Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumannwas a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth8 June 1810
CityZwickau, Germany
CountryGermany
Can that which has cost the artist days, weeks, months and even years of reflection be understood in a flash by a dilettante?
If we were all determined to play the first violin we should never have an ensemble. therefore, respect every musician in his proper place.
For me Wagner is impossible... he talks without ever stopping. One can't just talk all the time.
If, while at the piano, you attempt to form little melodies, that is very well; but if they come into your mind of themselves, when you are not practising, you may be still more pleased; for the internal organ of music is then roused in you. The fingers must do what the head desires; not the contrary.
From a pound of iron, that costs little, a thousand watch-springs can be made, whose value becomes prodigious. The pound you have received from the Lord,--use it faithfully.
You write to become immortal, or because the piano happens to be open, or you've looked into a pair of beautiful eyes.
In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of.
My indifference to money and my spendthrift ways are disgraceful. You have no idea how reckless I am; how often I practically throw money out of the window. I am always making good resolutions, but the next minute I forget and give the waiter eightpence.
My symphonies would have reached Opus 100 if I had but written them down... Sometimes I am so full of music, and so overflowing with melody, that I find it simply impossible to write down anything.
You will be most readily cured of vanity or presumption by studying the history of music, and by hearing the master pieces which have been produced at different periods.
I was a God-fearing child, innocent and physically attractive.
Music owes as much to Bach as religion to its founder.
The principal mark of genius is not perfection, but originality.
It is the curse of talent that, although it labors with greater steadiness and perseverance than genius, it does not reach its goal, while genius already on the summit of the ideal, gazes laughingly about.