In May 2013 the community choir to which I belong, the Cherry Creek Chorale, performed a concert with the title “Isn’t It Romantic?” One of the pieces was the rousing song “Zigeunerleben” by Robert Schumann. I got a little tickled with myself when I realized later that not only did I not read a translation of the text in preparation for the concert, having only a vague idea that it was something about gypsies, but I also assumed that the song was by Robert Schubert. (The confusion of Schubert and Schumann is very common; East Germany issued a commemorative stamp in 1956 that had a picture of Schuman against a backdrop of music by Schubert; the stamp had to be re-issued in corrected form.) But during some later work on Johannes Brahms, who was closely associated with the Schumanns, I realized that Robert was a fascinating study unto himself. There’s no way I can do justice to the whole complicated story of this complicated man, so let me attempt to explain how he came to write this song.