SCHUMANN, Robert (1810-1856). German composer.
Good Autograph Letter Signed to the music publisher [Friedrich Wilhelm] Whistling in Leipzig, 1 page 4to with address on the reverse, Dreseden, 5 July 1845. About the publication of his Studien Für den Pedal-Flügel, op. 56 and mentioning the Quartett (op. 47) and Balladen (op.45 & 49). The a full transcript in German and translation.
Schumann is concerned that the score will be difficult to read, but leaves it to the discretion of the publisher to lay it out as he thinks best. He also enquires as to why Hofmeister is listing the quartets.

'It occurred to me after I had sent my last letter that fifteen lines on one page of the Studies would result in an excessively vague and compressed engraving. I ask you therefore to arrange it as it looks best, and would only remark that I will not claim a fee greater than that for 4½ sheets if a more sumptuous printing comes out at more than 18 pages.
Tell me, how is it that Hofmeister is now also listing my quartets among his publications?
I do not have anything of the ballads yet. ...'

Carl Friedrich [Whistling] (b Kelbra, Thuringia, 1788; d after 1849) studied in Leipzig and after 1811 worked in the Bureau de Musique of Franz Anton Hoffmeister and Ambrosius Kühnel, from 1814 C.F. Peters. Whistling's Handbuch der musikalischen Literatur, a serious attempt at a list of music in print, was first issued in 1817 by Anton Meysel, whose shop Whistling acquired on 13 November 1821. Friedrich Hofmeister issued Whistling's supplements to the Handbuch between 1819 and 1825, although Whistling's own imprint appears after 1826. On 28 May 1830 Hofmeister purchased both the shop and the Handbuch, which by then had evolved into a current list of new music publications, edited by Whistling and later his sons, Friedrich Wilhelm (1809-61) and August Theodor (1812-69). Carl Friedrich later had a music shop in Hamburg, eventually in Vienna, while Friedrich Wilhelm in Leipzig became a publisher in his own right in 1835, introducing important works by Schumann, songs by Robert Franz and other serious vocal and chamber music. In 1858 part of the publishing firm was sold to Gustav Heinze. August Theodor, a senior employee at C.F. Peters in 1855, in 1861 maintained the Whistling imprint, which was dissolved in 1870. [Grove Music Online].

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