Robert Schumann’s Advice to Young Musicians - Revisited by Steven Isserlis

113 Pages·2017·0.54 MB·English

by  Isserlis

Robert Schumann’s Advice to Young Musicians
by the same author
Why Beethoven Threw the Stew
Why Handel Waggled His Wig
Robert Schumann’s
Advice to Young Musicians
Revisited by
Steven Isserlis
the university of chicago press
Chicago
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
© 2016 by Steven Isserlis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in
critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the
University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2017
Printed in the United States of America
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-48274-3 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-48288-0 (e-book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226482880.001.0001
First published by Faber & Faber Ltd, 2016
library of congress cataloging-in-publication data
Names: Isserlis, Steven, 1958– author. | Container of (expression):
Schumann, Robert, 1810–1856. Works. Selections.
Title: Robert Schumann’s advice to young musicians / revisited by Steven Isserlis.
Description: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2017.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017013380 | ISBN 9780226482743 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780226482880 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Schumann, Robert, 1810–1856—Quotations. |
Schumann, Robert, 1810–1856—Criticism and interpretation. | Music—Quotations,
maxims, etc. | Music—Performance—Quotations, maxims, etc. | Music—Miscellanea. |
Music—Performance—Miscellanea.
Classification: LCC ML410.S4 I77 2017 | DDC 780.92—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017013380
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
To Joanna, with love

Contents
Introduction 1
On Being a Musician 5
Playing 43
Practising 57
Composing 69
My Own Bits of Advice
(For What They’re Worth) 83
On Being a Musician 85
Playing 92
Practising 95
Composing 97
Appendix 99
Acknowledgements 104
–vii –

Introduction
In addition to being a genius – as well as the kindest of men
– Robert Schumann was a phenomenon. He was astonish-
ingly far ahead of his time, in many different ways. His music
antici pated a whole multitude of trends that would spread in
the 150 years after his death; almost every major composer
who followed him acknowledged his influence. As a man as
well as an artist the extent of his enlightenment was extraor-
dinary. One of the most lovable ways in which he showed a
new path was in his attitude to children and youth. His music
for children is perhaps the most popular music of its type
ever written. His music about childhood – Kinderszenen, for
instance – is equally magical. His empathy with the young
came from deep within; the composer and author Cyril
Scott, writing in the early 1930s, described Schumann as ‘the
true poet of the child-soul’, going so far as to claim that it was
the influence of his attitude to children that brought about
‘that deeper love and understanding of the child, which . . .
is such a pronounced characteristic of the age’.
Schumann’s concern with education didn’t stop with
children; he was equally concerned with the well-being of
aspiring young musicians. He taught at Mendelssohn’s new
Conservatory in Leipzig – perhaps not entirely successfully,
–1 –