Robert Schumann (1810-1856): music as literature translation

This article is part of a broader research project, which aims to create an annotated translation of Robert Schumann's Gesammelte Schriften uber Musik und Musiker (Collected Writings on Music and Musicians) into Portuguese. Such a translation Will give special consideration to Schumann's relations with the German Romantic Movement Literature and Aesthetics - and with the foundations of musical critique. In this introductory article. I attempt to present a bird's-eve view of Schumann's interest in foreign languages and literatures and some examples of Schumann's musical rendering of his literary experience as a writer, reader, translator and editor. Such renderings reveal the composer in two different aspects: as a spokesman, in music, for the exponents of German Classicism and Romanticism, and as an eager reader, who, in his compositions, provided a very personal interpretation of the literary canon of his time.