The birthday cake on June 8 is for Robert Schumann, who hasn’t been around to eat it for 157 years. Schumann’s dad was a book publisher, and Robert’s music was strongly influenced by his reading and knowledge of music. He founded a music journal, Zeitschrift für Neue Musik (Journal for New Music), which is still in existence, and which published mostly his own, now famous, music criticism through the early 1840s.
Schumann’s life was fascinating, though it ended tragically. His music was cutting edge for the time, exploring all kinds of new Romantic ideas. One weird aspect of his personality is that he tended to take up and explore one genre of music at a time. First, there were his piano compositions, then, in 1840, his “song year,” and then symphonies and chamber music after that. He was also married to one of the great musicians of his time, Clara Schumann (born Clara Wieck). Read more about Schumann, life, find fun facts, listen to his music, and see video on SFCV’s Composer Gallery page.