Schumann showed a preference for music and literature at an early age, eventually choosing to study music instead of law. In 1834 he founded a music journal, where he was the editor and lead writer for ten years. During this time he composed piano music and married Clara Schumann in 1840. He began to compose orchestral music in 1841: symphonies and his Piano Concerto. While Clara was away on a concert tour in 1842, he composed chamber music and in 1843, he composed choral music. The latter included a secular oratorio and Goethe’s Faust; he also began teaching at a conservatory in Leipzig. He proved to be an ineffective teacher and fell into a depression. It was not until 1850 when he became Düsseldorf’s music director that he began prolific writing again. It was at this time that he wrote his Cello Concerto and Rhenish Symphony (no. 3). In 1854, he began to suffer hallucinations and entered an asylum where he died in 1856.