The Life of Robert Schumann. With Letters, 1833-1852. By Von
Wasielwski. Translated by W. A. Alger. (William Reeves.)—The lives of musicians are not generally of the highest order of biographical interest, and this memoir of Schumann is no exception. Nor has it been produced under the most favourable circumstancesjor the corn. poser's widow, Madame Clara Schumann, who has devoted her life to his memory and the illustration of his genius, has thought well, hardly, as we can suppose without reason, to withhold her assistance from this enterprise. The main facts of Schumann's musical career are easily told, and would only occupy a few pages ; but musical amateurs will not grudge the space given to an account of the production of his principal works, or to von Wasielwski's sympathetic criticisms. The final pages of this narrative are as touching as anything we can remember in the history of art. As is well known, Schumann's over- wrought brain gave way, partly, as is probable, from a hereditary tendency, and partly from the strain on his highly sensitive organisa- tion, and he eventually died in a private hospital :— "Before leaving Bonn, in the summer of 1855, I went with my friend, Otto von Konigslow, to Eidenach, to inquire for the health of my honoured master, as I had often done before. He was sitting at the piano, which had been given him at my request, playing extem- pore melodies. We watched him long and unnoticed through the
half-open door. It was heartrending to see this great and nobleman, with all his mental and physical powers gone ; the master to whom music owes so much that is beautiful, who devoted his quiet but fertile life so zealously to the highest aims. His playing was far from pleasant. It seemed as if the force whence it proceeded were injured, like a machine whose springs are broken, but which still tries to work, jerking convulsively."
Although only fragmentary and necessarily imperfect, this memoir and these letters are a notable contribution to the musical history of the century.
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