CHAPTER VII - SCHUMANN THE CRITIC

Summary

It will be remembered that for a period of almost exactly ten years the composer devoted himself with great assiduity to the interests of a musical paper of which he was one of the original founders, and ultimately the editor—the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Authorship was no unaccustomed pursuit to Schumann, for in very early days we hear of his helping his father in some of his literary work, and no doubt he would be thoroughly familiar with the business of publishing. When we consider his early training, to say nothing of his years of university study, we need not be astonished to find him possessed of such literary power as has been exhibited by no other practical musician before or since, with the single exception of Richard Wagner. But even more remarkable than his literary talent is his power of discerning the merits and demerits of musical compositions, in other words, his critical faculty. It has often been asserted, and it is to a certain extent true, that the creative faculty cannot coexist with the critical, and that an artist can no more judge of the works of other artists than he can of his own. Schumann stands as a lasting refutation of this assertion, or perhaps as the most pro minent exception to the rule. He possesses the critical faculty to an extent that has never been equalled, at all events in connection with music.