hrough
the influence of Wieck, whose daughter, Clara, he subsequently married,
and who is still a skilful pianist and famous teacher. He studied the
piano with Wieck until his right hand was injured. In 1830, in which year
his artistic career really opened, he began the theoretical study of
music in its groundwork, first with Director Kupsch in Leipsic, and later
with Heinrich Dorn, and at the same time entered upon the work of
composition. His opus No. 1 was the so-called "Abegg Variations,"
dedicated to a young lady, Meta Abegg, whom he had met at a ball in
Mannheim. In the same year, 1830, he composed a toccata. In 1831 his
famous "Papillons" and other piano works appeared. Schumann was not only
a musician, but an able critic and graceful writer; and in 1834, with
Schunke, Knorr, and Wieck, he founded the "Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik,"
which had an important influence upon musical progress in Germany, and in
which the great promise of such musicians as Chopin and Brahms was first
recognized. He married Clara Wieck in 1840, after much opposition from
her father; and in this year appeared some of his best songs, including
the three famous cycluses, "Liederkreis," "Woman's Life and Love," and
"Poet's Love," which now have a world-wide fame. In the following year
larger works came from his pen, among them his B major symphony,
overture, scherzo, and finale in E major, and the symphony in D minor.
During this period in his career he also made many artistic journeys with
his wife, which largely increased the reputation of each. In 1843 he
completed his great "romantic oratorio," "Paradise and the Peri," set to
Moore's text, and many favorite songs and piano compositions, among them
the "Phantasiestuecke" and "Kinderscenen," and his elegant piano quintet
in E flat. In 1844, in company with his wife, he visited St. Petersburg
and Moscow, and their reception was a royal one. The same year he
abandoned his "Zeitschrift," in which "Florestan," "Master Raro,"
"Eusebius," and the other pseudonyms had become familiar all over
Germany, and took the post of director in Duesseldorf, in the place of
Ferdinand Hiller. During the last few years of his life he was the victim
of profound melancholy, owing to an affection of the brain, and he even
attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Rhine. He was then removed
to an asylum at Endenich, where he died July 20, 1856. The two men who
exercised most influence upon Schumann were Jean Pau