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© Copyright 1999, Jim Loy
Robert Schumann was a good composer. He is moderately famous. He wrote some famous music. He wrote some unusual music. He is among the 100 or so most famous composers. During his lifetime, he was even less famous as a composer, than he is now. During his lifetime, he was very famous as a music critic (and music magazine publisher). What he did, which I find inspiring, is to take a strong talent for music, and combine it with a talent for writing, and a strange sense of humor. And he became the best, and was highly influential.
Not many of us can be the best at one field, like the 100 meter dash. But, I do think that most of us can make their mark in the world (or at least locally) by combining two or more talents. What if you are an artist, and you like computers: computer art is a narrower field than just art or just computers. And maybe you need to specialize further, like certain kinds of computer animation. And you can be among the best, in this narrower field. If you specialize far enough, you may be the only person in your field.
Schumann wanted to be a concert pianist. He studied piano and composition under Friedrich Wieck. Wieck's prize student was his little daughter, Clara who, before she was a teenager, was among the greatest pianists in the world. Schumann damaged a finger on his right hand, perhaps from using a machine which was designed to strengthen the fingers of a pianist. He then concentrated on composing. He started the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Eventually, he and Clara fell in love. Wieck kept the lovers apart, for years. They eventually took him to court, in order to be allowed to be married. Clara and Robert won their case on the day before she turned 21, and would no longer need her father's permission to marry. They had a happy married life, with many children. Clara's concert career was hindered quite a bit. Schumann went crazy, was committed to an asylum, and died there, two and a half years later. An autopsy showed severe brain damage. The cause is a mystery.
It is widely believed that, upon Schumann's discovery of the music of young Johannes Brahms, he announced in his magazine, "Hats off, gentlemen, a genius." This is not true. He wrote that upon his discovery of Fryderyk Chopin.