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You should neither play bad compositions, nor, unless compelled, listen to them.

Robert Schumann

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Robert Schumann
Age: 46 †
Born: 1810
Born: June 8
Died: 1856
Died: July 29
Composer
Conductor
Music Critic
Music Pedagogue
Musician
Musicologist
Pianist
Robert Alexander Schumann
Play
Compositions
Compelled
Composition
Neither
Unless
Listen

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Perhaps only a Genius can truly understand Genius.
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Mendelssohn I consider the first musician of the day I doff my hat to him as my superior. He plays with everything, especially with the grouping of the instruments in the orchestra, but with such ease, delicacy and art, with such mastery throughout.
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The flame that is naturally clear always gives the most light and heat. If I could blend my talent for poetry and music into one, the light would burn still clearer, and I might go far.
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My heart pounds sickeningly and I turn pale... I often feel as if I were dead... I seem to be losing my mind.
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When you play, do not trouble yourself as to who is listening. Yet always play as though a master listened to you.
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Confidence and courage are special skills to the art ... Within the four walls of his study, the artist should be modest, work diligently and conscientiously. While for the public, he'll show himself audacious, yes even into cheerful boldness. And so a new public's darling has arisen.
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We have learned to express the more delicate nuances of feeling by penetrating more deeply into the mysteries of harmony.
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You will be most readily cured of vanity or presumption by studying the history of music, and by hearing the master pieces which have been produced at different periods.
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Art was not created as a way to riches. Strive to become a true artist all else will take care of itself.
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Remember, there are more people in the world than yourself. Be modest! You have not yet invented nor thought anything which others have not thought or invented before. And should you really have done so, consider it a gift of heaven which you are to share with others.
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In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that nobody else has thought of.
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Think it a vile habit to alter works of good composers, to omit parts of them, or to insert new-fashioned ornaments. This is the greatest insult you can offer to Art.
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Without enthusiasm nothing great can be effected in art.
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My symphonies would have reached Opus 100 if I had but written them down... Sometimes I am so full of music, and so overflowing with melody, that I find it simply impossible to write down anything.
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It is the curse of talent that, although it labors with greater steadiness and perseverance than genius, it does not reach its goal, while genius already on the summit of the ideal, gazes laughingly about.
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If we were all determined to play the first violin we should never have an ensemble. therefore, respect every musician in his proper place.
Robert Schumann
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You write to become immortal, or because the piano happens to be open, or you've looked into a pair of beautiful eyes.
Robert Schumann
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That first concept is alway the most naturally and best. The mind errs, the emotion never.
Robert Schumann
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Does it not seem as if Mozart's works become fresher and fresher the oftener we hear them?
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The aesthetic principle is the same in every art, only the material differs.
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