by Martin Geck
She received Schumann’s last surviving letter in May 1855. After that date he was no longer willing or able to write, in spite of her entreaties that he might do so. In general, his mental reserves seem to have started to fail him during his second year at Endenich, although it must remain an open question to what extent this was due to his worsening illness or to his hospitalization. Wasielewski reports that by the summer of 1855 Schumann’s improvisations at the piano had become “unendurable.”24 And on April 25, 1856, Brahms wrote to his friend Joachim:
How he’s changed! He received me as joyfully and as cordially as ever, but it chilled me through and through—I couldn’t understand a word he said. We sat down, the situation grew increasingly painful for me, my eyes were brimming over, he kept talking, but I still didn’t understand a word. I looked down at what he was reading. It was an atlas, and he was busy copying out parts of it, but they were just childish scrawls, of course.25
On July 23, an alarmist telegram brought Clara to the clinic, but on the advice of Brahms and the doctor, she did not make direct contact with her husband. Four days later she saw him again for the first time in more than two years:
I saw Him, it was between 6 and 7 in the evening. He smiled at me and threw his arm around me with a great effort as he could no longer move his limbs—I shall never forget it. [. . .] He was still talking a lot with the spirits, it seemed, and wouldn’t let anyone stay with him for long, otherwise he became agitated, but you could barely understand anything any longer.26
Her diary goes on:
For weeks he has had nothing but wine and jelly—today [July 28] I gave it to him, and he took it with the happiest expression on his face and with real haste, slurping the wine from my finger—he knew it was me . . . On Tuesday the 29th he was to be released from his sufferings, at 4 in the afternoon he slipped quietly away. His final hours were calm, and so he fell asleep completely unnoticed, no one was with him at the time.27
Schumann was buried in the municipal cemetery at Bonn at seven o’clock in the evening on July 31. Clara did not follow the coffin to the grave but remained behind in the chapel:
I could hear the funeral music, he was then lowered into the earth, but I had the clear feeling that it wasn’t him but only his body—his spirit was high above me—I don’t think I have ever prayed more fervently than I did at that moment. May God give me the strength to live without him. Johannes and Joachim walked ahead of the coffin, which was carried by some of the members of the Concordia Society who had once performed a serenade for him in Düsseldorf. It was their way of showing how much they honored him. The mayors were there, too, Hiller had come from Cologne, but otherwise there were none of our friends. I hadn’t made any announcement as I didn’t want them to come. His dearest friends were at the front, I brought up the rear (unnoticed), which was best—certainly it was in his spirit!28
The poet Klaus Groth had traveled to Bonn with Brahms and recalled:
The little procession moved peacefully and silently until the road widened and the tolling of the bells grew louder in the marketplace as we drew closer. But lo! people poured out of the narrow streets as if to see a prince’s royal progress. [. . .] Within minutes the marketplace was packed, and in the neighboring streets people crowded to their windows, the cortege scarcely able to maintain a measured step and pass through the sympathetic crowd. As we left the place, the crowd surged all around us as if half the town had come out. The beautifully situated graveyard was black with people.
It was the burial of a prince of art.29
The children of Robert and Clara Schumann. Ambrotype by Wilhelm Severin, taken in Düsseldorf in 1854. This is the only known copy of this image, which Clara presumably sent to Schumann in Endenich at Christmas 1854. From left to right, Ludwig, Marie with Felix in her lap, Elise, Ferdinand, and Eugenie. Missing from the family portrait is Julie, who was then staying with her grandmother in Berlin. (Photograph courtesy of the Robert Schumann Museum, Zwickau.)
Epilogue
Schumann was forty-six when he died in 1856. Clara Schumann (1819–96) survived him by a further forty years. She began a second—and internationally successful—career as a virtuoso. After his death she wrote little new music of her own but took a correspondingly intense interest in cultivating his artistic legacy, which she did as a pianist, as his executrix, and as the editor of his works. She did not remarry but maintained a lifelong friendship with Brahms that survived all manner of complications. From 1878 she taught at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, the city in which she died on May 20, 1896.
Her daughter Marie (1841–1929) looked after and assisted her mother, including helping her with her daily chores. She was an excellent pianist and took over some of her mother’s pupils. She additionally did what she could to keep her brothers and sisters together. She spent her declining years at Interlaken in the Bernese Oberland.
Elise Schumann (1843–1928) earned a living as a piano teacher in Frankfurt. Then, in 1877, she and her husband, the businessman Louis Sommerhoff, went to America for six years, after which she returned to Frankfurt. Her descendants still live in the United States.
Julie (1845–72) enjoyed the affection of Brahms but in 1869 she married an Italian count with the fine-sounding name of Vittorio Amadeo Radicati di Marmorito. She died giving birth to their third child.
Ludwig (1848–99) was a problem child. Physically attractive, he was educationally subnormal and found it difficult to complete any formal training. Following a nervous breakdown in 1870 he was placed in a private asylum in Pirna but was then moved the following year to the regional asylum at Colditz, where he died, blind and mentally deranged.
Ferdinand (1849–91) became a banker in Berlin and in the face of Clara’s wishes married Antonie Deutsch, who bore him seven children. After he became dependent on drugs, Clara largely assumed responsibility for his family, taking complete care of two of her grandchildren.
Eugenie (1851–1938) spent her early years in boarding schools and then, until 1891, lived with her elder sister Marie and their mother. Later she traveled to England with the singer Marie Fillunger and for the next two decades worked there as a piano teacher. She published her memoirs in German in 1925 (an English translation appeared two years later), and a reminiscence of her father in 1931.
Felix (1854–79) never saw his father but followed in his footsteps as a jurist, musician, and poet. He died from tuberculosis. Brahms set three of his poems to music.
Notes
PROLOGUE
1. Robert Schumann, Tagebücher, ed. Georg Eismann and Gerd Nauhaus (Basel and Frankfurt: Stroemfeld and Roter Stern, 1971–82), 2:401 (entry of June 1, 1846).
2. Ibid., 3/1:281 (entry of June 1, 1846).
3. Béla Hamvas, “Korruptheit und Moral: Über die Kapitulation des Gewissens und die Brutstätte der Rebellion.” Lettre international 84 (2009): 65.
4. Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (hereafter, NZfM) 12 (1840): 82.
5. On the link between the “inner voice” and a novelistic motif in Jean Paul, see Erika Reiman, Schumann’s Piano Cycles and the Novels of Jean Paul (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2004), 181–83.
6. Robert Schumann, Briefe. Neue Folge, 2nd ed., ed. F. Gustav Jansen (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1904), 227 (letter to Carl Koßmaly, May 5, 1843).
7. Roland Barthes, The Preparation of the Novel, trans. Kate Briggs (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), 314.
8. Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, trans. W. Glen-Doepel, rev. Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall (London: Continuum, 2004), 7, 15.
9. Thus the title of the 1981 study by Julius Alf and Joseph A. Kruse, Robert Schumann: Universalgeist der Romantik (Düsseldorf: Droske, 1981).
CHAPTER 1
1. Robert Schumann, Tagebücher, ed. Georg Eismann and Gerd Nauhaus (Basel and Frankfurt: Stroemfeld and Roter Stern, 1971–82), 1:30 (entry of January 24, 1827).
2. NZfM 2 (1835): 3.
3. Ludwig van Beethoven, Briefwech
sel, ed. Sieghard Brandenburg (Munich: G. Henle, 1996–98), 4:298; 2:822 (in translated volume) (letter to Archduke Rudolph, July 29, 1819).
4. Robert Schumann, Briefe. Neue Folge, 2nd ed., ed. F. Gustav Jansen (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1904), 321 (letter to Eduard Krüger, November 29, 1849).
5. NZfM 2 (1835): 153–54.
6. Ernst Burger, Robert Schumann: Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern und Dokumenten (Mainz: Schott, 1999), 32.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., 33.
10. Ibid.
11. Georg Eismann, Robert Schumann: Ein Quellenwerk (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1956), 1:23.
12. Ibid., 1:65.
13. Clara Schumann, ed., Jugendbriefe von Robert Schumann: Nach den Originalen mitgetheilt (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1885), 117 (letter to Christiane Schumann, July 30, 1830).
14. Ibid., 128–30 (letter to Christiane Schumann, November 15–16, 1830).
15. Ibid., 232 (letter to Christiane Schumann, March 19, 1834).
16. Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann, Briefwechsel: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, ed. Eva Weissweiler (Frankfurt: Stroemfeld, 1984–2001), 1:20; 1:18 (in translated volume) (letter from Clara Wieck to Robert Schumann, February 13, 1836).
17. Eugenie Schumann, Robert Schumann: Ein Lebensbild meines Vaters (Leipzig: Koehler & Amelang, 1931), 115.
18. NZfM 3 (1835): 1.
19. Schumann, Tagebücher, 2:402 (undated entry [June 1846]).
20. Robert Schumann, Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke, ed. Akio Mayeda et al. (Mainz: Schott, 1991–), 3/1/1:133.
21. Corinna Wenke, “Aspekte zu Robert Schumanns Entwicklung” (PhD diss., University of Leipzig, 1987), 75.
22. Emil Flechsig, “Erinnerungen an Schumann. Aus dem Manuskript erstmals vollständig veröffentlicht von seiner Urenkelin Hilde Wendler,” Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 117 (1956): 392–96.
23. Schumann and Schumann, Briefwechsel, 1:125; 1:128 (in translated volume) (letter from Robert Schumann to Clara Wieck, March 19, 1838) and Schumann, Tagebücher, 1:82 (undated entry before May 27, 1828).
24. Schumann, Jugendbriefe, 16 (letter to Emil Flechsig, March 17, 1828).
25. Aigi Heero, Robert Schumanns Jugendlyrik (Sinzig: Studio, 2003), 259.
26. Schumann, Jugendbriefe, 12 (letter to Emil Fleschsig, December 1, 1827).
27. Gerd Nauhaus, “Robert Schumann: Jünglingswallfahrten,” in Zwischen Poesie und Musik: Robert Schumann—früh und spät, edited by Ingrid Bodsch and Gerd Nauhaus (Bonn: Stroemfeld, 2006), 44.
28. The incident is fully documented, with a commentary, in Gerd Nauhaus and Ulrich Tadday, ed., Prosa und Poesie: Robert Schumanns Schulaufsätze (Sinzig: Studio, 2010).
29. Schumann, Tagebücher, 1:77 (undated entry [1827]).
30. Siegfried Kross, ed., Briefe und Notizen Robert und Clara Schumanns (Bonn: Bouvier, 1982), 18–21 (letter to Eduard Moritz Rascher, June 16, 1828).
INTERMEZZO I
1. Elisabeth Eleonore Bauer, “Beethoven—unser musikalischer Jean Paul: Anmerkungen zu einer Analogie,” in Beethoven: Analecta varia, ed. Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn (Munich: text + kritik, 1987), 88.
2. Jean Paul, Sämtliche Werke: Historisch-kritische Ausgabe, ed. Eduard Berend (Weimar: Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1925–64), 1/10:169.
3. Ibid., 1/10:181.
4. Ibid., 1/10:425.
5. Robert Schumann, Tagebücher, ed. Georg Eismann and Gerd Nauhaus (Basel and Frankfurt: Stroemfeld and Roter Stern, 1971–82), 1:97 (undated entry [before July 22, 1828]).
CHAPTER 2
1. Clara Schumann, ed., Jugendbriefe von Robert Schumann: Nach den Originalen mitgetheilt (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1885), 34 (letter to Christiane Schumann, August 31, 1828).
2. Ibid., 19 (letter to Julius Schumann, April 25, 1828).
3. Robert Schumann, Tagebücher, ed. Georg Eismann and Gerd Nauhaus (Basel and Frankfurt: Stroemfeld and Roter Stern, 1971–82), 1:64 (entry of May 8, 1828).
4. Schumann, Jugendbriefe, 22 (letter to Christiane Schumann, May 21, 1828).
5. Ibid., 27 (letter to Christiane Schumann, June 29, 1828).
6. Ernst Burger, Robert Schumann: Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern und Dokumenten (Mainz: Schott, 1999), 75, 101.
7. Schumann, Tagebücher, 1:323.
8. Georg Eismann, Robert Schumann: Ein Quellenwerk (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1956), 1:43.
9. Eugenie Schumann, Robert Schumann: Ein Lebensbild meines Vaters (Leipzig: Koehler & Amelang, 1931), 72.
10. Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, Schumanniana (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1883), 90–91.
11. Ibid., 91–92.
12. Schumann, Tagebücher, 1:97 (undated entry [before July 22, 1828]).
13. Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 33 (1831): 808.
14. NZfM 4 (1836): 138.
15. Schumann, Tagebücher, 1:147 (entries of November 21 and 22, 1828).
16. Ibid., 1:97 (undated entry [between July 22 and 29, 1828]).
17. Schumann, Jugendbriefe, 105 (letter to Christiane Schumann, February 24, 1830).
18. Ibid., 53–54 (letter to Christiane Schumann, May 25, 1829).
19. Robert Schumann, Briefe. Neue Folge, 2nd ed., ed. F. Gustav Jansen (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1904), 99 (letter to Johanne Christiane Devrient, September 15, 1837).
20. Schumann, Tagebücher, 1:222 (entry of January 24, 1830).
21. Ibid. (entry of January 26, 1830).
22. Martin Kreisig, ed., Gesammelte Schriften über Musik und Musiker von Robert Schumann, 5th ed. (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1914), 1:1, 2:106.
23. Schumann, Tagebücher, 1:226 (entry of February 8, 1830).
24. Berthold Litzmann, ed., Clara Schumann: Ein Künstlerleben. Nach Tagebüchern und Briefen, 6th ed. (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1920), 1:21–22; 1:18 (in translated volume [emended]) (letter from Friedrich Wieck to Christiane Schumann, August 9, 1830).
25. Siegfried Kross, ed., Briefe und Notizen Robert und Clara Schumanns (Bonn: Bouvier, 1982), 28.
26. Schumann, Jugendbriefe, 140–41 (letter to Christiane Schumann, February 18, 1831).
27. Burger, Robert Schumann, 101.
28. Schumann, Tagebücher, 1:386 (entry of May 7, 1832).
29. Schumann, Jugendbriefe, 188 (letter to Christiane Schumann, August 9, 1832).
30. Ibid., 210 (letter to Christiane Schumann, June 28, 1833).
31. Ibid., 209 (letter to Christiane Schumann, June 28, 1833).
32. Eckart Altenmüller, “Focal Dystonia: Advances in Brain Imaging of Fine Motor Control in Musicians,” Hand Clinics 19 (2003): 1–16.
33. Schumann, Tagebücher, 1:416 (entry of October 7, 1833).
34. Schumann, Jugendbriefe, 227–28 (letter to Christiane Schumann, November 27, 1833).
35. Schumann, Tagebücher, 1:419 (undated entry [1833]).
36. Ibid., 1:330 (entry of May 12, 1831).
37. Ibid., 1:412 (entry of July 13, 1832).
38. Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann, Briefwechsel: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, ed. Eva Weissweiler (Frankfort: Stroemfeld, 1984–2001) 1:7; 1:5 (in translated volume [emended]) (letter from Robert Schumann to Clara Wieck, July 13, 1833).
39. Ibid., 1:8; 1:6 (in translated volume [emended]) (undated letter from Clara Wieck to Robert Schumann [July 1833]).
40. Ibid., 1:13–14; 1:11–12 (in translated volume [emended]) (letters from Clara Wieck to Robert Schumann, June 8, 1834, and from Robert Schumann to Clara Wieck, July 10, 1834).
41. Ibid., 1:15–16; 1:14 (in translated volume [emended]) (letter from Robert Schumann to Clara Wieck, July 10, 1834).
INTERMEZZO II
1. Clemens Brentano, Werke, ed. Friedhelm Kemp (Munich: Carl Hanser, 1963), 2:882.
2. Ibid., 2:900.
3. E. T. A. Hoffmann, Sämtliche Werke, ed. Gerhard Allroggen et al. (Frankfurt: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1985–2006), 6:389; see also Jürgen Link, “Empirischtranszendentale Objekte in der Romantik und die empirisch-transzendentale Dublette Mens
ch,” in Schläft ein Lied in allen Dingen? Romantische Dingpoetik, ed. Christiane Holm and Günter Oesterle, 43–54 (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2011).
4. Jean Paul, Sämmtliche Werke (Berlin: Reimer, 1826–28), 15:569.
5. Heinrich Heine, Sämtliche Schriften, ed. the Nationale Forschungs- und Gedenkstätten der klassischen deutschen Literatur in Weimar and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1970–), 2:253.
6. NZfM 2 (1835): 116.
CHAPTER 3
1. NZfM 2 (1835): 3.
2. Robert Schumann, Tagebücher, ed. Georg Eismann and Gerd Nauhaus (Basel and Frankfurt: Stroemfeld and Roter Stern, 1971–82), 1:344 (entry of July [2,] 1831).
3. Robert Schumann, Briefe. Neue Folge, 2nd ed., ed. F. Gustav Jansen (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1904), 78 (letter to Heinrich Dorn, September 14, 1836).
4. Martin Kreisig, ed., Gesammelte Schriften über Musik und Musiker von Robert Schumann, 5th ed. (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1914), 2:260–61 (italics in original).
5. Ibid., 2:262.
6. Ibid., 2:268.
7. Eduard Hanslick, Aus meinem Leben, 4th ed. (Berlin: Allgemeiner Verein für Deutsche Literatur, 1911), 1:72.
8. NZfM 3 (1835): 70.
9. NZfM 1 (1834): 38.
10. [Ludwig Rellstab], “Ueberblick der Erzeugnisse,” Iris im Gebiete der Tonkunst 4 (1833): 110–12.
11. NZfM 2 (1835): 163.
12. NZfM 4 (1836): 69.
13. Siegfried Kross, ed., Briefe und Notizen Robert und Clara Schumanns (Bonn: Bouvier, 1982), 41.
