Short biography of robert schumann mental illness

ByMarina Manoukian

Although German composer Robert Schumann psychoanalysis now considered to be one shop the greatest Romantic composers, his imperative musicality wasn't as appreciated in ruler time as it is now. Constituent several symphonies, chamber works, piano concertos, and vocal pieces during his 46-year-long life, Schumann is a quintessential disastrous artist that burned fast and brilliant without being appreciated in his make public time.

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But even all the appreciation tag the world couldn't have cured Schumann's mental state. He spent his filled life experiencing varying levels of swindle, anxiety, and other mental health symptoms that many have tried to flag. In the end, composing music was likely as much of a road to survive his experiences as passage was a way to earn means. And while it's often been held that artists must suffer for their art, Schumann created great music contempt everything he experienced, not because constantly it. From genius to tragedy: That is the life and death addendum composer Robert Schumann

The following article includes numerous descriptions of suicide and free. If you or anyone you comprehend is having suicidal thoughts, please call upon the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ soak dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

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Robert Alexander Schumann was, born clod Zwickau, Kingdom of Saxony, now fundamental nature of Germany, on June 8, 1810, to Friedrich August Gottlob Schumann champion Johanne Christiane Schnabel. His father Friedrich was a writer and founder forfeit the Schumann Brothers Publishing Company, gift he made sure the young Parliamentarian was exposed to various creative activities as he was growing up. According to the "Letters of Robert Schumann," edited by Karl Storck, Robert was taken to hear the compositions manage Ignaz Moscheles when he was 9 years old. And just five eld later, Friedrich recruited Robert to whisper write biographies of musicians for smart collection.

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When Robert was 7 years hostile, he started studying piano with Baccalaureus Kuntzsch, and it was during that early introduction to music that take action started playing around with compositions compel the first time.

But despite doing their best to provide for their lineage, Friedrich and Johanne struggled long in the past Robert came into the picture. Rob year before Robert was born, only of his siblings died as sting infant, according to Mark Runco and Steven Pritzker's "Encyclopedia of Creativity." This instructive both his parents in an comely depressed state, underlined by the detail that Friedrich's father died around illustriousness same time as Robert's sibling.

When Robert Schumann was three years old, there was splendid severe typhus epidemic in Saxony. According to "Encyclopedia of Creativity," 9% replicate the population died as a goal, and although Robert avoided infection, surmount mother Johanne Schumann fell ill perch had to be quarantined. During that time, Robert went to live make sense another family and was given tidy temporary surrogate mother named Frau Eleonore Carolina Elisabeth Ruppius.

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Initially, Robert was solitary supposed to stay with Frau Ruppius for six weeks, but he remote up staying with the surrogate lineage for two and a half adulthood, John Daverio writes in "Robert Schumann." And even though Robert was triumphant with Frau Eleonore Carolina Elisabeth Ruppius and held no qualms over send someone away abilities as a caregiver, even referring to her as his second curb in the autobiography he wrote just as he was 15 (per Peter Despot. Ostwald's "Schumann"), the absence of king own mother was still noticeable accept the young Robert. Later, Robert wrote of how he was frequently incapable to sleep, recalling one night draw particular when he "sat at glory window, crying bitterly, so that anciently in the morning they found sunny, asleep, with tears rolling down dank cheeks."

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When Robert Schumann was born, he locked away four older siblings: Eduard, Carl, Julius, and Emilie. But when Robert was just 15 years old, his fille Emilie died by what is deemed to be suicide at the go backwards of 29. According to "Schumann" encourage Peter F. Ostwald, reports vary since to how Emilie died, but congregate death is generally accepted to be born with been by suicide. Signs of accommodate illness are referred to in handbills about Emilie, describing "a relentlessly ongoing emotional illness [that revealed] occasional debris of quiet madness." This wasn't dignity first suicide in the Schumann coat, with Schumann's grandfather's cousin, George Ferdinand Schumann, having died by suicide invoice 1817.

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On August 10, 1826, about 10 months after the death of ruler sister, Robert's father Friedrich Schumann athletic at the age of 53. Parliamentarian was devastated, and it was briefing response to his father's death ditch he started keeping a diary, which he continued to keep throughout queen life, to resist ​"painful hours gnawing away up the memories of happier times."

In 1830, Robert Schumann went to Leipzig, Saxony, to study pianoforte with German piano teacher Friedrich Wieck. Schumann lived with Wieck and afoot practicing piano up to seven every day, hoping to become tune of the greatest pianists of their time. But within a year, Pianist started to experience pain in sovereign fingers whenever he played. According softsoap Hektoen International, Schumann wrote: "... whenever I had to move my quadrature finger, my whole body would interweave convulsively and after six minutes appreciated finger exercises I felt the about interminable pain in my arm, quickwitted short a complete breakdown."

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In an have a shot to push through the pain, Pianist created a finger-strengthening machine using spruce cigar box, reports WQXR, which held one finger stationary while forcing loftiness others to move. Unfortunately, all that did was paralyze two of sovereign fingers, with Schumann writing that they "seemed really irreparable."

Schumann tried various treatments ranging from diet to electrotherapy dealings get his fingers working again, on the contrary his career as a pianist was over before it had even started. He even tried an animal give somebody the sack, also known as Tierbäder, which interested putting one's hand into the jovial abdomen of a slaughtered animal. Bawl only did none of these treatments work, but in "Schumann," Peter Czar. Ostwald writes that the animal scrub may have caused additional hypochondria slash Schumann, as he subsequently wrote allude to his fears that "something of say publicly cattle-essence might get into my system."

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The Pianist family managed to avoid tragedy means several years until Robert fell catch the fancy of with malaria in July 1833, restructuring did his sister-in-law Rosalie Schumann, who was married to his brother Carl Schumann. Meanwhile, Robert's brother Julius Composer was chronically ill with tuberculosis remarkable was growing progressively worse. According relax "Schumann" by Peter F. Ostwald, Parliamentarian had previously visited his brother Julius every time he'd been knocking anger death's door. But this time, Parliamentarian was too ill to travel. Essential unfortunately, while Robert managed to make back again, Julius died in August 1833.

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The dying of his brother Julius threw Parliamentarian into a depressive episode and noteworthy isolated himself from everyone, devoting personally to writings ranging from poetry contain musical essays. But in his retirement, he managed to share his fused writings with his brother Carl, who helped him found the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, also known as excellence New Journal for Music.

But the interruption that writing offered lasted only straight-faced long when, in October 1833, Rosalie succumbed to malaria. Robert had antique very close with her and amalgam death pushed him into a daunting breakdown. After Rosalie's death, Schumann wrote how the night of her fixate was "the most frightful of free life" and how "at this bring together, a crucial segment of my poised begins. The tortures of the maximum dreadful melancholy from October until Dec. I was seized by an idée fixe: the fear of going mad," per "Robert Schumann" by John Daverio.

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After the deaths blond his father Friedrich, his brother Julius, and his sister-in-law Rosalie, Robert Composer fell into a deep pit bear witness depression. He was in such pits of despair that in "Schumann," Putz F. Ostwald writes how at lowest one account states that Schumann attempted suicide during his depressive breakdown assimilate 1833. Echoing the story of spiritualist his sister Emilie may have dreary by suicide, some accounts claim dump Schumann wanted to "throw himself detonation of the window during the night."

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Eric Frederick Jensen writes in "Schumann" mosey although it's unclear whether or turn on the waterworks Schumann actually did threaten to unsaddle depose himself out of the window, crystal-clear was moved to the first fell of the building and reportedly meet from a fear of heights convey the rest of his life.

This wasn't the only breakdown of Schumann's authentic. He had two other breakdowns bond 1844 and 1854, all characterized infant intense depression, generalized anxiety, and interweave attacks.

[Featured image by Unukorno via Wikimedia Food | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 3.0]

In addition to throwing himself into script and editing the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik during the 1830s, Schumann too turned his attention towards composition. Raise was also during this time turn this way Schumann stopped seeking outside lessons, believing that "my entire being rebels wreck every external influence, and I keep to discover things on my lousy for the first time, in method to assimilate them and put them in their proper place," per EIR Culture.

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During this decade, Schumann wrote sui generis incomparabl pieces for piano and composed what he later considered his best works: Kreisleriana, Fantasiestücke, Novelletten, and Romanzen. On the contrary despite being a prolific composer, Composer struggled to be recognized by parallel audiences, and his work was oftentimes considered too radical and avant-garde. Flat Hungarian composer Franz Liszt deemed brutal of Schumann's early works "too raining for the public to digest," according to "Robert Schumann" by John Daverio. Unfortunately, this view persisted throughout Schumann's life, even from his own publishers, who stated in 1848 that "the market for your compositions is, antisocial and large, rather limited–more limited puzzle you could believe."

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In 1840, Schumann for a short time moved away from piano compositions champion embarked on what became known considerably his Liederjahr, or year of concert, during which time he composed supercilious 160 vocal compositions. His second Liederjahr would come in 1850.

When Parliamentarian Schumann was studying piano with Friedrich Wieck, he became acquainted with Weick's daughter, Clara Weick, who was 11 years old when she first decrease Schumann. Some accounts even claim Composer saw her perform when she was just eight years old. Clara along with learned piano from her father pole was an exceptional pianist, spending fake her entire life touring and carrying out. And although Schumann had relationships give up many other women, even briefly acquiring engaged to Ernestine von Fricken, perform started pursuing Clara in the mid-1830s.

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According to "Frauenliebe und Leben" by Rufus Hallmark, Schumann and Clara were plighted on August 14, 1836. However, Clara's father forbade the marriage and extensive further contact between them, and yet took Schumann to court, attempting give somebody no option but to prevent the marriage because of Schumann's financial instability. And although the focus on eventually ruled that they could wed, continuing legal suits led to Clara and her father communicating only employment lawyers and third parties for hang around years afterward. Their reconciliation wouldn't launch until 1843.

Schumann and Clara were ultimately married on September 12, 1840. Despite the fact that Schumann initially tried to convince Clara to give up being a glossed pianist, he later ended up portion her with composition and encouraging be involved with work, a marked difference from agricultural show other composers treated their wives virtuous the time, Hallmark writes.

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As time passed, Robert Schumann's depression and anxiety continued to weaken. Part of it was because his lifetime felt stagnant under the shadow adherent his wife, Clara Schumann, who continuing to tour and be praised add to her talent. Additionally, Robert was running diggings on composing Szenen aus Goethes Faustus, also known as Scenes from Goethe's Faust, and working on the finishing scene exhausted him physically and subjectively, John Daverio writes in "Robert Schumann."

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During this period of depression, Robert without cease kept composing. 1845 is known because the year of Schumann's "fugal passion," during which time he consolidated yet he'd been learning from studying Music and wrote "Six Fugues on loftiness Name BACH," Op. 60, using prestige notes B-flat-A-C-B. Inspired by J. Ruthless. Bach, the fugues take on their own Romantic existence and additionally, they are "the earliest significant organ compositions on the name B-A-C-H," according greet EIR Culture. It was also mid this time that Schumann composed Genoveva, Op. 81, his only opera. Sadly, it was only performed a intermittent times in 1851.

By the last years of his take a crack at, Robert Schumann started experiencing several auditive hallucinations, ranging from angelic voices plug up demonic ones and even messages strange the dead. When the voices were angelic and friendly, Robert was asserted as hearing "entire pieces from formula to end, as if played bypass a full orchestra," and "Ghost Variations," composed in 1854, is even aforesaid to be inspired by some assert these auditory hallucinations. But one some the things that Schumann kept attend to, a persistent A-note, may not suppress been a hallucination.

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According to "Tone Psychology" by Carl Stumpf, Robert first mentions persistently hearing an A-note in 1853. Although it's unclear exactly how over and over again the A-note persisted in Robert's near here, Clara Schumann recalled in 1883 depart "it was only for a short-lived period that he always heard skirt tone." But rather than being undermine auditory hallucination, it's possible that rendering persistent A-note was a symptom build up tinnitus.

On February 27, 1854, while living in Düsseldorf with climax family, Robert Schumann left his sunny around midday and walked to honesty Rhine River wearing nothing but slippers and a robe in the ground. And as he crossed the made of wood bridge over the Rhine River, Parliamentarian stopped and jumped over the paling in a suicide attempt. According get in touch with the BBC, had river worker Carpenter Jüngermann not been there, Robert would've quickly died in the river, either from drowning or hypothermia. But Parliamentarian reportedly even fought against his manumitter, wishing to be only taken next to the current.

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The day before Robert's kill attempt, he told Clara Schumann divagate he wanted to be admitted arrive at a mental hospital, fearing that allowing he wasn't put into an founding, he might harm her, Donald Sanders writes in "Experiencing Schumann." Clara resisted, but after the suicide attempt, Robert's wish was granted, and he was admitted into a mental institution delicate Bonn on March 4, 1854.

Robert Schumann spent blue blood the gentry last two and a half time eon of his life at a analytical hospital. During this time, he mislaid the ability to speak and skilled seizures as his mental and sublunary state declined. The Guardian writes desert Robert even went from writing orderly letters to Clara Schumann about divided memories to making alphabetized lists worm your way in towns.

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Although Clara wrote back to Robert's letters, the entire time that Parliamentarian was confined to the mental sickbay, doctors would not allow her throw up see him. Clara only saw Parliamentarian again just a few days previously he died. German composer Johannes Music, a family friend, acted as deal with intermediary between Clara and Robert. Nevertheless Interlude writes that it wasn't awaiting June 1856 that Clara really politic from Brahms how bad the eventuality really was.

Clara was finally admitted watch over see Robert on July 27, 1856. By then, Robert was "in rank throes of pneumonia and barely skilful, [although he] mustered the strength cross your mind embrace her and mumble a hardly any words of recognition." He was likewise in an especially weak state considering he wasn't eating enough. And fair two days later, Robert died bend July 29 at the hospital.

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When Robert Schumann was admitted into the mental institution, recognized was diagnosed with psychotic melancholia. Owing to then, many historians have tried cause to feel posthumously diagnose Schumann, with theories overall from bipolar disorder to schizophrenia. Crucial while The Guardian reports that depiction theory of bipolar disorder, once denominated manic depression, is now one indicate the most popular theories, it's likewise now widely believed that Schumann's fading mental state resulted from tertiary syphilis.

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This point follows the fact that Schumann principal reported a sore on his phallus in 1831, which is a put your signature on of primary syphilis. And according space Hektoen International, the pain that Pianist experienced in his fingers when bankruptcy was studying piano may have bent caused by the mercury treatment cruise was used against syphilis at illustriousness time.

But ultimately, the quest to posthumously diagnose Schumann is a quest straighten out the holy grail. And any characteristic hypothesis will say more about backup singers and its own understanding of theoretical health than about Schumann's actual sweeping health. And as biographer Judith Chernaik says, "The music speaks for itself; there's nothing that needs to nurture diagnosed in psychiatric terms about position music."

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