Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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1839- SCHUMANN -1840 357
At the beginning of April 1839 Schumann
returned to his old life in Leipzig. He devoted
himself with new zest to the interests of the
journal, and delighted in once more being
associated with prominent and sympathetic
musicians. In the summer he paid a short
visit to Berlin, which pleased and interested
him from its contrast to Vienna.
Unfortunately Wieok's opinion as to the
match between Schumann and his daughter
remained unchanged, and his opposition to it
became even stronger and more firmly rooted.
Since persuasion was unavailing, Schumann
was forced to call in the assistance of the law,
and Wieck had to account for his refusal in
court. The case dragged on for a whole year,
but the final result was that Wieck's objections
to the marriage were pronounced to be trivial
and without foundation. A sensitive nature
such as Schumann's must have been deeply
pained by these difficulties, and the long-delayed
decision must have kept him in disastrous suspense.
His letters show signs of this. For
the rest, his outward circumstances had so
much improved, that he could easily afford to
make a home without the necessity of such a
round of work as he had attempted in Vienna.
'"We are young,' he writes on Feb. 19, 1840,
' and have hands, strength, and reputation ;
and I have a little property that brings in
500 thalers a year. The profits of the paper
amount to as much again, and I shall get well
paid for my compositions. Tell me now if
there can be real cause for fear.' One thing
alone made him pause for a time. His brideelect
was decorated with different titles of
honour from the courts at which she had played
in her concert-tours. He himself had, it is
true, been latterly made a member of several
musical societies, but that was not enough.
In the beginning of 1840 he executed a scheme
which he had cherished since 1838, and applied
to the university of Jena for the title of Doctor
of Philosophy. Several cases in which the
German universities had granted the doctor's
diploma to musicians had lately come under
Schumann's notice ; for instance the university
of Leipzig had given the honorary degree to
Marschner in 1836, and to Mendelssohn in
1836, and these may have suggested the idea
to him. Schumann received the desired diploma
on February 24, 1840. As he had wished, the
reason assigned for its bestowal is his wellknown
activity not only as a critical and
sesthetie writer, but as a creative musician.
At last, after a year of suspense, doubts, and
disagreements, the marriage of Robert Schumann
with Clara Wieck took place on Sept.
12, 1840, in the church of Schbnefeld, near
Leipzig.
The ' Davidsbiindlertanze,' previously mentioned,
bore on the title-page of the first edition
an old verse
In all und jeder Zeit
Verkniipft fiich Lust und Leid :
Bleibt tromm in Lust, und seyd
Beim Leid mit Muth bereit
And when we observe that the two first bars of
the first piece are borrowed from a composition
by Clara Wieck (op. 6, No. 5), we understand
the allusion. Schumann himself admits that
his compositions for the piano written during
the period of his courtship reveal much of his
personal experience and feelings, and his creative
work in 1840 is of a very striking character.
Up to this time, with the exception of the
Symphony in G minor, which has remained
unknown, he had written only for the piano ;
now he suddenly threw himself into vocal
composition, and the stream of his invention
rushed at once into this new channel with such
force that in that single year he wrote above
one hundred songs. Nor was it in number
alone, but in intrinsic value also, that in this
department the work of this year was the most
remarkable of all Schumann's life. It is not
improbable that his stay in Vienna had some
share in this sudden rush into song, and in
opening Schumann's mind to the charms of
pure melody. But still, when we look through
the words of his songs, it is clear that here
more than anywhere, love was the prompter
—love that had endured so long a struggle,
and at last attained the goal of its desires.
This is confirmed by the ' Myrthen ' (op. 25),
which he dedicated to the lady of his choice,
and the twelve songs from Eiickert's Liebesfruhling
(op. 37), which were written conjointly
by the two lovers. '
I am now writing
nothing but songs great and small,' he says to
a friend on Feb. 19, 1840 ; 'I can hardly tell
you how delightful it is to write for the voice
as compared with instrumental composition,
and what a stir and tumult I feel within me
when I sit down to it. I have brought forth
quite new things in this line.' With the close
of 1840 he felt that he had worked out the
vein of expression in the form of song with
pianoforte accompaniment, almost to perfection.
Some one expressed a hope that after such a,
beginning a promising future lay before him
as a song -writer, but Schumann answered, 'I
cannot venture to promise that I shall produce
anything further in the way of songs, and I
am satisfied with what I have done.' And he
was right in his firm opinion as to the peculiar
character of this form of music. 'In your
essay on song-writing,' he says to a colleague
in the Zeitschrift, ' it has somewhat distressed
me that you should have placed me in the
second rank. I do not ask to stand in the
first, but I think I have some pretensions to a
place of rny own.'
As far as anything human can be, the marriage
was perfectly happy. Besides their genius, both
husband and wife had simple domestic tastes,
and were strong enough to bear the admiration