Robert Schumann sketched his First Symphony in only four days--a remarkable feat for an artist poorly versed in the genre. In this study, Jon Finson examines these sketches to show how the composer's experience with symphonic composition and his autodidactic course in orchestration assisted in the rapid fashioning of this symphony--a work deliberately calculated to establish his reputation as a major artist. Finson also provides examples of the autograph score and subsequent editions of the Spring Symphony to reveal Schumann's empirical method of orchestration and his concern for the exigencies of performance.