Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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1854- SCHUMANN —1856 367
work. He completed the variation on which he Scfmften iiber Musik und Miisiker published
had been at work before the great catastrophe. in four volumes by Wigand in Leipzig, and it
These last efforts of his wearied genius remain was not long in reaching its second edition,
unpublished, but Brahms has used the theme for which appeared in two volumes in 1871. This
a set of 4 -hand variations which form one of his collection, however, is not nearly complete,
most beautiful and touching works (op. 23), and and the essays it includes have been much
which he has dedicated to Schumann's daughter altered. A full and correct edition of his
Julie.
writings is still a desideratum.
The last two years of Schumann's life were
spent in the private asylum of Dr. Richarz at
Endenich near Bonn. His mental disorder developed
into deep melancholy ; at times—as in
the spring of 1855—when for a while he seemed
It must not, however, be imagined that
better, his outward demeanour was almost the
same as before. He corresponded with his friends
and received visits, but gradually the pinions of
his soul drooped and fell, and he died in the arms
of his wife, July 29, 1856, only forty-six years
of age.
Soon after Schumann's death his music
achieved a popularity in Germany which will
bear comparison with that of the most favourite
of the older masters. When once the peculiarities
of his style grew familiar, it was realised
that these very peculiarities had their origin in
the deepest feelings of the nation. The desire
of giving outward expression to the love which
was felt towards him, soon asserted itself more
and more strongly. Schumann was buried at
Bonn, in the churchyard opposite the Sternenthor,
and it was resolved to erect a monument
to him there. On August 17, 18, and 19, 1873,
a Schumann festival took place at Bonn, consisting
entirely of the master's compositions.
The conducting was undertaken by Joachim
and Wasielewski, and among the performers
were Madame Schumann, who played her
husband's Pianoforte Concerto, and Stockhansen.
The festival was one of overwhelming interest,
owing to the sympathy taken in it, and the
manner in which that sympathy was displayed.
The proceeds of the concerts were devoted to a
monument to Schumann's memory, which was
executed by A. Donndorf of Stuttgart, erected
over the grave, and unveiled on May 2, 1880.
On this, occasion also a, concert took place,
consisting of compositions by Schumann, and
Brahms's Violin Concerto (op. 77), conducted
by himself, and played by Joachim.
Schumann^ with his activity both as an author
and as a composer, was a, new phenomenon in
German music. It is true that he had had a
predecessor in this respect in C. M. von Weber,
who also had a distinct gift and vocation for
authorship, and whose collected writings form a
literary monument possessing far more than a
merely personal interest. Still Weber was prevented
by circumstances and by his own natural
restlessness from fully developing his literary
talent, while Schumann benefited by the
restraint and discipline of his ten years of
editorship. In. 185.4. he had his Oesammelte
Schumann's aim as an author was to lay down
the principles on which he worked as a composer
; it is indeed hardly possible to contrast
the critical and the productive elements in his
works. His authorship and his musical compositions
were two distinct phases of a creative
nature, and if it was by composition that he
satisfied his purely musical craving it was by
writing that he gave utterance to his poetical
instincts. His essays are for the most part
rather rhapsodies on musical works or poetical
imagery lavished on musical subjects than
criticisms properly speaking; and thecaseswhere
he writes in the negative vein are very rare
exceptions. A high ideal floats before his mind,
and supported by the example of the greatest
masters of the art, his one aim is to introduce
a new and pregnant period of music in contrast
to the shallowness of his own time. Again and
again he speaks of this as the ' poetic phase '
and here we must guard against a misunderstanding.
The term pontic music is often used
in antithesis to pure music, to indicate a work
based on a combination of poetry and music
as, for instance, a song, which may be conceived
of either as a purely musical composition
founded on the union of definite feelings and
ideas, or as intended to express the preconceived
emotions and ideas of the poet. But it was not
anything of this kind that Schumann meant to
convey ; he simply regarded poetry as the
, antithesis to prose, just as enthusiasm is the
antithesis to sober dulness, the youthful rhapsodist
to the Philistine, the artist with his lofty
ideal to the mechanical artisan or the superficial
dilettante. His aim is to bring to birth a living
art, full of purpose and feeling, and he cannot
endure a mere skeleton of forms and phrases.
In this key he pitches his writings on music,
and their purport is always the same. He once
speaks of reviewers and critics under a quaint
simile— 'Music excites the nightingale to lovesongs,
the lap-dog to bark.' Nothing could
more accurately represent his own attitude in
writing on music than the first of these images.;
From his point of view a piece of music ought
to rouse in the true critic sympathetic feeling,
he ought to absorb and assimilate its contents,
and then echo them in words—Schumann was
in fact the singing nightingale. Though we
may not feel inclined to apply his other comparison
to every critic who does not follow in his
steps, we may at least say that the difference
between Schumann's style and that of the