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diff --git a/36472.txt b/36472.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..035b9f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/36472.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1165 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Day with Robert Schumann, by May Byron + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Day with Robert Schumann + +Author: May Byron + +Release Date: June 19, 2011 [EBook #36472] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY WITH ROBERT SCHUMANN *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, paksenarrion and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + [Illustration] + + + + + THE HIDALGO. + + My days I spend in courting, + With songs and hearts a-sporting, + Or weaponed for a fight! + + (_Der Hidalgo_). + + [Illustration] + + + A DAY WITH + ROBERT + SCHUMANN + BY MAY BYRON + + [Illustration] + + LONDON + HODDER & STOUGHTON + + + _In the same Series._ + _Mozart._ + _Beethoven._ + _Mendelssohn._ + _Schubert._ + _Chopin._ + _Wagner._ + _Gounod._ + _Tschaikovsky._ + + + + +A DAY WITH SCHUMANN. + + +It is an April morning in 1844, in the town of Leipzig,--calm, cool, and +fraught with exquisite promise of a prolific spring,--when the Herr +Professor Doctor Robert Schumann, rising before six o'clock as is his +wont, very quietly and noiselessly in his soft felt slippers, dresses +and goes downstairs. For he does not wish to disturb or incommode his +sleeping wife, whose dark eyes are still closed, or to awaken any of his +three little children. + +The tall, dignified, well-built man, with his pleasant, kindly +expression, and his air of mingled intellect and reverie, bears his +whole character written large upon him,--his transparent honesty, +unflagging industry, and generous, enthusiastic altruism. No touch of +self-seeking about him, no hint of ostentation or conceit: he is still +that same reticent and silent person, of whom it was said some years ago +by his friends, + + "Herr Schumann is a right good man, + He smokes tobacco as no one can: + A man of thirty, I suppose, + And short his hair, and short his nose." + +That, indeed, is the sum total of his outward appearance: as for the +inward man, it is not to be known save through his writings. Literature +and music are the only means of expression, of communication with +others, which are possessed by this modest, pensive, reserved maestro, +upon whom the sounding titles of Doctor and Professor sit so strangely. + +In the unparalleled fervour and romance of his compositions,--in the +passionate heart-opening of his letters,--in the sane, wholesome, racy +colloquialism of his critiques,--the real Robert Schumann is unfolded. +Otherwise he might remain a perennial enigma to his nearest and dearest: +for even in his own family circle, tenderly and dearly as he adores his +wife and children, his lips remain sealed of all that they might say: +and the fixed, unvarying quietude of his face but rarely reveals the +least suggestion of his deeper feelings. + +Yet, at the present time, were you to search the world around, you +should hardly find a happier man than this, in his own serene and +thoughtful way. For, in his own words, "I have an incomparable wife. +There is no happiness equal to that. If you could only take a peep at us +in our snug little artist home!" Clara Wieck, whom he has known from her +childhood, whom he struggled, and agonised, and fought for against fate, +for five long years of frustration and disappointment, is not only his +beloved wife and the mother of his little ones,--she is his +fellow-worker and co-artist, and literal helpmate in every department of +life. She has "filled his life with sunshine of love,"--and, "as a +woman," he declares, "she is a gift from heaven.... Think of perfection, +and I will agree to it!" But, beyond that, she has poured her beautiful +soul into every hungry cranny of his artistic sense. "For Clara's +untiring zeal and energy in her art, she really deserves love and +encouragement.... I will say no more of my happiness in possessing a +girl with whom I have grown to be one through art, intellectual +affinities, the regular intercourse of years, and the deepest and +holiest affection. My whole life is one joyous activity." + +The annals of art, indeed, hold no more lovely record of a union between +natural affinities. That of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning perhaps +approximates most closely to that of Robert and Clara Schumann. But +whereas in the former case both husband and wife were alike engaged upon +the same branch of literature,--poetry,--and a certain sense of sadness +was apt to embitter the success of the wife, because of the unpopularity +(in those days) of the husband,--Schumann is solely and pre-eminently a +composer, and Clara solely and absorbingly a pianist. No shadow of +artistic rivalry can fall upon their delight, nor darken their pleasure +in each other's achievements. Schumann's most impassioned and +characteristic productions have been definitely inspired by Clara, ever +since the days when, as a child of nine, she listened to his fantastic +fairy-tales, and her exquisite playing thrilled him with a desire to +think in music. And Clara, who has never made a mere show of her +marvellous executive skill, but has "consecrated it to the service of +true art alone,"--is never happier than when interpreting her husband's +works. + +It is, in short, necessary to deal with Schumann as a whole,--as a man +who has fulfilled the triple destiny for which Nature intended him,--as +individual, husband, and father,--before one can even approximately +understand this silent, studious dreamer, whose one ideal of happiness +is to sit at home and compose. + +Schumann considers this early morning hour the most precious of his day, +from a working standpoint. He seats himself at his desk, and places his +two treasures where they shall catch his eye conspicuously; for he +regards them more or less as charms and talismans to bring out the best +that is in him. They are, a steel pen which he found lying on +Beethoven's grave at Vienna, and the MS. score of Schubert's C-major +Symphony, which he obtained by a lucky chance. He regards these with a +mixture of sentiment and humorous toleration of his own mysticism: but +he cherishes them none the less, and often casts a reassuring glance in +their direction, as he covers sheet after sheet of paper with his +shockingly illegible handwriting. "Poets and pianists," says he with +resignation, "almost always write with a dog's paw. The printers will +make it out somehow." He is engaged upon his work in connection with the +_Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik_ (New Musical Times), which he originally +founded, and of which he has been some nine years Editor. During all +these years he has contributed to its pages those admirable reviews and +appreciations which are so utterly unlike anything heretofore attempted +in the realm of musical criticism. "There is no quality to be desired in +a musical critic that Schumann does not possess:" and in addition to +technical equipments of every kind, keen insight and an almost prophetic +quality in his predictions, he has the priceless gift too often denied +to the critic,--that of superabundant sympathy. His hands are ever +thrown out to welcome the young and timid genius, even as they are +clenched, so to speak, with threatening fists towards Philistinism, +charlatanism and mediocrity. He loves to praise rather than to blame, +and to detect the germs of coming greatness in some obscure, unsuspected +artist. He takes into his regard the personal equation wherever +possible, and does not separate the musician from the man: for, he says, +"the man and the musician in myself have always struggled to manifest +themselves simultaneously.... I speak with a certain diffidence of +works, of the precursors of which I know nothing. I like to know +something of the composer's school, his youthful aspirations, his +exemplars and even of the actions and circumstances of his life, and +what he has done hitherto." + +As his pen travels rapidly over the pages, the reason of his cramped and +crabbed handwriting is only too evident. Schumann's right hand is +crippled. In an evil hour of his youth, while yet he was consumed with +the ambition of a would-be virtuoso, he experimented, with artificial +restrictions, upon one of his right-hand fingers, intending thus to +strengthen the rest by assiduous practice ... with the result that he +lamed his hand for ever. This disastrous attempt deprived the world of a +good pianist, but conferred upon it a great composer: for it is possible +that the executive would have superseded the creative ability within +him. Nevertheless, he confesses that, "My lame hand makes me wretched +sometimes ... it would mean so much if I were able to play. What a +relief to give utterance to all the music surging within me! As it is, I +can barely play at all, but stumble along with my fingers all mixed up +together in a terrible way. It causes me great distress." + +Thus, you perceive, he is considerably debarred from expressing himself +in sounds, no less than in words: he must perforce retire more and more +within himself. The ease with which he writes is balanced by the +difficulty with which he speaks: and bitterly he has complained, "People +are often at a loss to understand me, and no wonder! I meet affectionate +advances with icy reserve, and often wound and repel those who wish to +help me.... It is not that I fail to appreciate the very smallest +attention, or to distinguish every subtle change in expression and +attitude: it is a fatal something in my words and manner which belies +me." + +He is, indeed, only paralleled by the _Lotus Flower_ of his own +delicious song,--shrinking from the daylight of publicity, and softly +unfolding to the gentle rays of love. + + The Lotus flower is pining + Under the sun's red light: + Slowly her head inclining, + She dreams and waits for the night. + + The moon, who is her lover, + Awakes her with his rays, + And bids her softly uncover + Her veiled and gentle gaze. + + Now glowing, gleaming, throbbing, + She looks all mutely above,-- + She is trembling, and sighing, and sobbing, + For love and the pangs of love. + + (_Heine._) + +And here she enters the room, this woman who is literally his _alter +ego_, and the small prattle of children is audible in the awakening +house. Madame Schumann is, in her husband's words, a "pale, not pretty, +but attractive" young woman of twenty-six, "with black eyes that speak +volumes,"--slender, vivacious, affectionate: the exact complement of +Robert in all respects. It is easy to perceive in them, at the first +glance, "two noble souls distinguished by fastidious purity of +character--two buoyant minds concentrated to the service of the same +art." The heavily-thoughtful face of the composer lights up with sudden +sunshine. + +"Come and sit beside me, my dear, sweet girl!" says he. "Hold your head +a little to the right, in the charming way you have, and let me talk to +you a little. Upon my word, Claerchen, you look younger than ever this +morning. You cannot be the mother of three. You cannot be the celebrated +pianist. You are just the queer, quaint little girl you were ten years +ago, with strong views of your own, beautiful eyes, and a weakness for +cherries!" This is a very long speech for Schumann, and his wife looks +at him with a shade of anxiety--such anxiety as she is never wholly +free from. For the words which she wrote in her diary on her wedding day +were more prophetic than even she may yet recognise: "My +responsibilities are heavy--very heavy; give me strength to fulfil them +as a good wife should. God has always been and will continue to be my +helper. I have always had perfect trust in Him, which I will ever +preserve." She, and she alone, is aware of all those mysterious clouds +of melancholia, those strange sounds of inexplicable music, which brood +at times above her darling husband--friend, comrade and lover in one. +She, and she only, can banish, as David did from Saul, the terrible +phases of irrational depression, and exorcise the evil power which is +always lurking ambushed in Schumann's outwardly happy life. + + [Illustration: THE LOTUS-FLOWER. + + The Lotus flower is pining + Under the sun's red light: + Slowly her head inclining, + She dreams and waits for the night. + + (_Die Lotos-Blume_).] + +"See," says he, with modest pride, "what a vast amount of work I have +completed this morning!" + +"You are a most diligent creature, Robert!" she tells him, "and yet I +cannot but wish sometimes, that this literary work were off your +mind--that you had more time to devote towards composing, which is your +true _metier_. I want all the world to understand how great a master +you are--I am jealous of every minute spent upon the _Neue +Zeitschrift_!" + +"Don't be too ambitious for me, Claerchen: I desire no better place than +a seat at the piano with you close by." + +"That does not satisfy me," says the impetuous little lady, "I want you +to be recognised and applauded by all men. When I am rendering your +divine compositions, I feel as though all the while I were declaring: +'Just hear this!--Just listen to that!--This is by Robert Schumann, the +greatest genius in Germany: it is an honour to me to be allowed to +perform such works.'" + +"My dear, those compositions are my poor, weak way of expressing my +thoughts about you! The battles which you have cost me, the joy you have +given me, are all reflected by my music. You are almost the sole +inspiration of my best--the Concerto, the Sonata, the _Davidsbuendler_ +dances, the _Kreisleriana_, the _Novelletten_. Why, dearest, in the +_Novelletten_ are my thoughts of you in every possible position and +circumstance and all your irresistibleness!... No one could have written +the _Novelletten_, unless he had gazed into such eyes and touched such +lips as yours. In short, another may do better work, but nothing just +like these." + +"That, indeed, I feel," replies Clara with a little sigh, "and the very +significance of their meaning, I believe, forbids my doing full justice +to their amazing difficulties. You need a pianist like Liszt, my Robert, +to interpret you to the best advantage." + +"I have every admiration for Liszt's wonderful playing, with its +diapason of all the moods between the extremes of fiery frenzy, and +utmost delicacy. But his world is not mine--not ours, Claerchen. Art, as +we know it--you when you play, I when I compose--has an intimate charm +that is worth far more to us than all Liszt's splendour and tinsel." + +They embrace with the warmth and sweetness of perfect mutual +comprehension: and she prevails upon him to descend from cloudy Olympian +editorial heights, so far as to refresh himself with a modest +_Fruehstueck_ or breakfast, and a brief gambol with the little ones--for +he has that devotion to tiny children characteristic of all great men. +Never, perhaps, has any composer so thoroughly entered into childish +griefs and fears and pleasures--the April shower and shine of +babyhood--than Schumann in his _Kinderscenen_. The consummate musician +who has surmounted every difficulty, acquainted himself with every +method of his art--the man who has mastered the forms of symphony, +chamber-music, pianoforte and vocal music to their farthest present +limits--here stands forth as the exponent of little innocent every-day +emotions. _By the Fireside_, _Bogeys_, _A Child's Petition_, _From +Foreign Lands_, _Blindman's Buff_, and so on, the simple titles run. +"They are descriptive enough, you see, and as easy as winking!" he has +told his wife. And they are the very breath of childhood,--they "dally +with the innocence of love, like the old age." Nobody could have +imagined them but a man who had eternal youth in his heart. "The +dissonances are as softly blended as if a child had actually poured +forth its pure soul." + +It may readily be imagined with what looks askance the composer of the +_Kinderscenen_ is favoured by his academic and hide-bound +contemporaries. "Romanticism run mad"--"modernism gone +crazy;"--"discordant innovations;"--"new-fangled nonsense"--there are +few terms too harsh for Herr Schumann; and sometimes he is +contemptuously ignored as beyond all possibility of classification. +Already sufficiently _outre_, in the opinion of all conventional +musicians, by his adoption of the cyclical form, rather than the +orthodox classical, for his abstract pianoforte music--"the whole +becoming organic by means of the intimate connection between the various +parts;"--already sufficiently outlandish, in the estimation of the +average conservative critic, by what is condemned as his _grotesquerie_ +and _bizarrerie_ of treatment: Schumann is not careful to answer his +opponents, or to defend himself from any charges of _lese-majeste_ +against the imperial art which he serves. That wide and genial tolerance +which he extends towards all new composers, he does not demand or even +expect for himself. Nevertheless, as he allows, "I used to be quite +indifferent to the amount of notice I received, but a wife and children +put a different complexion upon everything. It becomes imperative to +think of the future." And he is aware that his own personal +idiosyncrasies are the strongest obstacle in his way; for he is unable +to push or praise himself in the least, and the lordly egotism by dint +of which other composers win, or command, a hearing, has been entirely +omitted from the making of this dumb genius. He knows no professional +jealousy, he never speaks ill of a soul;--but then, one might say that +he hardly ever spoke at all. He is almost unknown in society,--partly +because he really has no interest whatever apart from music, partly +owing to his silent manner and retiring disposition. It is on record +that one day after Madame Schumann had been playing with tremendous +success at one of the smaller German courts, the Serene Highness who was +ruler there enquired of her with great affability, "whether her husband +were also musical?" And with his fellow-musicians he is so invincibly +taciturn that conversation is almost a farce. Even Wagner, whose powers +of loquacity are almost illimitable, resents being reduced to the +utterance of an absolute monologue. "When I came to see Schumann," he +grumbles, "I related to him my Parisian experiences, spoke of the state +of music in France, then of that in Germany, spoke of literature +and politics,--but he remained as good as dumb for nearly an hour. Now, +one cannot go on talking _quite_ alone. An impossible man!" + + [Illustration: THE KNIGHT AND THE LORELEI. + + The hour is late, the night is cold,-- + Who through the forest rides so bold? + The wood is wide,--thou art alone,-- + O lovely maid, be thou my own! + + (_Waldesgesprach_).] + +The fact is, that the "impossible man" dwells apart in a world of his +own, a world peopled by the best folk he has ever encountered either in +the flesh or the spirit, and a world where the austerest canons and +noblest aspirations of his great art are upheld on a very different +plane from that of Leipzig. He has the highest possible view of his +vocation and what it should entail. "To send light into the depths of +the human heart, that is the artistic calling," he has declared.... "The +artist is to choose for his companions those who can do something beyond +playing passably on one or two instruments--those who are whole men and +can understand Shakespeare and Jean Paul.... People say, 'It pleased,' +or 'It did not please,'--as if there were nothing higher than pleasing +the public!" ... A man with such notions as these, in the first half of +the nineteenth century, must of necessity live and move to a great +extent in an ideal atmosphere of his own: and Schumann, to do so the +more literally, has created his own company in that "spiritual and +romantic league," the _Davidsbund_, which exists only in his +imagination, but exercises considerable vigour none the less. + +The _Davidsbund_ is a mystical community of kindred souls, each +enlisted, with or without his knowledge, under the banner of "a resolve +to do battle in the cause of musical progress, against Philistinism in +every form." One can only vaguely compare it to the Pre-Raphaelite +Brotherhood in England. "Mozart was as much a member of it as Berlioz +now is," so declares its founder. Chopin, Julius Knorr, Schuncke, Carl +Banck and others, without any form of enrolment, are members of the +Davidite fraternity. New names and old are added from time to time, in +the friendly columns of the _Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik_, which is the +organ of the league: and especially Schumann himself appears under a +number of _noms de guerre_, representing the manifold facets of his +identity. As _Florestan_, he speaks for "the turbulent and impulsive +side of his nature, full of imaginative activity;" as _Eusebius_, he +expresses those gentle, thoughtful, sensitive qualities which sit so +lovably upon him. As _Meister Raro_, calmly logical, he stands between +both the above, and, "acting as arbitrator, sums up their opposing +criticisms," much as his father-in-law Friedrich Wieck the great +professor might do. To light-hearted, humorous, almost frivolous +critiques he signs himself _Jeanquirit_: and last, not least of the +"Davidites," he introduces Mendelssohn as _Meritis_, and embodies +varying traits of his beloved Clara as _Zilia_, _Chiarina_, and +_Cecilia_.... Call it feather-brained, fantastic, ridiculous, if you +will, the _Davidsbund_ has a very definite meaning, and fulfils a very +noble purpose. For, to use its inventor's own phrase, "In every age +there is a secret band of kindred spirits. Ye who are of this +fellowship, see that ye weld the circle firmly, that so the truth of Art +may shine ever more and more clearly, shedding joy and blessing far and +near." + +That remarkable power of expressing the personalities of his friends in +music, which has been Schumann's from youth, stands him in good stead +for the depicting of various "Davidites": he could show the peculiar +characteristics of any one of them in a few moments, on the pianoforte, +whereas years would not suffice him to give a verbal explanation. This +power of portrayal is noticeable in the very construction of his +songs,--such as, for instance, _The Two Grenadiers_, or _Freedom_, or +_The Hidalgo_, with its essentially Spanish arrogance. + + My days I spend in courting, + With songs and hearts a-sporting, + Or weaponed for a fight! + The fragrant darkness daring, + I gaily forth am faring, + To roam the streets by night, + For love or war preparing, + With bearing proud and light.... + The moon her light is flinging, + The powers of Love are springing, + And sombre passions burn ... + Or wounds or blossoms bringing, + To-morrow I'll return! + While o'er the horizon darkling, + The first faint star is sparkling, + All prudence cold I spurn,-- + Or wounds or blossoms bringing, + To-morrow I'll return! + +In the course of the morning Schumann, reluctantly leaving a mass of +unfinished MSS. upon his desk and pianoforte, betakes himself to his +duties at the Conservatorium, where he has been professor for about a +year. Conscientious and painstaking in tuition as in all else, he is not +naturally a good teacher. He seems to be devoid of the priceless power +of imparting verbal instruction, or of imparting the secret of the +system whereby a desired effect shall be attained. His habitual and +increasing melancholy reserve rises up like a barrier between himself +and his pupils: his reticence chills and bewilders them. His own musical +education has been an entirely personal matter, and not wrought out upon +the accepted scholastic lines. Moreover, intercourse with musical people +has always "appealed to Schumann far more, and with greater success, +than dry lessons in thorough bass and counterpoint." Hence, whilst he +appears almost unable to assist the novice in the beginning, or tadpole +stage, he is able to afford invaluable help and stimulating criticism to +those young artists with whom he may come in contact, and who adore him +for his sympathetic kindness. The violinist Joachim never forgot how, +as a boy of thirteen, he played the _Kreutzer_ sonata with his host at +the house of Mendelssohn. Lonely and silent all the while, Schumann +remained in a corner of the room; but subsequently, while Joachim was +sitting near him, he leaned forward and pointed to the stars, shining +down into the room through the open window. He patted the lad's knee +with gentle, friendly encouragement. "Do you think they know up +there," he queried, "that a little boy has been playing down here +with Mendelssohn?"--This question was the very essence of +Schumann,--romantic, mystical, full of tender dreams. + +His composition-lessons over, he conducts a part-singing class. +Orchestral conducting is abhorrent to him; it is "too defiant and +conspicuous a task." He cannot make his meaning clear by word of mouth: +and in gesture he is singularly deficient. But in part-singing he is an +excellent instructor, because he is seated at the piano and can indicate +there the suggestion which he fails to convey _viva-voce_. Even now, in +the wreck of his abilities as a pianist, it is possible to imagine what +he might have been: he can produce an extraordinary depth and +richness of tone, seeming to obtain some of his effects by unusual and +almost illegitimate means. His accentuation is very slight, and he uses +both pedals too frequently and too freely. Notwithstanding these +peculiarities, however, the same indefinable magic pervades his +piano-playing as his compositions. + + [Illustration: I WILL NOT CHIDE. + + I will not chide, although my heart should break, + Though all my hopes have died, lost Love, for thy dear sake-- + I will not chide. + + (_Ich grolle nicht_).] + +Nervous, excitable, uneasy, the master draws a breath of relief when the +class is dismissed. The pleasant Hebraic face of Mendelssohn nods in at +his door in passing. The two musicians are so busily engaged, that often +they hardly exchange a word for weeks together. Mendelssohn, the +recipient of many a generous and whole-hearted encomium from his devotee +Schumann, does not return this fraternal enthusiasm. To his +well-balanced mind, the silent moody man and his productions are too +wild, too eccentric, too uncanny. He regards them, at times, with a +species of grudging admiration: at others, he sides in heart, if not in +speech, with the current opinion of the town. "Opposition to all +artistic progress has always been a distinctive characteristic of +Leipzig musical society," and therefore horror-stricken hands are +uplifted at the editor of the _Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik_, his +heretical doctrines, and still more heretical deeds. The good people of +the Thomas-School Choral Society, the audience at the Gewandhaus +concerts, the subscribers to opposition musical papers, regard Herr +Schumann very much as the knight regarded the lady at the close of his +own magnificent _Waldesgesprach_. + + "The hour is late, the night is cold,-- + Who through the forest rides so bold? + The wood is wide,--thou art alone,-- + O lovely maid, be thou my own!" + + "Great is the craft and guile of men, + With grief my heart is rent in twain; + Far sounds the bugle to and fro,-- + Away! my name thou dost not know!" + + "Thy steed and thou so bright array'd, + So wondrous fair, thou lovely maid,-- + --I know thee now! God! let me fly! + Thou art the fairy Lorelei!" + + "Thou know'st me now--my towers do shine + Deep mirror'd in the dark blue Rhine,-- + The wind blows cold, the day is o'er,-- + Thou shalt escape me never more!" + +In the afternoon, Schumann, back at home, is occupied with creative +work. This, perhaps, is the most congenial part of his day: for, as it +has been said of him, he sees life musically, and whatever happens to +impress him takes the form of music. Steadily, deliberately, of set +purpose, and yet with the authentic fire of divine inspiration infusing +his smallest effort, he has conquered, one by one, in every field of +creative art. His finest pianoforte works were composed during the +wretched years of strain and stress whilst he was waiting to marry +Clara, held apart from her by her jealous and inexorable father, until +(again like the Brownings) the lovers took matters into their own hands +and were married in sudden and in secret. Three of his four great +symphonies saw the light in one year, 1841,--an achievement truly +colossal. Last year, 1843, he was studying and perfecting himself in +chamber music. His life, outwardly so uneventful, has been abnormally +prolific in brain-work: and that of no fatal fluency or shallow +meretriciousness, but conceived upon the highest possible plane. "The +more clearly we examine Schumann's ideas," says Liszt, "the more power +and life do we discover in them: and the more we study them, the more +are we amazed at the wealth and fertility which had before escaped us." +And his own theories of art are bound to evolve themselves thus:--for +"Only think," he has written, "what circumstances must be combined to +produce the beautiful in all its dignity and splendour. We need,--1st, +lofty deep purposes and ideality in a composition; 2nd, enthusiasm in +description; 3rd, masterly execution and harmony of action, closely +combined; 4th, innate desire for giving and receiving, a momentarily +favourable mood (on both sides, that of listener and performer); 5th, +the most fortunate conjunction of the relatives of time, as well as of +the more especial question of place and other accessories; 6th, sympathy +of impression, feelings and ideas--a reflection of artistic pleasure in +the eyes of others." + +And these definitions apply in all their detail to the outcome of +Schumann's happiest year of all,--the year after his union with +Clara,--the time when like a bird he burst into infinite ecstasy of +melody, and eclipsed himself with the number, variety and bewildering +beauty of his vocal compositions. That perfect balance between words and +music, that power of identifying himself with the poet whose words he +"sets," which pre-eminently differentiates Schumann from all other +musicians, was born of "hopes fulfilled and mutual love." There are no +songs which can compare with his, in passionate intensity and depth of +emotion. It may be that only the skilled and sympathetic musician can +interpret them with full effect: but the least expert auditor can be +poignantly affected by them. Especially is this the case with his +treatments of Heine,--the one poet _par excellence_ in whom he discovers +all he can desire of power, of pathos and of passion. "The lyrics _Die +Lotos-blume_ (The Lotus-flower) and _Du bist wie eine Blume_ (Thou art +like unto a flower) are among the most perfect things found in the +realms of song, in their enchanting truth and delicacy of sentiment"; +and "not one of all those subtle touches ... which make Heine's poetry +what it is, has been lost upon Schumann." _Ich grolle nicht_ (I will +not chide) is unapproachable in its white-heat of uttermost despair. + + I will not chide, although my heart should break, + Though all my hopes have died, lost Love, for thy dear sake-- + I will not chide. + + Though thou be bright bedeck'd with diamond-shine, + No ray of joy illumines that heart of thine, + I know full well! + + I will not chide, although my heart should break,-- + I saw it all in dreaming, + I saw the night that thro' thy soul is streaming, + I saw the snake that on thy heart doth feed, + I saw, my love, how sad thou art indeed,-- + I will not chide! + +_Die Beiden Grenadieren_ (The Two Grenadiers), with Schumann's favourite +_Marseillaise_ introduced in such masterly fashion at the end, +remains an unrivalled utterance of manly and patriotic grief. + + To France were returning two Grenadiers, + In Russia they long did languish, + And as they came to the German frontier, + They hung down their heads with anguish. + 'Twas then that they heard the story of woe, + That France was forlorn and forsaken, + Besieged and defeated, and crushed by the foe, + And the Emp'ror, their Emp'ror was taken! + + * * * * * + + "My cross of honour and crimson band + Lay on my heart right surely; + My musket place within my hand, + And gird my sword securely: + So will I lie there and harken, dumb,-- + Like sentry when hosts are camping,-- + Till I hear the roar of the cannon come, + And the chargers above are tramping! + + "Above me shall ride then my Emp'ror so brave, + While swords are flashing and clashing, + While sabres are fiercely contending,-- + In that hour of his need I will rise from the grave, + The cause of my Emp'ror defending!" + +And in his song-cycle _Frauen-lieben und Leben_ (Woman's Life and Love) +he has evinced "extraordinary depths of penetration into a side of human +character which men are generally supposed incapable of +understanding--the intensity and endurance of a pure woman's love." ... +Yet who should know it if he does not?... + +Towards evening, various folk drop in by ones and twos,--musical +acquaintances, it need hardly be said, for there is no other topic than +that of their art which they can discuss with Robert Schumann. The +discussion may possibly be on their part only, with a man like this, of +whom it is told that one day he went into a friend's house, whistling +softly _sotto voce_,--and, with nothing but a cheery nod, walked to the +piano and opened it,--played a few chords,--made a modulation, and +returned to the original key,--shut the piano, gave another courteous +nod, and--exit, in utter silence! He is, indeed, capable of sitting for +hours in the midst of a merry chattering company, completely lost in +thought, employed upon the evolution of some musical thought. But when +he _does_ speak, his words are all altruistically ardent, full of eager +praise and joyful appreciation for the great names of music, whose +excellencies he loves to point out. "The great masters, it is to them I +go," he avows with the humility of a child,--"to Gluck the simple, to +Haendel the complicated, and to Bach the most complicated of all." His +admiration of "John Sebastian" is boundless. "I always flee to Bach, and +he gives me fresh strength and desire for life and work.... The profound +combinations, the poetry and humour of the new school of music +principally emanate from Bach." + + + [Illustration: THE TWO GRENADIERS. + + To France were returning two Grenadiers, + In Russia they long did languish, + And as they came to the German frontier, + They hung down their heads with anguish. + + (_Die Beiden Grenadieren_).] + +Mozart is to him, as to all great artists, a veritable divinity. "Do not +put Beethoven," says he, "too soon into the hands of the young: steep +and strengthen them in the fresh animation of Mozart.... The music of +the first act of _Figaro_ I consider the most heavenly that Mozart ever +wrote." And with his customary absolute freedom from professional envy, +he terms Mendelssohn "the Mozart of the nineteenth century," and will +not even sit in the same room with anyone who disparages him. He has +upheld with noble enthusiasm the merits of such rising stars as Chopin, +Heller, Gade, Sterndale-Bennett, Berlioz, Franz, and Brahms. He has, it +may be said, only one _bete noir_, the blatant and flamboyant Meyerbeer. +Regarding Wagner, his opinion is in abeyance. "Wagner is a man of +education and spirit ... certainly a clever fellow, full of crazy ideas, +and audacious to a degree.... Yet he cannot write or think of four +consecutive lines of beautiful, hardly of good, music." So Schumann has +delivered himself at one time; but he is ready to revoke this judgment, +and to declare, "I must take back one or two things I said after reading +the score of _Tannhaeuser_; it makes quite a different effect on the +stage. Much of it impressed me deeply." + +When his guests depart, Schumann accompanies them a little way, that he +may, according to his invariable custom, spend an hour or so of the +evening at Popper's Restaurant. There, should his friend Verhulst +be present, he enjoys what is for him a free and animated +conversation--otherwise, among the chink of glasses and clank of plates, +he remains aloof and meditative. + +Evening darkens slowly into the calm spring night,--that +_Fruehlingsnacht_ which he has set forth in such exquisite music--as he +regains his home and rejoins his wife. She is practising softly lest the +children awaken, but rises with a smile of joy, and receives her husband +as though he had been a year away. Side by side, holding each others' +hands, they sit by the window and inhale the sweet April air. A sense of +beatitude encompasses them. + +"Hast thou done well to-day, Robert?" she enquires. + +"Well? Yes--very well: better than I hoped or expected. A soft voice +seemed to whisper to me whilst I worked, 'It is not in vain that thou +art writing.' ... But in such an hour as this, my Clara, I long more +deeply to give expression to my holiest thoughts. To apply his powers to +sacred music must always be the loftiest aim of an artist. In youth we +are all too firmly rooted to earth with its joys and sorrows: but with +advancing age, our branches extend higher. And so I hope the time for my +efforts in this direction is not far distant." + +"It is, then, at present, eluding you--the study of sacred music?" + +"It demands a power of treating the chorus--a knowledge of superb +_ensemble_ and massive effects to which I have not yet attained." And he +heaves a sigh as of one faced with mighty problems. For to this man, +"from whom the knowledge of no emotion in the individual heart is +withheld, it is a matter of extreme difficulty to give expression to ... +those feelings which affect the whole of mankind in common." + +"For you, who can realize human love so devoutly, there should be no +eventual hindrance to the expression of love towards God," says the +little dark-eyed woman, pressing his hand with warm devotion. + +"You yourself are the concrete expression of love towards God," the +composer murmurs, gazing down at her in the twilight--"you and your +music together. If I once said I loved you because of your goodness, it +is only half true. Everything is so harmoniously combined in your +nature, that I cannot think of you apart from your music--and so I love +you one with the other." A sudden spasm contracts his face as he +speaks--he turns his head wildly to and fro. + +"Robert!" she exclaims, "what is the matter? You shuddered--your hand +has gone cold and clammy. What ails you?" + +"What are those distant wind-instruments?" he asks in awestruck tones. +"What are they playing? Don't you hear? Such harmonies are too beautiful +for earth...." + +Clara strains her ears into the stillness. "There is nothing--nothing +audible whatever," she asseverates. "Robert, you are ill--you have +overworked your head--" + +"I have heard them before ... beautiful, beautiful!--Ah! now they are +silent!" and he passes his hand over his brow with a bewildered air. + +"Come, dearest, you are overwearied--come and sleep sweetly." Schumann +permits himself to be led away from the window by his anxious wife: +slowly he regains his composure. + +"My little treasure!" he whispers, clasping her tenderly, "what should I +be without your loving care of me? Claerchen ... Schumann ... I wonder +whether an angel imagined the names together?" + +"May that angel guard thee, Robert," says she, "and all that is thine +and mine, for ever." + +The open piano glistens whitely in the darkness: she closes it as they +leave the room. + + [Illustration] + + + _Printed by Percy Lund, Humphries & Co., Ltd. + Bradford and London._ _4880_ + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's notes: + + Punctuation has been normalized. + Page 10: "Barret" changed to "Barrett." + "Elizabeth Barrett Browning". + Page 21: "pevote" changed to "devote." + "... more time to devote towards composing". + Page 23: "fruehstueck" changed to "Fruehstueck." + "... a modest _Fruehstueck_ or breakfast". + Page 45: "blume" changed to "Blume." + "The lyrics _Die Lotos-blume_". + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Day with Robert Schumann, by May Byron + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DAY WITH ROBERT SCHUMANN *** + +***** This file should be named 36472.txt or 36472.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/4/7/36472/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, paksenarrion and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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