“While the Daylight Lasts”: Schumann and the Myth of Madness
Despite the recent flurry of revisionism in Schumann biography, the last months of his career are still misunderstood. Biographers usually portray the fall of 1853 as a period of gradual disintegration, but Schumann's diary reports contentment and good health. He was earning more as a composer than ever before and had begun one of his most prolific periods. And although it is generally assumed that he was forced out of his position in Düsseldorf, the evidence suggests that he decided to give it up himself, and to try his luck in Vienna. He was about to begin a new chapter in his life, one that promised even greater success.
This is not the way things turned out of course, and the narrative power of the actual ending—Schumann's descent into madness in February 1854—has caused the story to be rewritten completely. This rewriting began shortly after Schumann's death, as his survivors re-remembered the events of these months and reevaluated the compositions. They were trying to save Schumann's reputation from the stigma of mental illness, but their efforts backfired. The shadow of madness gradually grew larger, until it covered the entire Düsseldorf period, and doomed the reception of his late music. Schumann's biography became the archetype of the myth of the mad artist.
Relying on several primary sources that have been unknown or ignored by previous scholars, my paper will reconstruct the last months of Schumann's career, not in light of our knowledge of later events, but as they unfolded at the time. Schumann was of sound mind at the end of 1853, and his resignation was a rational decision. Had he not suddenly succumbed to mental illness, his career might well have continued on to new heights.
Despite the recent flurry of revisionism in Schumann biography, the last months of his career are still misunderstood. Biographers usually portray the fall of 1853 as a period of gradual disintegration, but Schumann's diary reports contentment and good health. He was earning more as a composer than ever before and had begun one of his most prolific periods. And although it is generally assumed that he was forced out of his position in Düsseldorf, the evidence suggests that he decided to give it up himself, and to try his luck in Vienna. He was about to begin a new chapter in his life, one that promised even greater success.
This is not the way things turned out of course, and the narrative power of the actual ending—Schumann's descent into madness in February 1854—has caused the story to be rewritten completely. This rewriting began shortly after Schumann's death, as his survivors re-remembered the events of these months and reevaluated the compositions. They were trying to save Schumann's reputation from the stigma of mental illness, but their efforts backfired. The shadow of madness gradually grew larger, until it covered the entire Düsseldorf period, and doomed the reception of his late music. Schumann's biography became the archetype of the myth of the mad artist.
Relying on several primary sources that have been unknown or ignored by previous scholars, my paper will reconstruct the last months of Schumann's career, not in light of our knowledge of later events, but as they unfolded at the time. Schumann was of sound mind at the end of 1853, and his resignation was a rational decision. Had he not suddenly succumbed to mental illness, his career might well have continued on to new heights.
