CHAPTER V - SONGS, CONCERTED AND ORCHESTRAL WORKS

Summary

The year 1840 was an eventful one in Schumann's life, and affected his artistic development as much as it did his outward circumstances. The crisis of his lovestory had come : the long years of suspense were over; the object of his true and enduring affection was won; and henceforth the current of his life was changed. The fanciful romance of the “Davidsbund,” which had given rise to so many beautiful creations, was forgotten, and replaced by interests and emotions of a more actual and substantial kind. Instead of a morbid habit of introspection, we now find in him a keen insight into human character; and instead of self-analysis, sympathy. The very form of composition to which he devoted himself exclusively during this momentous year—the song—led him to seek inspiration outside himself, since the choice of subject, and to some extent the limitations of form, lay not with himself, but with another. With the same whole-hearted devotion that he had previously brought to bear on pianoforte writing, he now applied himself to the art of setting words to music. We found, in reviewing the pianoforte works, that none of the best in that class were written subsequently to 1839, and a similar phenomenon meets us here : nothing but songs were composed in the year of Schumann's marriage, and none of the greatest and most famous songs date from any other year.