led zeal. He also made such
good progress at school that at Easter 1820 he was able to enter the
Zwickau Academy.

The love for music grew with each day. With a boy of his own age,
as devoted as himself to music, four-hand works of Haydn, Mozart and
Beethoven, as well as pieces by Weber, Hummel and Czerny, were played
almost daily. The greatest ecstasy was caused by the arrival of a
Steck piano at the Schumann home, which showed that father Schumann
endeavored to further his boy's taste for music. About this time
Robert found by chance, the orchestral score of an old Italian
overture. He conceived the bold idea of performing it. So a bit of
an orchestra was gathered among the boys he knew, who could play an
instrument. There were two violins, two flutes, a clarinet and two
horns. Robert, who conducted with great fervor, supplied as best he
could the other parts on the piano.

This effort was a great incentive to the boys, principally to Robert,
who began to arrange things for his little band and composed music for
the one hundred fiftieth Psalm. This was in his twelfth year.

August Schumann was more and more convinced that Providence had
intended his son to become a musician, and though the mother struggled
against it, he resolved to see that Robert had a musical education.
Carl Maria von Weber, then living in Dresden, was written to, and
answered he was willing to accept the boy as a student. The plan never
came to anything however, for what reason is not known. The boy was
left now to direct his own musical studies, just when he needed an
expert guiding hand. He had no rivals in his native town, where he
sometimes appeared as a pianist. It was no wonder he thought he was on
the right road, and that he tried more than ever to win his mother's
consent to his following music as a life work.

And now a great change took place in the lively, fun-loving boy.
He seemed to lose his gay spirits and become reflective, silent and
reserved. This condition of mind never left him, but grew into a
deeper reserve as the years passed.

Two events deeply stirred Robert's nature with great force--the death
of his father in 1826, and his acquaintance with the works of Jean
Paul. The Jean Paul fever attacked him in all its transcendentalism,
and this influence remained through life, with more or less intensity.

After his father left him, Robert found he must make a choice of a
profession. His mother had set her heart on his makin