Quotes by Robert Schumann

“Sometimes I am so full of music, and so overflowing with melody, that I find it simply impossible to write down anything.”

“The talent works, the genius creates.”

“In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of.”

“Perhaps genius alone understands genius fully. (Sometimes translated as: Perhaps only genius fully understands genius)”

“Schumann’s writing for the piano is very orchestral, and sometimes does not lie so easily under the hands. But it is still very well written for the piano and the technique he demands perhaps suits...”

“[A]lmost every simple piece of Schumann’s has a hidden secret (with few exceptions, for example the Arabesque). Such a seemingly easy piece like Des Abends or some of the pieces from Kinderszenen c...”

“Schumann‘s piano music is conceived more instrumentally, not necessarily for piano. This is true of Beethoven and Brahms too.”

“Schumann is the most representative musical figure of central European Romanticism as much because of his limitations as because of his genius: in his finest works, indeed, he exploited these limit...”

“Schumann’s piano settings mostly evolve around the middle range of the piano keyboard, and lastly also for that reason his music is much more difficult to play. Often enough the result is mediocre ...”

“None investigated the Romantic’s obsession with feeling and passion quite so thoroughly as [Schumann]. Schumann died insane, but then some psychologists argue that madness is a necessary attribute ...”