Schumann biography

[pianisten1989]

I'm sick of playing the Symphonic etudes, without getting them right. Thechniqually I can play them, but I can't really convince myself, no matter how I play. Do you know any biography that could help me get a bit more into Schumann's music?

[thalbergmad]

I do have a biography at home that I currently use for target practice.

You are more than welcome to the bloody thing if you want it.

Thal

[stevebob]

I do have a biography at home that I currently use for target practice.

You are more than welcome to the bloody thing if you want it.

Thal

Well, that's a sad waste of paper.

Perhaps you should keep it in your bathroom.  Reading a paragraph or two when you're constipated would give you the urge to purge, and it could do double duty as insurance against being surprised by an empty roll.   

[rienzi]

It's strange that you should have mastered such a demanding piece as the Symphonic Variations without having any feeling for the music. Was it an assignment imposed on you, by any chance?
I would suggest that if the music itself fails to "speak" to you after prolonged experience of it, it's unlikely that any biography, however excellent, is going to improve the situation. Best, in such a case, to avoid the composer and concentrate on the music of those with whom you have an affinity...there's plenty of other music to choose from!

[pianisten1989]

C'mon, if you only play what you're good at, you'll never develope as a musician.
And it's not that i completely fail, and have no feel about it. It's more that I don't get it as convinsing as I'd like to.

So, does anyone have an accual suggestion, or is everyone's just here to fool around?

[stevebob]

So, does anyone have an accual suggestion, or is everyone's just here to fool around?

Well, I agree with the actual suggestion that a biography might not be the best tool for appreciating a composer's music.  For me, anyway, that would be approaching the situation from the wrong direction.

When I'm interested in the music of a specific composer, learning more about him may give me insight into his life and even help me overlook his human shortcomings—but I can't imagine the opposite being true, i.e., that gaining knowledge of a composer's life and circumstances would confer a better understanding of the musical qualities (or weaknesses) of his music.

But that's just me.  Whatever works!  A quick search at Amazon.com will turn up a number of contemporary biographies, including:

Robert Schumann:  Herald of a "New Poetic Age," by John Daverio

Robert Schumann:  Life and Death of a Musician, by John Worthen

Schumann:  The Inner Voices of a Musical Genius, by Peter Ostwald

I find that last title especially intriguing.  Unfortunately, there's such widespread disdain for Schumann on this board (and so little concession even that he was a musical genius) that a personal review of any of them here is pretty unlikely.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Not a biography recommendation as such..

Personally I can't stand Schumann, but my teacher studied with Yves Nat, and tells me that in the 30s Nat was considered a leading authority on Schumann. So perhaps it might be worth searching out some of his recordings.

[rienzi]

Not a biography recommendation as such..

Personally I can't stand Schumann, but my teacher studied with Yves Nat, and tells me that in the 30s Nat was considered a leading authority on Schumann. So perhaps it might be worth searching out some of his recordings.

Not a bad suggestion. Personally I would be inclined to listen to as many recordings by noted pianists (Rubinstein, Cherkassky, Novaes etc.) as I could find to learn what they had discovered in the music. Familiarising yourself with a composer's efforts in different genres (in the case of Schumann, I'd recommend the lieder, chamber music and the symphonies) rather than just concentrating on a handful of piano works is also a good way of entering into a composer's world, too.