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Robert Schumann (1810–1856) was an influential composer, pianist, and music critic in nineteenth-century Europe. The Performing Arts Reading Room provides access to significant collections of relevant Schumann holdings. These materials include over one dozen holograph music manuscripts, over ten letters, many first and early editions of music scores, portraits and iconography, critical editions, scholarly literature on Schumann and his world, facsimiles, special collections, sound recordings, and access to a variety of subscription databases.
Schumann spent much of his professional life in Leipzig. He attempted to establish himself in larger musical centers such as Vienna and Dresden, but his time in Leipzig proved particularly fruitful. The composer Felix Mendelssohn, director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, premiered Schumann's Symphony no. 1 in B flat major, op. 38, and Schumann's sole opera, Genoveva, op. 81, likewise premiered in Leipzig in 1850. Schumann quickly became known for his Lieder and character pieces for piano. He composed several of these works that are regularly performed today, including the song cycles Dichterliebe, op. 48 (1840) and Liederkreis, op. 39 (1840); and the piano works Kinderszenen, op. 15 (1838) and Drei Fantasiestücke, op. 111 (1851). But Schumann composed tremendous works in all the main music genres of his time, focusing on and returning to specific genres (e.g. Lieder, symphonic works, chamber music) in bursts of creative energy before moving on to new ones.
Literature and the literary world heavily influenced Schumann's musical aesthetic. A voracious reader, he consumed everything from Greek philosophy to E.T.A. Hoffman. Schumann's favorite writer, Jean Paul, however, took hold of the composer's own literary style in his published music critiques in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, which Schumann edited and published from 1835 to 1843.
Also found in the Performing Arts Reading Room are significant collections of materials on individuals from Schumann's milieu, including his wife, the composer and pianist Clara Schumann; the composer, pianist, and conductor Felix Mendelssohn; and the composer Johannes Brahms. Research Guides specific to each of these individuals are linked at the bottom of this page.
Contact the Recorded Sound Research Center or the Moving Image Research Center directly for information on recordings or film footage.
Clara Schumann: A Guide to Resources at the Library of Congress
Felix Mendelssohn: A Guide to Resources at the Library of Congress
Johannes Brahms: A Guide to Primary and Secondary Resources at the Library of Congress
The Performing Arts Reading Room is the access point for the collections in the custody of the Music Division at the Library of Congress. Numbering approximately 20.5 million items and spanning more than 1000 years of Western music history and practice, these holdings include the classified music and book collections, music and literary manuscripts, iconography, microforms, periodicals, musical instruments, published and unpublished copyright deposits, and close to 500 special collections in music, theater, and dance.
