Unit XVII The NineteenthCentury Piano Piece

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Unit XVIIThe Nineteenth-Century Piano Piece

• Chapter 47
• Clara Schumann Pianist and Composer

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Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896)

• Universally recognized as one of the most
  distinguished musicians of the nineteenth
  century.
  
• Wife of Robert Schumann

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Renown

• While her magnificent gift as a concert pianist
  was widely known, her talents as a composer went
  unnoticed or ignored during her lifetime.
  
• Only recently has enough pressure come to bear to
  reexamine Clara Schumann's role as a composer of
  note.

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Associations

• Clara's association with Robert Schumann and
  Johannes Brahms as well as with her famous
  teacher/performer father, Friedrich Wieck, put
  her in the center of the artistic life of her
  times.
• She bore up to the stresses of her father's
  violent objections to her marriage to Robert and
  to the demands of her career while raising seven
  children (an eighth died in infancy)

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Clara Schumann as a Performer

• Liszt greatly admired her capabilities as a
  pianist. She, in fact, was more famous than her
  husband during her lifetime. Potential strains
  in their relationship were avoided, however, by
  the fact that she was an ardent champion of his
  music
• Clara was not only the chief interpreter of
  Robert's music, but also became known for her
  definitive readings of the works of Brahms and
  Chopin

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Personal Relations

• Clara's love life was overshadowed by her efforts
  to stave off Robert's breakdown.
  
• After Roberts death, Brahms devotion sustained
  her but could not transform itself into anything
  beyond their very close lifelong friendship.

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Others Attitudes towards her Composing

• Unfortunately, Clara succumbed to the prevailing
  attitude of the day that women's efforts at
  composing could only be passing at best.
  
• While Robert was sympathetic to her creative
  efforts, he feared that the duties of mother and
  wife interfered with her concentration.

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Music

• Clara had 23 opuses, mostly songs and short lyric
  piano music (polonaises, valses romantiques,
  romances, etc.) There are two large works, a
  piano concerto and a piano trio. She also
  composed an homage - the Variations on a Theme by
  Robert Schumann.

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Listening Nocturne, from Music for an Evening
Entertainment (Soirées musicales), Op. 6
(1835-36)

• Composed in 1838 when Clara was 19.
• Exemplifies her ability to write lyrically and to
  use rich harmonies with complex rhythms.
  
• Form is ternary with a coda
• See Listening Guide 28, pp. 257-258, (CD 3/1-4)
  for themes and analysis