Schumann
The Faces and the Masks
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
SCHUMANN: THE FACES & THE MASKS is a groundbreaking account of a major composer whose life and works have been the subject of intense controversy ever since his attempted suicide and early death in an insane asylum. Schumann was a key figure in the Romantic movement which enraptured poets, musicians, painters and their audiences in the early 19th century and beyond, right up to the present time. He embodied all the contrasting themes of Romanticism - he was intensely original and imaginative, but also worshipped the past; he believed in political, personal and artistic freedom but insisted on the need for artistic form. He turned his tumultuous life into music that speaks directly to the heart. Drawing on hitherto unpublished archive material, Chernaik provides new insight into Schumann's life and his music, his sexual escapades, his fathering of an illegitimate child, the true facts behind his courtship of Clara and the opposition of her monstrous father, and the ways in which the crises of his life fed into the dreams and fantasies of his greatest music.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chernaik (The Lyrics of Shelley) vividly brings to life German composer Robert Schumann (1810 1856). Using Schumann's personal diaries, letters, and other key archival sources, Chernaik puts Schumann's life in a new light while providing an overview of Romanticism in 19th-century Europe, which included composers , Fr d ric Chopin and Felix Mendelssohn. During this time, Schumann created narratives around fictional characters, such as Johannes Kreisler (taken from the works of poet E.T.A. Hoffmann) in his composition Kreisleriana. Chernaik skillfully puts Schumann's compositions in the context of the events in his life when he was writing them the death of his sister Fanny in 1847, for example, cast him into depression and inspired him to compose his F-sharp minor string quartet. Chernaik details Schumann's romance with pianist Clara Wieck, who would become his wife, as well as Schumann's mental illness, suicide attempt, and death. Using the previously unavailable full medical diary of Endenich Asylum in Germany, Chernaik suggests that Schumann suffered from late-stage syphilis, which caused paralysis and psychosis, and ultimately killed him. Fast-paced and informative, this biography wonderfully explores the life of a great and troubled composer.