beethoven
and of Bach, with a critique of all their works,
and a biographical dictionary of living musicians,
on the same plan. He desired that the relations
of operatic composers and managers should be
regulated by law. He wished to establish an
agency for the publication of musical works, so
that composers might derive greater benefit from
their publications, and gave his mind to a plan
for founding a Musical Union in Saxony, with
Leipzig as its headquarters, to be the counterpart
of Schilling's Deutscher National Vereiu
fiir Musik.
In the first period of his editorship, before he
had got into the way of easily mastering his
day's labour, and when the regular round of
work had still the charm of novelty, it was of
course only now and then that he had leisure,
or felt in the mood, for composing. Two great
pianoforte works date from 1834 (the 'Carnaval,'
op. 9, and the Etudes ' Symphoniques,' op. 13),
but in 1 835 nothing was completed. After this,
however, Schumann's genius began again to
assert itself, and in the years 1836 to 1839 he
composed that splendid set of pianoforte works
of the highest excellence, on which a considerable
part of his fame rests ; viz. the great
Fantasia (op. 17), the F minor Sonata (op.
14), Fantasiestiicke (op. 12), Davidsbiindlertanze,
Novelletten, Kinderscenen, Kreisleriana,
Humoreske, Faschingsschwank, Eomanzen, and
others. The fount of his creative genius flowed
forth ever clearer and more abundantly. '
I used
to rack my brains for a long time,' writes he on
March 15, 1839, 'but now I scarcely ever
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