Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/742

* SCHUMACHER. 072 SCHUMANN. from the moon. In ISi'2 lie began the publica- tion of liis Astronomischc acltrichleii, which i8 still continued in an unbroken series, and is re- garded US perhaps the most iniiiortant of as- Iroiioniieal periodicals. He also published, in cwlpenilion with other eminent astronomers, Aslrwioiiiinchcs Jiihrhuch ( 1830-44). SCHUMACHER, Tbdeb. A Danish states- man, ( uiiiil (hillenfeld (q.v.). SCHUMANN, shoo'mlin, Klara (1810-06). Wife of Holiort Schumann, and under her maiden name, Klara Wicek, one of the be.st known con- cert pianists of her generation. She was the daughter of Frederick W'ieck (q.v.), from whom she received her musical education. At thir- teen years of age she began the concert tours which made her famous and which led to her acipiaintancc with Schumann. After the death of her husband she lived for several years in Uerlin, and during this period wrote some of her most charming songs. From 1878 to 1802 she served on the faculty of the Iloch Conservatorium at Frankfort. Her compositions are largely in the style of her husband, and are marked by nuich sincerity and some originality. They in- clude: Op. 12, 12 poems by Kiiekert, set to nnisir by Robert and Klara Schumann (Nos. 2, 4, and 11 liy the latter) ; a pianaforte concerto (op. 7); a trio (op. 17); the violin romances (op. 22) ; and several preludes, fugues, variations, and e.xercises. SCHUMANN, Wax (1827-80). A Prussian military engineer, famous for his eflforts to util- ize armor-plate in warfare. He was born in JIagdeburg. At the time of the American Civil War he became interested in the subject of ar- mored fortifications, which he proceeded to study in F.ngland (1803-(!,5). During the Franco- Priissian War he was on fortification duty, and in 1872 he retired, immediately entering the Gruson works. There he devised an armored gun-carriage, an armored mortar-platform, a dis- appearing carriage, and a steel wire net for de- fense. A rotary iron-clad tower ])lanned by him was adjudged at Bucharest (188.5-8C) superior to that of Mougin. Schumann described the salient features of his innovations in Die Bedeiit- jiiifi (Irchhiirer GeschiUzpanter fiir eine durch- ijrrifimlr lieform dcr perniancnten Befestiffniig (2d ed. 1S85), and "Die Panzerlafetten und ihrc fernere Entwickelnng," in the [nternationiile Sevue (1886). Consult Sehriider, ^Schumann und die Panzerfortifikation (Berlin, 1800). SCHUMANN, Robert (1810-56). A famous German composer. He was born at Zwickau, Saxony, where his father was a bookseller and publisher. At Zwickau he received little musical instrnction beyond piano lessons from an old- fashioned, pedantic teacher, Kuntzsch. Until he was twenty-one years old he had no instrnction in composition. He then placed himself under Heinrich Dorn at Leipzig. He had begun to compose, however, according to his own state- ment, when he was eleven years old, setting the 1.50th Psalm to music. His father died in 1826. and his mother being violently opposed to his choosing a musical career, Robert in 1828 matriculated at the University of Leipzig as a law student. Most important at Leipzig was his acquaint- ance with Friedrich Wieck, a gifted musician. and his daughter Klara, then in her ninth vear. and a surprisingly skillful pianist. Schumann plaicd himself under Wicck's instruction, con- tinuing until 1820. when he entered the Uni- versity of Heidelberg. As a result of his assiduous devotion to music, he socm became known throughout Heidelberg as a skillful pian- ist, and even received invitations to play at Jlann- heim and Mainz. His compositions in 1829 include several short pieces, which after- wards appeared among the Pupilloiis, and in 1830 lie composed his ^'(l|■illlio>^s on the Xaiiie of Abeij!). which owed their origin to the lively im- pression made upon him by Meta Abegg. In the spring of 1830 Schumann went to Frankfort to hear Paganini. The deep impression the great violinist's playing made upon him is shown by his adaptation and elaboration of several of the famous capriecios for the piano. Schumann now determined to abandon law and devote himself to music. In notifying his mother he referred her to Wieck for an opinion as to his abilities, and on his mother's writing to Wieck. the latter's decision was in favor of Schumann. He was at last beginning to realize the disadvantage of having neglected theoretical studies. Yet even now he did not take up these at once. On his return to Leipzig he resumed his piano lessons with Friedrich Wieck and lived at his house. An accident for which he himself was responsible forced him to give up piano play- ing and devote himself wholly to composition. Dis- satisfied with the progress he was making as a pianist, he devised a system of digital gymnas- tics, with the result that he injured the sinews of the third finger of his right hand so severely that he never fully regained its use. It was this forced abandonment of a pianist's career which led him to seek instruction in composition from Heinrich Dorn, who took him as a pupil. The year 1831 is important because during it Schumann first came before the public as a musical critic, contributing to the AUgemeine I Musil-Zeitung an enthusiastic critique of ' Chopin's Don Juan Fantasia. In November, •* 1832, he was in Zwickau, where at a concert given by Klara 'ieek, then thirteen years old, a symphony by him in G minor, now wholly un- known, was performed. On his return to Leip- zig he removed from the Wiecks' house, but con- tinued on an intimate footing with the family. In 1833 he completed the Paganini transcriptions, and wrote his piano impromptus on a theme by Klara Wieck, a composition which has romantic interest, as the young pianist, with Avhom his re- lations at that time were wholly artistic, later became his wife and did much to make his music famous. In 1834 Schumann and several other enthusi- astic musicians and critics banded themselves under the name "Davidsbiindler" to wage war against philistinism in music, as David had against the Philistines. They established the Xeue Zeitschrift fiir Musik. Schumann's con- tributions, when not over his own name, w-ere signed Florestan, Eusebius, IMeister Raro, "2" and "12." They were of the highest importance, for he possessed the gift of recognizing incipient genius. One of his later critiques in which, under the title "Xeue Bahnen," he hailed Brahms, who was almost unknown, as a musical Messiah, is a most notable example of musical prescience. Through the columns of his paper he accelerated the growing fame of Schubert and Mendelssohn,