Robert Schumann
Myrthen op. 25, Song Cycle
1840 was Schumann’s famous “year of song” that brought forth over 100 lieder. They included Myrthen op. 25, which he dedicated “to his dear bride”, Clara Wieck-Schumann. Besides famous songs such as “Widmung”, “Lotosblume” and “Nussbaum” to texts by German poets, the collection also saw Schumann venture further afield, whether to the Scottish Highlands with settings of Robert Burns or to Italy for the “Venetian Songs” of Thomas Moore. Schumann specialist Kazuko Ozawa has examined the first edition of 1840 and all the manuscript sources. Among the dedicatory autograph copies she has also discovered interesting early versions of individual songs that are here published in an appendix. The edition medium voice presented here was created in collaboration with the experienced pianist and Lied accompanist Jan Philip Schulze – to make the famous cycle accessible to a wider circle of singers.
About the Composer
Robert Schumann
Connected with his oeuvre is the term he coined, Poetic Music, with which he strove for a fusion of literature and music, a paradigm particularly seen in his lyric piano pieces prior to 1839. Thereafter he devoted himself to other genres (song, symphony, chamber music, among others).
| 1810 | Born in Zwickau on June 8, the son of a bookdealer. |
| from 1828 | Studies law in Leipzig, piano with Friedrich Wieck. Decision to pursue a career in music. |
| 1830–39 | He exclusively composes piano works, mostly cycles, including “Papillons,” Op. 2 (1829–32); “Carnaval,” Op 9 (1834/35); “Davidsbündlertänze,” Op. 6 (1837); “Kinderszenen” (“Scenes from Childhood”), Op. 15 (1837/38); “Kreisleriana,” Op. 16 (1838); “Noveletten,” Op. 21 (1838). |
| 1832 | A paralysis of a finger in his right hand makes a career as a pianist impossible. Founding in 1833 of the fantasy brotherhood the “Davidsbund” (“League of David”). |
| 1835–44 | Editor of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal of Music). |
| 1840 | Marriage to Clara Wieck; 138 songs, including the Eichendorff Liederkreis, Op. 39; the song cycle “Dichterliebe,” Op. 48 |
| 1841 | Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major (“Spring” Symphony), Op. 38, and Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120. |
| 1842 | Three string quartets, Op. 41; further chamber music. |
| 1843 | Teacher of composition at the Leipzig Conservatory. Oratorio “Paradise and the Peri,” Op. 50. |
| 1845 | He settles in Dresden. Journey to Russia. |
| 1845 | Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61. |
| 1850 | City music director in Düsseldorf. Premiere in Leipzig of his opera “Genoveva,” Op. 81. Symphony in E-flat major (“Rhenish”), Op. 97; Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129. |
| 1853 | Beginning of his friendship with Brahms. Completion of the Scenes from Faust. Violin Concerto in D minor for Joseph Joachim. |
| 1854 | Suicide attempt and admission to the psychiatric institution in Endenich, near Bonn. |
| 1856 | Death in Endenich on July 29. |
About the Authors
Kazuko Ozawa (Editor)
Kazuko Ozawa, born in 1954 in Mishima, Japan, studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts between 1973 and 1979, doing her MA on Schumann’s Scenes from Faust in the Musicology Department. From 1979 onwards she continued her studies at the University of Bonn, earning her doctorate with a thesis entitled “Quellenstudien zu Robert Schumanns Liedern nach Adelbert von Chamisso”.
She works as a freelance musicologist and is an external editor for the New Robert Schumann Complete Edition.
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