Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856) was a German composer,
pianist, 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. His teacher,
Friedrich Wieck, a German pianist, had assured him that
he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a
hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his
musical energies on composing. In 1840, Schumann
married Friedrich Wi...(+)
Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856) was a German composer,
pianist, 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. His teacher,
Friedrich Wieck, a German pianist, had assured him that
he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a
hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his
musical energies on composing. In 1840, Schumann
married Friedrich Wieck's daughter Clara Wieck, after a
long and acrimonious legal battle with Friedrich, who
opposed the marriage. A lifelong partnership in music
began, as Clara herself was an established pianist and
music prodigy. Clara and Robert also developed a close
relationship with German composer Johannes Brahms.
Until 1840, Schumann wrote exclusively for the piano.
Later, he composed piano and orchestral works, and many
Lieder (songs for voice and piano). He composed four
symphonies, one opera, and other orchestral, choral,
and chamber works. His best-known works include
Carnaval, Symphonic Studies, Kinderszenen,
Kreisleriana, and the Fantasie in C. Schumann was known
for infusing his music with characters through motifs,
as well as references to works of literature. These
characters bled into his editorial writing in the Neue
Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal for Music), a
Leipzig-based publication that he co-founded.
Schumann suffered from a mental disorder that first
manifested in 1833 as a severe melancholic depressive
episode—which recurred several times alternating with
phases of "exaltation" and increasingly also delusional
ideas of being poisoned or threatened with metallic
items. What is now thought to have been a combination
of bipolar disorder and perhaps mercury poisoning led
to "manic" and "depressive" periods in Schumann's
compositional productivity. After a suicide attempt in
1854, Schumann was admitted at his own request to a
mental asylum in Endenich (now in Bonn). Diagnosed with
psychotic melancholia, he died of pneumonia two years
later at the age of 46, without recovering from his
mental illness.
"Freisinn" (free spirit, free mind) is a poem written
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1815, first published
in West–östlicher Divan in 1819. The first verse is
inspired by the dictum of a free-spirited Ghalghaï
(Ingush) highlander, who, by the account of Moritz von
Engelhardt in 1811, rejected an offer to gain benefits
under the condition of submitting to the rule of the
Tsar, with a short phrase: "Above my hat are only the
stars". The second verse is derived from a passage from
the Quran.
On the eve of his wedding in 1840, Robert Schumann
presented his wife-to-be Clara with a deluxe edition of
Myrthen, a newly composed cycle of 26 songs adorned on
the cover with green myrtles, the German symbol of
marriage, with "Freisinn" listed as the second
composition in this series.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freisinn_(Goethe))
Although originally composed for Voice and Piano, I
created this Interpretation of "Freisinn" (Free Spirit
Op. 25 No. 2) for Oboe & Strings (2 Violins, Viola &
Cello).
SHEET MUSIC