After the children's Album came the music to Byron's "Manfred." This
consists of an overture and fifteen numbers. The whole work, with one
exception, is deep in thought and masterly in conception. The
overture especially is one of his finest productions, surpassing other
orchestral works in intellectual grandeur.

A choral club of sixty-seven members, of which Schumann was the
director, inspired him to compose considerable choral music, and his
compositions of this time, 1848-9, were numerous.

The intense creative activity of 1849 was followed by a period of
rest when the artist pair made two trips from Dresden, early in 1850.
Leipsic, Bremen, and Hamburg were visited. Most of the time in Hamburg
was spent with Jenny Lind, who sang at his last two concerts.

The late summer of 1850 brought Schumann an appointment of director of
music in Duesseldorf, left vacant by the departure of Ferdinand Hiller
for Cologne. Schumann and his wife went to Duesseldorf the first week
of September and were received with open arms. A banquet and concert
were arranged, at which some of the composer's important works were
performed. His duties in the new post were conducting the subscription
concerts, weekly rehearsals of the Choral Club and other musical
performances. He seemed well content with the situation and it did not
require too much of his physical strength.

Outside of his official duties his passion for work again gained the
ascendent. From November 2, to December 9, he sketched and completed
the Symphony in E flat in five parts, a great work, equal to any of
the other works in this form.

From this time on, one important composition followed another, until
increasing illness forshadowed the sad catastrophe of the early part
of 1854. He wrote in June 1851, "we are all tolerably well, except
that I am the victim of occasional nervous attacks; a few days ago I
fainted after hearing Radecke play the organ." These nervous attacks
increased in 1852. He could not think music in rapid tempo and wished
everything slow. He heard special tones to the exclusion of all
others.

The close of 1853, brought two joyful events to Schumann. In October
he met Johann Brahms, whom he had introduced to the world through his
Journal, as the "Messiah of Art." In November he and his wife took a
trip through Holland, which was a triumphal procession. He found his
music almost as well known in Holland as at home. In Rotterdam and
Utrecht his third