Schumann ― The Faces and the Masks

A groundbreaking biography of Robert Schumann that promises to be the definitive account: drawing on previously unpublished primary sources, Judith Chernaik tells Schumann's wrenching life story with the rigor of a scholar and the flair of a novelist.

Schumann: The Faces and the Masks draws us into the milieu of the Romantic movement, which enraptured poets, musicians, painters, and their audiences in the early nineteenth century and beyond, even to the present day. It reveals how Schumann (1810-1856) embodied all the contrasting themes of Romanticism--he was intensely original and imaginative but also worshipped the past; he believed in political, personal, and artistic freedom but insisted on the need for artistic form based on the masters: Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. It details his deep involvement with other composers of his time, such as Chopin and Mendelssohn, Liszt and Brahms, as well as the literary lights of the age--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, E.T.A. Hoffmann--whose works gave inspiration to his compositions and words to his songs. Drawing on hitherto unpublished archive material, as well more established sources of journals, letters, and publications, Judith Chernaik provides enthralling new insight into Schumann's life and his music: his sexual escapades, his fathering of an illegitimate child, the facts behind his courtship of Clara Wieck--already a noted young concert pianist--his passionate marriage to her despite the opposition of her manipulative father, his passionate marriage, and the ways his many crises fed the dreams and fantasies of his greatest works, turning his tumultuous life into music that speaks directly to the heart.

JUDITH CHERNAIK was born and grew up in New York City. She graduated from Cornell University and received a PhD from Yale University. She has taught at Columbia, Tufts, and after moving to London with her husband and children, at Queen Mary College, University of London. In 1986 she founded London's popular Poems on the Underground, imitated in cities around the world. Her books include The Lyrics of Shelley and four novels. Most recently she has published essays on Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Chopin in the English journal Musical Times. She lives in London with her husband Warren Chernaik, emeritus professor at the University of London.