WEBVTT 00:01.234 --> 00:04.304 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% Now, Schumann, I've heard he had bipolar disorder. 00:05.839 --> 00:08.875 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% Interesting question, because it's really difficult doing 00:08.875 --> 00:11.644 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% retrospective psychiatric diagnoses on historical figures. 00:13.580 --> 00:15.749 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% I have enough difficulty getting it right with live patients. 00:16.783 --> 00:18.084 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% Exactly. 00:18.084 --> 00:19.719 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% But Schumann wrote letters 00:21.554 --> 00:23.323 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% which really clearly lay out a sense of mania. 00:24.324 --> 00:26.192 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% He said," I feel so pressured." 00:26.192 --> 00:28.862 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% "I feel in a divine mood.: 00:28.862 --> 00:32.132 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% "I'm so overflowing with sounds that if I could just 00:32.132 --> 00:33.533 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% scribble them all down, I would have composed 100 symphonies." 00:35.135 --> 00:36.269 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% That sounds like a manic episode. Sure. 00:37.804 --> 00:39.172 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% There were also long stretches where he didn't compose at all. 00:41.207 --> 00:43.610 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Because when he was depressed, he not only had trouble concentrating, be it 00:45.011 --> 00:48.448 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% diminished energy, felt hopeless, suicidal thoughts. 00:50.784 --> 00:53.686 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% He had this delusional conviction that he was actually a worthless composer. 00:53.686 --> 00:55.255 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Suffered. He suffered. He suffered enormously. 00:57.123 --> 00:59.793 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% He invented two imaginary companions to comfort him during times of stress. 01:01.428 --> 01:02.629 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% And he called them Eusebius and Florestan. 01:04.464 --> 01:09.335 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Eusebius: a melancholic, introverted poetic dreamer. 01:10.403 --> 01:13.540 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% Florestan, by constrast, was an 01:13.540 --> 01:15.408 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% aggressive, impetuous, frenetic individual. 01:17.377 --> 01:20.447 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% Probably not too much of a stretch to suggest that 01:20.447 --> 01:22.615 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Eusebius represented the depressive side 01:24.384 --> 01:27.554 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% of Schumann's persona and Florestan represented the manic side. 01:27.554 --> 01:29.556 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Now, you know, presence of imaginary companions. 01:31.157 --> 01:34.327 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% It's very common among children. 01:34.327 --> 01:38.998 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% When grown-ups conjure up imaginary companions, it's either 01:38.998 --> 01:42.836 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% a sign of a very active imagination or warning sign that psychosis is imminent. 01:44.838 --> 01:45.472 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% In Schumann's case, it was 01:45.472 --> 01:47.607 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% a sign of both. Wow. 01:48.641 --> 02:08.094 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% ♪♪ 02:08.094 --> 02:09.629 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% Fortunately, there's a piano in the library's main hall 02:12.031 --> 02:14.200 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% because Richard is the only psychiatrist in the world who's a Schumann expert 02:15.401 --> 02:17.270 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% and a Juilliard trained concert pianist. 02:17.837 --> 02:20.306 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% ♪♪ 02:22.308 --> 02:24.911 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% That is from a piece called 02:24.911 --> 02:29.182 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% "Florestan" from Schumann's piano suite "Carnival." The whole piece, 02:30.650 --> 02:33.453 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% "Carnival" is based on a wildly imaginative 02:33.453 --> 02:36.756 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% premise he composed when he was 25. 02:36.756 --> 02:38.324 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% He was engaged to a woman named Ernestine. 02:40.293 --> 02:41.561 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Ernestine came from a town called Asch. 02:42.462 --> 02:44.297 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% Asch is spelled A-S-C-H, 02:45.965 --> 02:47.467 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% and Schumann noticed that those letters in Asch 02:48.968 --> 02:49.769 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% were also letters in his name, in his name, in the Schumann. 02:51.538 --> 02:52.805 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% They were the only four letters in his name that corresponded 02:53.806 --> 02:55.775 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% to musical notes. 02:55.775 --> 02:59.546 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% This is A here -- and S in German is ES or E flat. 02:59.546 --> 03:01.748 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% So this is S -- this is C -- 03:03.183 --> 03:04.751 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% and H is the 03:04.751 --> 03:06.553 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% German counterpart to the note B. So that's H here. 03:08.154 --> 03:10.323 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% So Schumann played around with these letters, with these notes. 03:10.957 --> 03:16.129 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% A-S-C-H. 03:16.129 --> 03:17.664 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% And he came up with... 03:21.367 --> 03:23.369 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% He said, "All right, 03:23.369 --> 03:24.804 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% that's one thing I can do with A-S-C-H." 03:24.804 --> 03:25.705 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% He thought to himself, "What else?" 03:26.873 --> 03:30.210 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% ASCH, and he invented... 03:30.210 --> 03:39.385 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% ♪♪ 03:39.385 --> 03:40.019 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% And he continued thinking to himself, 03:40.019 --> 03:44.557 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% A-S-C-H 03:44.557 --> 03:45.758 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% And he came up with... 03:45.758 --> 03:50.196 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% ♪♪ 03:50.196 --> 03:52.065 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% To take four kind of random notes. 03:52.065 --> 03:52.365 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% Yeah. 03:53.199 --> 03:54.934 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% And do that. 03:54.934 --> 03:57.503 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% That's unbelievable. 03:57.503 --> 03:59.239 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% It's certainly not how other people are composing music at this time. 04:01.674 --> 04:03.610 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% His contemporaries thought the piece was incomprehensible. 04:03.610 --> 04:05.511 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% Chopin, for instance, 04:05.511 --> 04:07.280 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% was born the same year as Sharon Chopin, the great Polish composer. 04:09.048 --> 04:10.984 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% He said that he did not even consider "Carnival" to be music. 04:12.852 --> 04:15.455 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% So actually, 04:15.455 --> 04:16.889 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% let me share with you some of what contemporary music critics said. 04:19.359 --> 04:21.761 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% "An affectation of originality, a superficial knowledge of art, 04:23.496 --> 04:27.066 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% the absence of true expression, and an infelicitous 04:27.066 --> 04:29.836 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% distain of form is characterized every work of Robert Schumann. 04:31.571 --> 04:34.140 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% They're uncouth, faded 04:34.140 --> 04:36.576 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% and wanting in clearness. 04:37.877 --> 04:40.113 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% This would be neither the first nor the last time 04:40.113 --> 04:43.216 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% that a great piece of music was not immediately appreciated 04:43.216 --> 04:46.552 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% as such. The imaginative leaps of the truly creative mind 04:47.987 --> 04:50.623 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% often take years, sometimes even decades 04:50.623 --> 04:52.625 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% to be appreciated and enjoyed. 04:54.294 --> 04:57.697 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And I feel that it actually is important to understand Schumann's 04:57.697 --> 04:59.866 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% mind in order to appreciate his music.