Robert Schumann (June 8, 1810 – July 29, 1856), a German composer and pianist, was one of the most important Romantic composers of the first half of the nineteenth century, as well as a highly regarded music critic. An intellectual and an aesthete, his music reflects the deeply personal nature of Romanticism. Introspective and often whimsical, his early music was an attempt to break with the tradition of the classical music era and form and structure which he thought too restrictive. Little understood in his lifetime, much of his music is now regarded as daringly original in harmony, rhythm, and form. He stands in the front rank of German composers of the nineteenth century.

Schumann, can be said to be one of the first truly Romantic composers of the central European music tradition. As with many composers of the Romantic period, the literature of the era played heavily into the inspiration of his creative output. He was a person given to emotional extremes and his marriage to the gifted pianist and composer Clara Wieck would become a stabilizing aspect in his life.

Schumann's attitude reflects a central tenet of the Romanticism spirit, namely that music (or any artistic expression) is a direct outpouring of an artist's innermost feelings and emotions. As musicologist Danial J. Grout suggests, "In a very general sense, all art may be said to be Romantic; for, though it may take its materials from everyday life, it transforms them and thus creates a new world which is necessarily, to a greater or lesser degree, remote from the every day world.

"His music reflected his personal views in almost autobiographical ways. He once stated: "I am affected by everything that goes on in the world—politics, literature, people—I think it over in my own way, and then I long to express my feelings in music."