Symphony No. 1 (Schumann) Symphony No. 1 (Schumann) The Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 38, also known as the Spring Symphony, is the first symphonic work composed by Robert Schumann. Although he had made some "symphonic attempts" in the autumn of 1840 soon after he married Clara Wieck, he did not compose his first symphony until early 1841. Until then, Schumann was largely known for his works for the piano and for voice. Clara encouraged him to write symphonic music, noting in her diary, "it would be best if he composed for orchestra; his imagination cannot find sufficient scope on the piano...
Friedrich Wieck for 18 days for unruly courtroom behaviour, although it is not clear whether he actually served the sentence. Clara and Robert married on September 12, 1840, the day before her twenty-first birthday. For several months Wieck refused to release to Clara the piano from the Wieck home on which she had played since childhood; finally he was forced to do so by court order. By 1843 Wieck was a grandfather, Clara having given birth to the first two of her eight children, and Schumann was winning a growing reputation as a serious composer. Wieck invited Schumann to a reconciliation, writing,