How many symphonies did schumann write

The rest of this movement evokes the spirit of Romantic song, a genre with which Schumann was deeply familiar. He had already devoted considerably creative energy to song composition, writing dozens of vocal settings of poems by Romantic writers.

Next comes a scherzo cast essentially as a minor-key minuet with a somewhat demonic character. The finale recaptures the exuberant spirit of the initial movement.

It starts with a sonorous flourish whose conspicuous tail of three ascending notes links it to the opening fanfare. The music that follows is lithe and robust by turns, the latter quality supplied mostly by varied recurrences of the flourish that opened the movement.

Schumann takes the unusual step of pausing for a cadenza, scored for horns and flutes, just before the recapitulation, and an accelerated coda brings the symphony to a stirring conclusion.

This piece did not share the immediate success of its predecessor, and Schumann consequently withdrew it for revision. More than a decade passed before he completed that task. Meanwhile, he turned to other projects, including the composition of his Piano Concerto and two large pieces for voices and orchestra, the oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri , and the dramatic Szenen aus Goethes Faust.

He was also helped by his friend Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who was then not only one of the most highly-regarded composers in Europe, but also head of the most important musical institution in Germany: the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Mendelssohn accepted the score, with some corrections, and conducted the premiere on 31 March The reaction in the Leipzig press was positive: the newspapers reported that the work had been received 'with great applause'.

In this symphonic debut, Schumann does not seem - at first glance - to try anything new. The first movement - in sonata form - is followed by a slow Larghetto, a lively Scherzo and a finale which is also in sonata form.

But in fact Schumann's individual style is evident, especially in the first movement. Instead of developing the themes in the central section, he introduces a series of free and playful variations. This lightness certainly seems to have contributed to the fact that the work has become known as the 'Spring Symphony'. This association was part of Schumann's original idea. Second Symphony in C major, op. If one looks at the notes made by both composer and his wife Clara at this time, it is clear he felt a sense of liberation when he finished it.

The years before had been overshadowed by a creative crisis. Despite her delicate appearance, she was an extremely strong-willed and energetic woman, who kept up a demanding schedule of concert tours in between bearing multiple children. Two years after they married, Friedrich Wieck at last reconciled himself with the couple, eager to see his grandchildren. In the years —, Schumann had written almost exclusively for the piano, but in alone he wrote songs.

Prior to the legal case and subsequent marriage, the lovers exchanged love letters and rendezvoused in secret. Robert would often wait in a cafe for hours in a nearby city just to see Clara for a few minutes after one of her concerts. The strain of this long courtship they finally married in , and of its consummation, led to this great outpouring of Lieder vocal songs with piano accompaniment. Robert and Clara had eight children, Emil — , who died at 1 year; Marie — ; Elise — ; Julie — ; Ludwig — ; Ferdinand — ; Eugenie — ; and Felix — His chief song-cycles of this period were his settings of the Liederkreis of Joseph von Eichendorff, Op.

The songs Belsatzar , Op. The Opp. Despite his achievements, Schumann received few tokens of honour; he was awarded a doctoral degree by the University of Jena in , and in a professorship in the Conservatory of Music, which Felix Mendelssohn had founded in Leipzig that same year.

In he wrote two of his four symphonies, No. He devoted to composing chamber music, including the Piano Quintet in E flat, Op. In he wrote Paradise and the Peri , his first essay at concerted vocal music, an oratorio style work based on Lalla-Rookh by Thomas Moore.

After this, his compositions were not confined to any one form during any particular period. He spent the first half of with Clara on tour in Russia. As soon as he began to work, he was seized with fits of shivering and an apprehension of death, experiencing an abhorrence of high places, all metal instruments even keys , and drugs. His state of unease and neurasthenia is reflected in his Symphony in C, numbered second, but third in order of composition, in which the composer explores states of exhaustion, obsession and depression, culminating in Beethovenian spiritual triumph.

Also published in was his Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. In , he felt he had recovered. In the winter, the Schumanns revisited Vienna, traveling to Prague and Berlin in the spring of and in the summer to Zwickau, where he was received with enthusiasm. This pleased him, since at that time he was famous in only Dresden and Leipzig. His only opera, Genoveva , Op. The text is often considered to lack dramatic qualities; the work has not remained in the repertoire.

And in his notebook of suggestions for the text of operas are found amongst others: Nibelungen , Lohengrin and Till Eulenspiegel. The insurrection of Dresden caused Schumann to move to Kreischa, a little village a few miles outside the city.

Liszt gave him assistance and encouragement. From to , Schumann composed in a wide variety of genres. Critics have disputed the quality of his work at this time; a widely held view has been that his music showed signs of mental breakdown and creative decay.

According to Harold C. From to he visited Switzerland, Belgium and Leipzig. In he completed his Symphony No. He revised what would be published as his fourth symphony.

Did he really write more than songs in one year? In addition to composing symphonies and concertos, Schumann is recognized today as one of the great masters of song. In alone, he wrote more than of them. Is it true that Schumann was affected by mental illness? Throughout his life, Schumann struggled with his emotions and inner world.

Some doctors today have suggested a diagnosis of bipolar disorder to account for alternating periods of manic energy and extreme, debilitating depression.