Robert Schumann

This volume contains 133 intimate letters from the great composer.

Letters of Robert Schumann

readingsnmusings 

Read this with my sister for our book club! 

"Even Bohemianism is a vocation."

" This is the time when a young man’s soul glows with all things good and beautiful, and his ideals dwell with the gods of Greece in youth’s bright Olympus"

"Take me as I am, and be patient with me in everything."

"I consider Bach to be quite unapproachable, immeasurable by ordinary standards."

"You were then a queer little girl, with strong views of your own, beautiful eyes, and a weakness for cherries."

"Let me give you one piece of advice: don’t improvise too much. It is such a waste of precious material. Make a point of writing everything down; you will thus collect and concentrate your ideas. You are denied the tranquillity and security from interruption which are the essential conditions for finishing a composition perfectly. But time may one day bring you these. . . .
I have composed very little here; I seem to have lost the art. But I have been through that stage before, and know that I shall work all the better after it."

"To be with you continually is, indeed, a liberal education."

"I am indeed the most favoured of mortals, overwhelmed with happiness, half smothered under the load of blossoms."

"Composing is making me forget how to write or think; my letters prove it."

"Well, good-bye, old man. Remember us to all who are really interested."