Robert Schumann: The Life and Work of a Romantic Composer

by Martin Geck, Stewart Spencer (Translator)

Robert Schumann (1810–56) is one of the most important and representative composers of the Romantic era. Born in Zwickau, Germany, Schumann began piano instruction at age seven and immediately developed a passion for music. When a permanent injury to his hand prevented him from pursuing a career as a touring concert pianist, he turned his energies and talents to composing, writing hundreds of works for piano and voice, as well as four symphonies and an opera. Here acclaimed biographer Martin Geck tells the fascinating story of this multifaceted genius, set in the context of the political and social revolutions of his time.

 

The image of Schumann the man and the artist that emerges in Geck’s book is complex. Geck shows Schumann to be not only a major composer and music critic—he cofounded and wrote articles for the controversial Neue Zeitschrift für Musik­­ —but also a political activist, the father of eight children, and an addict of mind-altering drugs. Through hard work and determination bordering on the obsessive, Schumann was able to control his demons and channel the tensions that seethed within him into music that mixes the popular and esoteric, resulting in compositions that require the creative engagement of reader and listener.

 

The more we know about a composer, the more we hear his personality in his music, even if it is above all on the strength of his work that we love and admire him. Martin Geck’s book on Schumann is not just another rehashing of Schumann’s life and works, but an intelligent, personal interpretation of the composer as a musical, literary, and cultural personality.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Germany

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2010

About the author

Martin Geck ist ein deutscher Musikwissenschaftler.

Martin Geck wuchs in einem evangelischen Pfarrhaus in Recklinghausen auf. Sein Vater Wilhelm (1892–1989) war Mitglied der Bekennenden Kirche, Pfarrer der Gustav-Adolf-Kirche in Recklinghausen und von 1949 bis 1961 Superintendent des Kirchenkreises Recklinghausen. Martin Geck legte 1955 am Gymnasium Petrinum in Recklinghausen das Abitur ab. Anschließend studierte er Musikwissenschaft, Theologie und Philosophie in Münster, Berlin und Kiel. 1962 folgte die Promotion. 1966 wurde er Gründungsredakteur der Richard-Wagner-Gesamtausgabe. 1970 war er als Lektor in einem Schulbuchverlag tätig, nachfolgend als Autor zahlreicher Musiklehrwerke. 1974 wurde er Privatdozent, 1976 schließlich ordentlicher Professor für Musikwissenschaft an der Universität Dortmund, wo er 2001 emeritiert wurde.

Geck verfasste viele Arbeiten zur Geschichte der deutschen Musik im 17., 18. und 19. Jahrhundert; aber auch der Musikpädagogik und Musiktherapie galt sein Interesse. Derzeit ist Geck vor allem in der Bachforschung tätig und Initiator der Dortmunder Bach-Symposien.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're a classical musician interested in the Romantics, this is a must-read. Less on the biographical details than most biographies; less heavy-duty music theory than most musicology (I can take the theory, but only with some pain); but excellent on the relationship between Schumann and what was happening in literature. Geck does a wonderful job of connecting Schumann with the important themes and trends in German romanticism: the rejection of older forms, the obsession with fragments and transience, the attempt to capture fleeting moments of consciousness (which are destroyed by the attempt to capture them). Although Geck rarely uses the term "romantic irony" (if ever), this is romantic irony at its highest. Without this literary background, you're all too likely to say "this is the music of someone who was going to die in an asylum."

One quibble: as you'd expect, there's lots of poetry in this book. Fortunately, the translator includes the original German. Unfortunately, rather than translating the poetry himself, he uses awful translations that sound like they came from the late Victorians. All the directness and immediacy of the German is lost. ("Forsookest"? What German would ever say that?) My German isn't great, but if I couldn't read the German originals, I really wouldn't get the point of this book. This problem is obviously at its worst where Geck is discussing Schumann's Lieder, but it's an issue throughout.

As a pianist, I've always avoided Schumann, except for a few of the chestnuts. Assembling all the fragments into a whole was too much work, compared to playing Mozart or Beethoven (even late Beethoven). Now that I've read this book, I don't think I can avoid Schumann any more.

[Isabella Leake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oddly for a composer biography, this book is primarily concerned with neither Schumann's life nor his music. It's really more about his thought than anything else, attempting to make sense (and defense) of his Romanticism and to interpret Schumann's sometimes inscrutable compositions in light of his voluminous theoretical writings about art and music. (I suspect the original German subtitle—Mensch und Musiker der Romantik—does a better job capturing the focus of the book than the English subtitle—The Life and Work of a Romantic Composer—which sounds a more typical biography.)

Since I was looking for all the biographical details and musicological analysis, I was disappointed that this work didn't provide them. But the book did offer some alternative attractions, especially the author's resolve, which he maintains throughout the book, not to write Schumann's difficult-to-grasp ideas off as the ravings of a madman. Actually, Geck wants to persuade us, there is a lot of complexity and subtlety to Schumann's philosophical ideas, and understanding these ideas offers a key to his music, some of which is likewise difficult-to-grasp. I wasn't delighted by the cast of characters Geck brings in to help justify Schumann's thought—postmodern theorists like Barthes, Bakhtin, Adorno, Gadamer, Benjamin, Eco—a terrifying list I haven't encountered since grad school and whose work usually seems to obfuscate rather than illuminate (a judgment which, to make the situation even more maddening, would probably please those same writers). But happily the high theory only plagued a few early chapters, and then the book became more gripping—gripping enough to finish, even though I could already tell it wasn't going to be my be-all, end-all Schumann biography that I would purchase and keep forever on my shelves.

And the book did offer enough of a portrait of Schumann to drive my long-held admiration into love and devotion: for him, for Clara, and for Brahms. I have always felt a special interest in Schumann—partly because his Piano Quintet, op. 44 is my favorite piece—but I didn't know how literary a man he was (aside from writing poems, diaries, and thousands of letters, he founded and published his own magazine, writing hundreds of articles and reviews for it), how thoughtful an artist and friend he was, how devoted a husband and father. He was highly meticulous, idealistic, industrious. I found him quite a kindred soul. Of course I'm especially intrigued by the Schumanns' marriage and their artistic partnership (which is how they themselves termed it), partly because of its intrinsic interest, partly because of how it reflects my own experience.

This particular book's treatment of Schumann may have left much to be desired, but the subject did not disappoint, and I already have my "further reading" lined up: alternative Schumann biographies, editions of his letters and diaries and writings, a biography of Clara Schumann, reminiscences by their daughter, and a huge, enticing-looking biography of Brahms.

[Peter Galamaga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and often moving story of the life of a great composer. For those not well-versed or interested in the technical intricacies of music, there are several sections that can be skimmed over, but the story itself is a worthwhile one. I was left wanting to know more about his amazing wife, Clara, the mother of Schumann's 7 children, a respected composer and performer in her own right, who stayed loyal and loving to her husband even as he descended into madness and died at the young age of 46.
Knowing what we know now about mental illness, it is difficult to read of the man's struggles and how he might have been relieved of his pain if modern treatments were available.
I read this while playing his music in the background. 100 of his works are available for download form Amazon for just over $2.

[Rich Italiano · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was profoundly moved by this great biography. It was extremely in-depth and handled Schumann's life and music with all its complexities in a loving and sensitive manner. As a pianist and teacher myself, I have studied, taught, and/or performed much of his music. This book was a real revelation.

[Ben Houge · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a slog, though it does deliver plenty of historical context for Schumann and his work. I briefly considered trying to track down the original German to read, but very quickly I realized that the English version was already plenty dense. The English translations of poetic German texts are rendered in awkward and archaic rhymes which do no service to students of the German language.

Schumann's always been a bit of a blip in my musical consciousness; other than Dichterliebe (which I nonetheless at times in my life may have accidentally attributed to Schubert), I wasn't super familiar with much of his music. So it was nice to have this book commend certain pieces to my attention, particularly in the 9 "intermezzos" that pop up between chapters. Planning to go back and give some of these works, like Genoveva and Manfred, a closer listen. I've definitely come away with a heightened appreciation for Schumann, which was, of course, the hope.

A few weeks ago I lined up maybe the top 10 or so renditions of Schumann's 3rd symphony (actually his fourth and final), and decided I liked John Eliot Gardiner's the best, so I've been going with his recordings of the orchestral works, Martha Argerich and Evgeny Kissin for piano works, and the amazing Fritz Wunderlich for Dichterliebe.

[Klaus Metzger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Der Musiker und Komponist Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) erlebte seine Werke in einer unbeschreiblichen Leidenschaft, die aber auch derart verzehrte, dass er mit 46 Jahren im Privatsanatorium Endenich bei Bonn verstarb. Seine Gattin, Clara Schumann, überlebte ihn um 40 Jahre. Diese Biographie ist sehr interessant, da Leben und Werk nicht voneinander getrennt wurden. Nach dem ich die Clara-Biographie Clara: Künstlerin, Karrierefrau, Working Mom: Clara Schumanns kämpferisches Leben gelesen hatte, interessierte ich mich noch einmal für Robert Schumann. Die großen Probleme zu Beginn der Ehe (keine Konzerte für Clara) wurden nicht angesprochen.