Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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360 1844— SCHUMANN -1847
his work were no doubt highly advantageous
to the infant institution. Schumann had no
disciples, properly speaking, either in the Conservatorium
or as private pupils'. In a letter to
David from Dresden he incidentally mentions
Carl Ritter as having instruction from him, and
as having previously been a pupil of Hiller's
and he writes toHiller that he has brought young
Ritter on a little. But what the style of Schumann's
teaching may have been cannot be told ;
and a single exception only proves the rule.
The move to Dresden seems to have been
chiefly on account of Schumann's suffering
condition. His nervous affection rendered
change of scene absolutely necessary to divert
his thoughts. He had overworked himself into
a kind of surfeit of music, so much so that his
medical attendant forbade his continually hearing
it. In the musical world of Leipzig such
a prohibition could not be strictly obeyed, but
at Dresden it was quite different. 'Here,'
he writes to David on Nov. 25, 1844, 'one can
get back the old lost longing for music, there
is so little to hear ! It just suits my condition,
for I still suffer very much from my nerves, and
everything affects and exhausts me directly.'
Accordingly he at first lived in Dresden in the
strictest seclusion. A friend sought him out
there and found him so changed that he entertained
grave fears for his life. On several
occasions he tried sea-bathing, but it was long
before his health can be said to have radically
improved. In February 1846, after a slight improvement,
he again became very unwell, as he
did also in the summer of the following year. He
observed that he was unable to remember the
melodies that occurred to him, when composing ;
the effort of invention fatiguing his mind to
such a degree as to impair his memory. As
soon as a lasting improvement took place in
his health, he again devoted himself wholly
to composition. He was now attracted more
powerfully than before to complicated contrapuntal
forms. The ' Studies ' and ' Sketches
for the pedal-piano (opp. 56 and 58), the six
fugues on the name of ' Bach ' (op. 60) and the
the autumn of 1845, Schumann took
four piano fugues (op. 72), owe their existence
to this attraction. The greatest work of the
years 1845-46, however, was the C major Symphony
(op. 61), which Mendelssohn produced
at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Nov. 5, 1846.
Slight intercourse with a few congenial spirits
was now gradually resumed. Among those
whom he saw was the widow of C. M. v. Weber,
whose fine musical feeling was highly valued by
Schumann. The first year in Dresden was spent
with Ferdinand Hiller, who had been living
there since the winter of 1 844. Their intercourse
gradually grew into a lively and lasting intimacy.
"When Hiller was getting up subscription concerts
in
an active share in the undertaking. With
Richard Wagner, too, then Capellmeister at
Dresden, he was on friendly terms. He was
much interested in the opera of Tannhauser
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and heard it often, expressing his opinion of it
in terms of great though not unqualified praise.
But the natures of the two musicians differed too
widely to allow of any real sympathy between
them. Wagner was always lively, versatile, and
talkative, while Schumann's former silence and
reserve had increased since his illness, and even
intimate friends, like Mosoheles and Lipinski,
had to lament that conversation with him was
now scarcely possible.
At the end of Schumann's collected works
we find a Theaterbiichlevn (1847-50), in which
are given short notes of the impressions made
upon him by certain operas. From this we
learn that in 1847 he went comparatively often
to the theatre ; the reason being that at that
time he himself was composing an opera. He
had long cherished the idea. So early as
Sept. 1, 1842, he writes, 'Do you know what
is my morning and evening prayer as an artist ?
Gertnan Opera. There is a field for work.'
He concludes a critique of an opera by Heinrich
Esser in the number of the ZeUschrift for
September 1842 with these significant words
— 'It is high time that German composers
should give the lie to the reproach that has
long lain on them of having been so craven as
to leave the field in possession of the Italians
and French. But under this head there is a
word to be said to the German poets also.' In
1844 he composed a chorus and an aria for an
opera on Byron's Corsair. The work, however,
went no farther, and the two pieces still remain
unpublished. He also corresponded with his
friend Zuccabnaglio as to the subject for an
opera, which he wished to find ready on his
return from Russia ; and made notes on more
than twenty different subjects of all kinds,
periods, and nationalities ; but none of these
were found suitable, and circumstances led to
tlie abandonment of the project. At length,
in 1847, he decided on the legend of St.
Genevieve. The two versions of the story
contained in the tragedies of Tieck and Hebbel
(principally that of Hebbel) were to serve as
the basis of the text. The treatment of the
words he persuaded Robert Reinick, the poet,
who had been living in Dresden since 1844, to
undertake. Reinick, however, failed to satisfy
him, and Hebbel, who came to Dresden at the
end of July 1847, could not say that he thought
it a satisfactory text, though he declined to
assist in remedying the deficiencies and bringing
it into the desired form. This, however, was
from no lack of interest in Schumann himself.
On the contrary Hebbel always preserved the
highest esteem for him, and subsequently
dedicated to him his drama of Michel Angela,
accepting in return from Schumann the dedication
of his Nachtlied ' (op. 108). But it was
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repugnant to him to see his work mutilated in