Robert Schumann was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic of the early Romantic era, born 8 June 1810 in Zwickau and died 29 July 1856 in Endenich, near Bonn. After an early ambition to become a virtuoso pianist was ended by a hand injury, he turned fully to composition and criticism, founding the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, and in 1840 married the pianist and composer Clara Wieck, for whom many of his works were written. He composed extensively for piano, voice, orchestra, and chamber ensemble, and struggled for much of his life with mental illness, which led to his confinement in an asylum in his final years.

Schumann was among the most literary and imaginative of Romantic composers, translating ideas from poetry and fiction into music through character pieces, song cycles, and a deeply personal harmonic language. As a critic he championed Chopin, Brahms, and other emerging composers, shaping the direction of nineteenth-century musical taste, and his fusion of intimate lyricism with structural innovation left a lasting mark on the piano and Lied repertoire.

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Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Schumann
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Schumann