Robert and Clara Schumann: A Timeline

Robert and Clara Schumann

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DISCOGRAPHIES:
ROBERT SCHUMANN
CLARA SCHUMANN

TIMELINE

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TIMELINE

TWIN SPIRITS ROBERT SCHUMANN DISCOGRAPHY CLARA SCHUMANN DISCOGRAPHY TIMELINE

CLARA SCHUMANN		ROBERT SCHUMANN
1819	Born 13 September in Leipzig to Friedrich Wieck (a music teacher) and Marianne Tromlitz Wieck (a soprano)	1810	Born 8 June in Zwickau, Saxony the fifth and last child in the family of August Schumann (a bookseller, publisher and novelist) and his wife.
1824	Begins piano lessons taught by her father	1824	Writes an essay on the aesthetics of music; contributes to a volume entitled Portraits of Famous Men. Major influences: Jean Paul, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lord Byron and the Greek playwrights.
1825	Parents divorce	1826	His father August Schumann dies.
1828	First concert debut at Leipzig Gewandhaus	1828	Graduates tours Germany, meeting Heinrich Heine in Munich; begins law studies in Leipzig
1830	Robert Schumann comes to live with the Wiecks	1829	Continues law studies in Heidelberg
1831	First extended tour	1830	Inspired after hearing Niccolo Paganini play in Frankfurt, he abandons his law studies and goes back to Leipzig to study with Friedrich Wieck; he permanently injures his right hand, which forces him to abandon his dreams of becoming a concert pianist and to focus instead on composing.
1837	Robert officially asks for Clara's hand in marriage; Wieck is adamantly against the marriage	1831	Writes first critical essay, a piece on Chopin's variations on a theme from Mozart's Don Giovanni, which is published in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung; composes Papillons, intended as a musical representation of Jean Paul's "Flegelijahre" .
1840	Robert and Clara are finally married on 12 September in Schönefeld after a protracted legal battle, the union producing 8 children	1832	Visits his relatives in Zwickau and performs the first movement of his Symphony in G minor at a concert by Clara Wieck, then 11 years old.
1844	Clara named honorary member of St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society	1833	Affected by the deaths of his brother Julius and his sister-in-law Rosalie, attempts to commit suicide, but fails.
1853	Robert and Clara meet Johannes Brahms who becomes a very close family friend	1834	Composes Carnaval (op. 9); inaugurates Die Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik (New Journal in Music) on April 3, 2008 in which he publishes his critical writings; supports the revival of interest in past composers, e.g., Mozart, Beethoven and Weber, and promotes the works of Chopin and Berlioz, while criticizing the style of Liszt and Wagner; becomes engaged to 16-year old Ernestine von Fricken, the adopted daughter of a rich Bohemian
1854	Robert committed to an asylum following a suicide attempt	1835	His love for 15-year-old Clara Wieck blossoming, breaks off the engagement; meets secretly in the evenings with Clara whose father puts an end to the meetings; meets Felix Mendelssohn.
1856	1856 Robert dies	1836	Composes the Fantasia in C (op. 17).
1857 . . . 1891	Moves to Berlin where she performs, teaches; champions the music of Schumann and Brahms in concert tours throughout Europe, performing regularly in London except for four seasons	1837	Formally asks Wieck for Clara's hand in marriage, but Wieck refuses; publishes his Études symphoniques
		1838	Completes Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood),and Kreisleriana.
		1839	Composes the Faschingsschwank aus Wien (The Carnival Prank from Vienna).
		1840	After a long legal battle with Friedrich Wieck, marries Clara on 12 September in Schönefeld; writes 168 Lieder; receives an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Jena for his achievements.
		1841	Composes two of his four symphonies.
		1842	Composes his famous piano quintet (op. 44).
		1843	Receives a professorship in the Conservatorium of Leipzig; composes the oratorio Paradise and the Peri.
		1844	Joins Clara in her concert tour of Russia; abandons his editorial work due to poor mental health; writes in his diaries about suffering from constantly hearing the note A.
		1846	Recovering, Schumann travels to Vienna.
		1847	Travels to Prague and Berlin in the spring, and to Zwickau in the summer.
		1848	Finishes his only opera, Genoveva (op. 81).
		1849	Composes music to Byron's "Manfred", writing more than in any other year; moves to Kreischa, a village situated a few miles outside Dresden; celebrates Goethe's hundredth birthday with performances in Dresden, Leipzig and Weimar of scenes from his Faust which he completes at the end of the year.
		1850	Succeeds Ferdinand Hiller as musical director at Düsseldorf, but is soon terminated because he was a bad conductor.
		1851	Completes the Rhenish Symphony; revises his Fourth Symphony.
1878	Joins faculty of Hoch Conservatory where she teaches until 1892	1853	Meets Johannes Brahms who impresses the Schumanns and becomes a close family friend; composes the overture to Faust
1891	Performs her last public concert in Frankfurt, playing Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn	1854	Ttravels to Hannover, where he hears a performance of his Paradise and the Peri ; his mental state deteriorates; writes five variations for the piano, his last work; attempts suicide by throwing himself from a bridge into the Rhine but is rescued by boatmen and taken home; asks to be committed to an insane asylum, where he will remain until his death.
1896	Suffers a stroke 26 March; dies 20 May at the age of 76; is buried at the Zentral Friedhof in Bonn.	1856	Dies 29 July; is buried at the Zentral Friedhof in Bonn.

TWIN SPIRITS ROBERT SCHUMANN DISCOGRAPHY CLARA SCHUMANN DISCOGRAPHY TIMELINE

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