Claim profile

Robert Schumann

German composer, pianist and critic (1810–1856)

  • Fame74.2
  • Momentum1.3
  • Germany rank#113
Source-basedStable
  • Fame74.2
  • Momentum1.3
  • Germany rank#113
  • Wikipedia68.8K
Lived 1810–1856, aged 46Germany
Germany flagGermanyMusiciansSinger / Musician
  • Wikipedia
    103 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Rank in Germany
    #113
    Musicians
  • Era
    1810–1856
    Aged 46
Summary
Updated 2026-06-08

He planned to be a pianist until his right hand gave out, so he turned inward and wrote the piano music anyway — moody, literary, split between two invented selves he called Florestan and Eusebius. The songs and miniatures from the 1830s and '40s became the sound of German Romanticism.

Biography

About

Born in Zwickau in 1810 to a middle-class family with no music background, Schumann drifted between law school and the piano, studying with Friedrich Wieck until a worsening hand problem ended his hopes as a virtuoso. He poured himself into composition instead, writing Carnaval, Kinderszenen, and the rest of the major piano works between 1834 and 1838, and co-founded the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, where he split his critical voice between impetuous "Florestan" and gentle "Eusebius." In 1840 he married Wieck's daughter Clara over her father's bitter opposition, then spent the next years in a s…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann
said
To send light into the depths of the human heart -- this is the artist's calling!
— Quotes in: John Sullivan Dwight (1856) Dwight's Journal of Music, Vol. 7-8, p. 12
Robert Schumann
saidundated
Sometimes I am so full of music, and so overflowing with melody, that I find it simply impossible to write down anything.
— Early Letters of Robert Schumann (1888), p. 82
Robert Schumann
saidundated
The talent works, the genius creates.
— Attributed to Schumann in: The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 112, 1913, p. 811
Robert Schumann
saidundated
In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of.
— Quoted in: Dictionary of Humorous Quotations, Evan Esar (ed.), 1949, p. 156.
Robert Schumann
saidundated
If we were all determined to play the first violin we should never have an ensemble. therefore, respect every musician in his proper place.
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Press play

Listen & Watch

Spotify
Deep cuts

Albums

Low confidence
  • Violinsonaten Nos. 1 & 2
    1986
  • Dichterliebe / Liederkreis / Myrten
    1985
  • Dichterliebe, op.48 / Lierderkreis, op.24
    1985
  • Kreisleriana & variations on a theme by Clara Wieck
    1985
  • Symphonie no. 3 »Reinische« / Klavierkonzert
    1985
  • Brahms: Vier Ernste Gesänge / Schumann: Dichterliebe
    1985
  • Siebert: Lieder / Schumann: Dichterliebe, op. 48
    1985
  • Symphony No. 1 »Frühling« / Manfred-Ouvertüre / Ouvertüre, Scherzo & Finale
    1985
  • Symphony no. 1 "Frühlingssymphonie" / Symphony no. 4
    1985
  • Horowitz
    1985
By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Stable
74.2
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum1.3
Historical26.5
Now attention25.0
Source confidence70.0
Completeness80.0
Global rank
—
Country rank
#113
Category rank
—
Receipts

Sources

  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence