175).
While studying with Wieck, who he had moved in with, he also began studying composition with Heinrich Dorn, conductor of the Leipzig opera. Before Schumann could ever begin performing as a professional, he injured one of his fingers beyond repair; his eagerness to succeed in the lessons given to him, or perhaps his sheer impatience, led to the invention of a device designed to stretch and improve the independence of his fingers. The radical shortcut failed, rendering him unable to play at full potential. Unfortunately, the ailment never went away, ending any hopes he ever had of being a performance artist, and, indeed, ruining those of his teacher, Wieck. Although his composition lessons were not impeded by the decimating injury, and his strength did, in fact, lie in creating his own pieces, a sense of loss is felt when one examines Schumann's praise of his contemporary pianists. In a review published in the Leipzig Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung on December 7, 1831, Schumann wrote, "With the words, Hats off, gentlemen, a genius!' Eusebius spread out before us a piece of music- (Pleasants, 1965, p. 15). He goes on to say, toward the end of the article, "obvious as Chopin's genius may be, I, too bow my head to such inspiration, such high endeavor, such mastery!- (Pleasants, 1965, p. 17). One can feel a sense of longing in these words to have the same technical prowess on the piano that Chopin has.
However, the lack of a career as a performing artist did not impair Schumann's desire to be a musician. Coinciding with his love of the composition of music, he also found joy in the critiquing of music. The aforementioned article was his debut as a critical writer and displayed his consequently famous, Hats off, gentlemen, a genius."" Three years later, he founded the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, or New Magazine for Music. In the periodical, he critically assessed music for a decade.
