1 00:00:01,234 --> 00:00:04,304 Now, Schumann, I've heard he had bipolar disorder. 2 00:00:05,839 --> 00:00:08,875 Interesting question, because it's really difficult doing 3 00:00:08,875 --> 00:00:11,644 retrospective psychiatric diagnoses on historical figures. 4 00:00:13,580 --> 00:00:15,749 I have enough difficulty getting it right with live patients. 5 00:00:16,783 --> 00:00:18,084 Exactly. 6 00:00:18,084 --> 00:00:19,719 But Schumann wrote letters 7 00:00:21,554 --> 00:00:23,323 which really clearly lay out a sense of mania. 8 00:00:24,324 --> 00:00:26,192 He said," I feel so pressured." 9 00:00:26,192 --> 00:00:28,862 "I feel in a divine mood.: 10 00:00:28,862 --> 00:00:32,132 "I'm so overflowing with sounds that if I could just 11 00:00:32,132 --> 00:00:33,533 scribble them all down, I would have composed 100 symphonies." 12 00:00:35,135 --> 00:00:36,269 That sounds like a manic episode. Sure. 13 00:00:37,804 --> 00:00:39,172 There were also long stretches where he didn't compose at all. 14 00:00:41,207 --> 00:00:43,610 Because when he was depressed, he not only had trouble concentrating, be it 15 00:00:45,011 --> 00:00:48,448 diminished energy, felt hopeless, suicidal thoughts. 16 00:00:50,784 --> 00:00:53,686 He had this delusional conviction that he was actually a worthless composer. 17 00:00:53,686 --> 00:00:55,255 Suffered. He suffered. He suffered enormously. 18 00:00:57,123 --> 00:00:59,793 He invented two imaginary companions to comfort him during times of stress. 19 00:01:01,428 --> 00:01:02,629 And he called them Eusebius and Florestan. 20 00:01:04,464 --> 00:01:09,335 Eusebius: a melancholic, introverted poetic dreamer. 21 00:01:10,403 --> 00:01:13,540 Florestan, by constrast, was an 22 00:01:13,540 --> 00:01:15,408 aggressive, impetuous, frenetic individual. 23 00:01:17,377 --> 00:01:20,447 Probably not too much of a stretch to suggest that 24 00:01:20,447 --> 00:01:22,615 Eusebius represented the depressive side 25 00:01:24,384 --> 00:01:27,554 of Schumann's persona and Florestan represented the manic side. 26 00:01:27,554 --> 00:01:29,556 Now, you know, presence of imaginary companions. 27 00:01:31,157 --> 00:01:34,327 It's very common among children. 28 00:01:34,327 --> 00:01:38,998 When grown-ups conjure up imaginary companions, it's either 29 00:01:38,998 --> 00:01:42,836 a sign of a very active imagination or warning sign that psychosis is imminent. 30 00:01:44,838 --> 00:01:45,472 In Schumann's case, it was 31 00:01:45,472 --> 00:01:47,607 a sign of both. Wow. 32 00:01:48,641 --> 00:02:08,094 ♪♪ 33 00:02:08,094 --> 00:02:09,629 Fortunately, there's a piano in the library's main hall 34 00:02:12,031 --> 00:02:14,200 because Richard is the only psychiatrist in the world who's a Schumann expert 35 00:02:15,401 --> 00:02:17,270 and a Juilliard trained concert pianist. 36 00:02:17,837 --> 00:02:20,306 ♪♪ 37 00:02:22,308 --> 00:02:24,911 That is from a piece called 38 00:02:24,911 --> 00:02:29,182 "Florestan" from Schumann's piano suite "Carnival." The whole piece, 39 00:02:30,650 --> 00:02:33,453 "Carnival" is based on a wildly imaginative 40 00:02:33,453 --> 00:02:36,756 premise he composed when he was 25. 41 00:02:36,756 --> 00:02:38,324 He was engaged to a woman named Ernestine. 42 00:02:40,293 --> 00:02:41,561 Ernestine came from a town called Asch. 43 00:02:42,462 --> 00:02:44,297 Asch is spelled A-S-C-H, 44 00:02:45,965 --> 00:02:47,467 and Schumann noticed that those letters in Asch 45 00:02:48,968 --> 00:02:49,769 were also letters in his name, in his name, in the Schumann. 46 00:02:51,538 --> 00:02:52,805 They were the only four letters in his name that corresponded 47 00:02:53,806 --> 00:02:55,775 to musical notes. 48 00:02:55,775 --> 00:02:59,546 This is A here -- and S in German is ES or E flat. 49 00:02:59,546 --> 00:03:01,748 So this is S -- this is C -- 50 00:03:03,183 --> 00:03:04,751 and H is the 51 00:03:04,751 --> 00:03:06,553 German counterpart to the note B. So that's H here. 52 00:03:08,154 --> 00:03:10,323 So Schumann played around with these letters, with these notes. 53 00:03:10,957 --> 00:03:16,129 A-S-C-H. 54 00:03:16,129 --> 00:03:17,664 And he came up with... 55 00:03:21,367 --> 00:03:23,369 He said, "All right, 56 00:03:23,369 --> 00:03:24,804 that's one thing I can do with A-S-C-H." 57 00:03:24,804 --> 00:03:25,705 He thought to himself, "What else?" 58 00:03:26,873 --> 00:03:30,210 ASCH, and he invented... 59 00:03:30,210 --> 00:03:39,385 ♪♪ 60 00:03:39,385 --> 00:03:40,019 And he continued thinking to himself, 61 00:03:40,019 --> 00:03:44,557 A-S-C-H 62 00:03:44,557 --> 00:03:45,758 And he came up with... 63 00:03:45,758 --> 00:03:50,196 ♪♪ 64 00:03:50,196 --> 00:03:52,065 To take four kind of random notes. 65 00:03:52,065 --> 00:03:52,365 Yeah. 66 00:03:53,199 --> 00:03:54,934 And do that. 67 00:03:54,934 --> 00:03:57,503 That's unbelievable. 68 00:03:57,503 --> 00:03:59,239 It's certainly not how other people are composing music at this time. 69 00:04:01,674 --> 00:04:03,610 His contemporaries thought the piece was incomprehensible. 70 00:04:03,610 --> 00:04:05,511 Chopin, for instance, 71 00:04:05,511 --> 00:04:07,280 was born the same year as Sharon Chopin, the great Polish composer. 72 00:04:09,048 --> 00:04:10,984 He said that he did not even consider "Carnival" to be music. 73 00:04:12,852 --> 00:04:15,455 So actually, 74 00:04:15,455 --> 00:04:16,889 let me share with you some of what contemporary music critics said. 75 00:04:19,359 --> 00:04:21,761 "An affectation of originality, a superficial knowledge of art, 76 00:04:23,496 --> 00:04:27,066 the absence of true expression, and an infelicitous 77 00:04:27,066 --> 00:04:29,836 distain of form is characterized every work of Robert Schumann. 78 00:04:31,571 --> 00:04:34,140 They're uncouth, faded 79 00:04:34,140 --> 00:04:36,576 and wanting in clearness. 80 00:04:37,877 --> 00:04:40,113 This would be neither the first nor the last time 81 00:04:40,113 --> 00:04:43,216 that a great piece of music was not immediately appreciated 82 00:04:43,216 --> 00:04:46,552 as such. The imaginative leaps of the truly creative mind 83 00:04:47,987 --> 00:04:50,623 often take years, sometimes even decades 84 00:04:50,623 --> 00:04:52,625 to be appreciated and enjoyed. 85 00:04:54,294 --> 00:04:57,697 And I feel that it actually is important to understand Schumann's 86 00:04:57,697 --> 00:04:59,866 mind in order to appreciate his music.