Clara Schumann was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished
pianistsThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
of the
Romantic eraRomantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
. She exerted her influence over a 61-year concert career, changing the format and repertoire of the piano recital and the tastes of the listening public.
Her husband was the composer
Robert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
. She and her husband encouraged
Johannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, and she was the first pianist to give public performances of some of Brahms' works, notably the
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by HandelThe Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, is a work for solo piano written by Johannes Brahms in 1861. It consists of a set of twenty-five variations and a concluding fugue, all based on a theme from George Frideric Handel's Harpsichord Suite No...
.
Early life
Clara Josephine Wieck was born in
LeipzigLeipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
on 13 September 1819 to
FriedrichJohann Gottlob Friedrich Wieck was a noted German piano teacher, voice teacher, owner of a piano store, and music reviewer. He is remembered as the teacher of his daughter, Clara, a child prodigy who was doing international concert tours by age eleven and who later married Robert Schumann...
and Marianne Wieck (
née Tromlitz). Her parents divorced when she was four years old; Clara was raised by her father. In March 1828, at the age of eight, the young Clara Wieck performed at the
LeipzigLeipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
home of Dr. Ernst Carus, director of a mental hospital at
Colditz CastleColditz Castle is a Renaissance castle in the town of Colditz near Leipzig, Dresden, and Chemnitz in the state of Saxony in Germany. Used as a workhouse for the indigent and a mental institution for over 100 years, it gained international fame as a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II for...
, and met another gifted young pianist invited to the musical evening named
Robert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
, nine years older than her. Schumann admired Clara's playing so much that he asked permission from his mother to discontinue his studies of the law, which had never interested him much, and take music lessons with Clara's father, Friedrich Wieck. While taking lessons, he took rooms in the Wieck household, staying about a year.
In 1830, at the age of eleven, Clara left on a concert tour to
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
via other European cities, accompanied by her father. She gave her first solo concert at the Wombats.
Leipzig
GewandhausGewandhaus is a concert hall in Leipzig, Germany. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. The first Gewandhaus was built in 1781 by architect Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe. The second opened on 11 December 1884, and was destroyed in the...
. In
WeimarWeimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
, she performed a bravura piece by
Henri HerzHenri Herz was a pianist and composer, Austrian by birth, and French by domicile.Herz was born Heinrich Herz in Vienna...
for
GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
, who presented her with a medal with his portrait and a written note saying, "For the gifted artist Clara Wieck." During that tour,
Niccolò PaganiniNiccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...
was in Paris, and he offered to appear with her. However, her Paris recital was poorly attended as many people had fled the city due to an outbreak of
choleraCholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
.
The appearance of this artist can be regarded as epoch-making.... In her creative hands, the most ordinary passage, the most routine motive acquires a significant meaning, a color, which only those with the most consummate artistry can give. |
| An anonymous music critic, writing of Clara Wieck's 1837–1838 Vienna recitals |
At the age of 18, Clara Wieck performed a series of recitals in
ViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
from December 1837 to April 1838. Austria's leading dramatic poet,
Franz GrillparzerFranz Seraphicus Grillparzer was an Austrian writer who is chiefly known for his dramas. He also wrote the oration for Ludwig van Beethoven's funeral.-Biography:...
, wrote a poem entitled "Clara Wieck and Beethoven" after hearing Wieck perform the
AppassionataLudwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 is a piano sonata. It is considered one of the three great piano sonatas of his middle period . It was composed during 1804 and 1805, and perhaps 1806, and was dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick...
Sonata during one of these recitals. Wieck performed to sell-out crowds and laudatory critical reviews; Benedict Randhartinger, a friend of
Franz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, gave Wieck an autograph copy of Schubert's
Erlkönig, inscribing it "To the celebrated artist, Clara Wieck."
Frédéric ChopinFrédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
described her playing to
Franz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, who came to hear one of Wieck's concerts and subsequently "praised her extravagantly in a letter that was published in the Parisian
Revue et Gazette Musicale and later, in translation, in the Leipzig journal
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik." On 15 March, Wieck was named a
Königliche und Kaiserliche Kammervirtuosin ("Royal and Imperial Chamber Virtuoso"),
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
's highest musical honor.
In her early years her repertoire, selected by her father, was showy and popular, in the style common to the time, with works by
KalkbrennerFriedrich Wilhelm Michael Kalkbrenner was a German pianist, composer, piano teacher and piano manufacturer who spent most of his life in England and France. Before the advent of Frédéric Chopin, Sigismond Thalberg and Franz Liszt, Kalkbrenner was by many considered to be the foremost pianist in...
,
HenseltAdolf von Henselt was a German composer and pianist.-Life:Henselt was born at Schwabach, in Bavaria. At the age of three he began to learn the violin, and at five the piano under Frau von Fladt...
,
ThalbergSigismond Thalberg was a composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century.- Descent and family background :...
, Herz,
PixisJohann Peter Pixis was a German pianist and composer born in Mannheim, Germany.He lived in Paris between 1825 and 1845, where he worked as a concert pianist...
,
CzernyCarl Czerny was an Austrian pianist, composer and teacher. He is best remembered today for his books of études for the piano. Czerny's music was profoundly influenced by his teachers, Muzio Clementi, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Antonio Salieri and Ludwig van Beethoven.-Early life:Carl Czerny was born...
, and her own compositions. As she matured, however, becoming more established and planning her own programs, she began to play works by the new Romantic composers, such as Chopin,
MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
and, of course, Robert Schumann, as well as the great, less showy, more "difficult" composers of the past, such as
ScarlattiAlessandro Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. He was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti.-Life:Scarlatti was born in...
,
BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
,
MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
,
BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, and Schubert. She also frequently appeared in chamber music recitals of works by
HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms.
Marriage
Robert Schumann had been attracted to Clara since she was fifteen. By the time she was seventeen, Schumann was in love with her. The next year (1837), Schumann asked her father Friedrich for Clara's hand in marriage, but he refused.
During the next year (Clara's nineteenth), Friedrich did everything he ever could to prevent her from marrying Schumann, forcing the lovers to take In 1853,
Johannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, aged twenty, met Clara and Robert in
DüsseldorfDüsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
and immediately impressed both of them with his talent. Brahms became a lifelong friend to Clara, sustaining her through the illness of Robert, asking for her advice about new compositions, even caring for her young children while she went on tour. They remained good friends up until Clara's death; however, there is no historic evidence that their relationship was ever more than just friendship.
Clara Schumann had eight children: Marie (1841-1929), Elise (1843-1928), Julie (1845-1872), Emil (1846-1847), Ludwig (1848-1899), Ferdinand (1849-1891), Eugenie (1851-1938) and Felix (1854-1879).
Later career
Clara Schumann's reputation brought her into contact with the leading musicians of the day, including
MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
,
ChopinFrédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
, and
LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
. She also met
violinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist
Joseph JoachimJoseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...
who became one of her frequent performance partners.
Clara Schumann often took charge of the finances and general household affairs due to Robert's mental instability. Part of her responsibility included making money, which she did by giving concerts, although she continued to play throughout her life not only for the income, but because she was a concert artist by training and by nature. Robert, while admiring her talent, wanted a traditional wife to bear children and make a happy home, which in his eyes and the eyes of society were in direct conflict with the life of a performer. Furthermore, while she loved touring, Robert hated it.
After Robert's death (July 29, 1856), Clara devoted herself principally to the interpretation of his works. But when she first visited England in 1856 largely through the good offices of
William Sterndale BennettSir William Sterndale Bennett was an English composer. He ranks as the most distinguished English composer of the Romantic school-Biography:...
, the English composer and friend of her late husband, the critics received Robert's music with a chorus of disapproval. She returned to
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1865 and continued her visits annually, with the exception of four seasons, until 1882. She also appeared there each year from 1885 to 1888.
She played a particular role in restoring Brahms's
D minor concertoThe Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15, is a work for piano and orchestra composed by Johannes Brahms in 1858. The composer gave the work's public debut in Hanover, Germany, the following year.-Form:...
to the general repertory; it had fallen out of favour after its premiere, and was only rehabilitated in the 1870s, thanks mainly to the efforts of Clara Schumann and Brahms himself.
She was initially interested in the works of Liszt, but later developed an outright hostility to him. She ceased to play any of his works; she suppressed her husband's dedication to Liszt of his
Fantasie in C majorThe Fantasie in C major, Op. 17, was written by Robert Schumann in 1836. It was revised prior to publication in 1839, when it was dedicated to Franz Liszt. It is generally described as one of Schumann's greatest works for solo piano, and is one of the central works of the early Romantic period. ...
when she published Schumann's complete works; and she refused to attend a Beethoven centenary festival in Vienna in 1870 when she heard that Liszt and
Richard WagnerWilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
would be participating.
She was particularly scathing of Wagner. Of
TannhäuserTannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
, she said that he "wears himself out in atrocities"; she described
LohengrinLohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
as "horrible"; and she wrote that
Tristan und IsoldeTristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
was "the most repugnant thing I have ever seen or heard in all my life".
In 1878 she was appointed teacher of the piano at the
Hoch ConservatoryDr. Hoch’s Konservatorium - Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on September 22, 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for music and the arts was established for all age groups. ...
in Frankfurt am Main, a post she held until 1892, and in which she contributed greatly to the improvement of modern piano playing technique.
She held
Anton BrucknerAnton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
, whose
7th SymphonyAnton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E major is one of his best-known symphonies. It was written between 1881 and 1883 and was revised in 1885. It is dedicated to Ludwig II of Bavaria. The premiere, given under Arthur Nikisch and the Gewandhaus Orchestra in the opera house at Leipzig on 30...
she heard in 1885, in very low esteem. She wrote to Brahms, describing it as "a horrible piece". But she was more impressed with
Richard StraussRichard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's early Symphony in F minor in 1887.
Clara Schumann played her last public concert in Frankfurt on March 12, 1891. The last work she played was Brahms's
Variations on a Theme by Haydn, in the piano-duet version.
She suffered a stroke on March 26, 1896, dying on May 20, at age 76. She is buried at
BonnBonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
's
Alter Friedhof (Old Cemetery) with her husband.
She was portrayed onscreen by
Katharine HepburnKatharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
in the 1947 film
Song of LoveSong of Love is a biopic starring Katharine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Robert Walker, and Leo G. Carroll, directed by Clarence Brown and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer....
, in which
Paul Henreid played
Robert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
and
Robert Walker-Creative arts:*Robert Walker , American actor*Robert Walker , English portrait painter*Rob Walker , Australian poet*Robert Joseph Walker , Australian Aboriginal poet*Robert W...
starred as a young
Johannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
.
Legacy
Although for many years after her death Clara Schumann was not widely recognized as a composer, as a pianist she made an impression which lasts until today. She was one of the first pianists to perform from memory, making that the standard for concertizing. Trained by her father to play by ear and to memorize, she gave public performances from memory as early as age thirteen, a fact noted as something exceptional by her reviewers.
She was also instrumental in changing the kind of programs expected of concert pianists. In her early career, before her marriage to Robert, she played what was then customary, mainly bravura pieces designed to showcase the artist's technique, often in the form of arrangements or variations on popular themes from operas, written by virtuosos such as Thalberg, Herz, or Henselt. And, as it was also customary to play one's own compositions, she included at least one of her own works in every program, works such as her Variations on a Theme by Bellini (Op. 8) and her popular Scherzo (Op. 10). However, after settling into married life, probably under the influence of Robert, her performances focused almost exclusively on more serious music by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Schumann.
Clara Schumann's influence has reached us as well through her teaching, which emphasized a singing tone and expression, with technique entirely subordinated to the intentions of the composer. One of her students,
Mathilde VerneMathilde Verne was an English pianist and teacher, of German descent.She was born Mathilde Wurm, in Southampton, England, the fourth of ten children, all of whom were musically gifted. She was initially a student of Franklin Taylor. She had the opportunity to play to Clara Schumann, who took her...
, carried her teaching to
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
where she taught, among others, Solomon; while another of her students,
Carl FriedbergCarl Rudolf Hermann Friedberg was a German pianist and teacher.Friedberg studied piano with James Kwast and with Clara Schumann at the Hoch Conservatory, Frankfurt. He later became a teacher there and later at the Cologne Conservatory...
, carried the tradition to the
Juilliard SchoolThe Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
in
AmericaThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where his students included
Malcolm Frager-Life and career:Frager was born in St. Louis, Missouri and studied with Carl Friedberg in New York City from 1949 until Friedberg's death in 1955. In 1957 he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University with a major in Russian...
and
Bruce HungerfordBruce Hungerford was an Australian pianist.Born in Korumburra, Victoria, Bruce Hungerford was originally named Leonard Hungerford...
.
And, of course, Clara was instrumental in getting the works of Robert Schumann recognized, appreciated and added to the repertoire. She promoted him tirelessly, beginning when his music was unknown or disliked, when the only other important figure in music to play Schumann occasionally was Liszt, and continuing until the end of her long career.
Character
Clara Schumann was the main breadwinner for her family through giving concerts and teaching, and she did most of the work of organizing her own concert tours. She refused to accept charity when a group of musicians offered to put on a benefit concert for her. In addition to raising her own large family, when one of her children became incapacitated, she took on responsibility for raising her grandchildren. During the
May Uprising in DresdenThe May Uprising took place in Dresden, Germany in 1849; it was one of the last of the series of events known as the Revolutions of 1848.-Events leading to the May Uprising:...
in 1849, she famously walked into the city through the front lines, defying a pack of armed men who confronted her, rescued her children, then walked back out of the city through the dangerous areas again.
Her family life was punctuated by tragedy. Four of her eight children and her husband predeceased her, and her husband and one of her sons ended their lives in insane asylums. Her first son Emil died in 1847, aged only one. Her husband Robert had a mental collapse, attempted suicide in 1854, and was committed to an insane asylum for the last two years of his life. In 1872 her daughter Julie died, leaving two small children. In 1879, her son Felix, aged 25, died. Her son Ludwig suffered from mental illness, like his father, and, in her words, had to be "buried alive" in an institution. Her son Ferdinand died at the age of 43 and she was required to raise his children. She herself became deaf in later life and she often needed a wheelchair.
Clara's portrait is also used on a front of a 100DM bill.
Music of Clara Schumann
As part of the broad musical education given her by her father, Clara Wieck learned to compose, and from childhood to middle age she produced a good body of work. At age fourteen she wrote her piano concerto, with some help from Robert Schumann, and performed it at age sixteen at the Leipzig Gewandhaus with Mendelssohn conducting.
As she grew older, however, she lost confidence in herself as a composer, writing, "I once believed that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose — there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?" In fact, Wieck-Schumann composed nothing after the age of thirty-six.
Today her compositions are increasingly performed and recorded. Her works include songs, piano pieces, a piano concerto, a
piano trioA piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music...
, choral pieces, and three Romances for violin and piano. Inspired by her husband's birthday, the three Romances were composed in 1853 and dedicated to
Joseph JoachimJoseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...
, who performed them for
George V of HanoverGeorge V was King of Hanover, the only child of Ernest Augustus I, and a grandchild of King George III of the United Kingdom. In the peerage of Great Britain, he was 2nd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, 2nd Earl of Armagh...
. He declared them a "marvellous, heavenly pleasure."
Wieck-Schumann was the authoritative editor of her husband's works for the publishing firm of
Breitkopf & HärtelBreitkopf & Härtel is the world's oldest music publishing house. The firm was founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf . The catalogue currently contains over 1000 composers, 8000 works and 15,000 music editions or books on music. The name "Härtel" was added when Gottfried...
.
Quotations
"Clara has composed a series of small pieces, which show a musical and tender ingenuity such as she has never attained before. But to have children, and a husband who is always living in the realm of imagination, does not go together with composing. She cannot work at it regularly, and I am often disturbed to think how many profound ideas are lost because she cannot work them out."
"Composing gives me great pleasure...there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a world of sound."
Works
Clara Schumann's published works are listed below by date of publication. Twenty-five additional unpublished or lost works may be found in Reich, Nancy B.,
Clara Schumann, The Artist and The Woman, appendix.
- 1831· Quatre Polonaises pour le pianoforte, Op. 1.
- 1832· 9 Caprices en forme de valse pour le piano, Op. 2. Dedicated to Madame Henriette Foerster, née Weicke.
- 1833· Romance variée pour le piano, Op. 3 (C major). Dedicated to Monsieur Robert Schumann.
- 1834· Walzer fűr Gesang und Klavier. Song with text by Johann Peter Lyser. Published in collection Lyser's Liedersammlung.
- 1835· Valses romantiques pour le piano, Op. 4. Dedicated to Madame Emma Eggers née Garlichs. The Valses were orchestrated but none of the instrumental parts survive.
- 1835· Quatre pieces caractéristiques, Op. 5 (1. Le Sabbat; 2. Caprice à la Boléro; 3. Romance: 4. Ballet des Revenants). Dedicated to Mademoiselle Sophie Kaskel.
- 1836· 6 Soirées musicales, Op. 6 (1. Toccatina in A minor; 2. Nocturne in F Major; 3. Mazurka in G minor; 4. Ballade in D minor; 5. Mazurka in G major; 6. Polonaise in A minor). Dedicated to Madame Henriette Voigt.
- 1836· Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7: Premier concert pour le piano-forte avec accompagnement d'orchestre (ou de quintour). (1 Allegro maestoso; 2 Romanze. Andante non troppo con grazia; 3 Finale. Allegro non troppo; allegro molto). Dedicated to Monsieur Louis Spohr. A draft exists of the last movement, orchestrated by Robert Schumann and in Schumann's hand.
- 1837· Variations de concert pour le pianoforte, sur la Cavatine du Pirate, de Bellini, Op. 8. Dedicated to Monsieur Adolph Henselt.
- 1838· Impromptu in G major. Souvenir de Vienne.
- 1839· Scherzo No. 1 in D minor, Op. 10.
- 1840· Trois Romances pour le pianoforte, Op. 11 (1. E-flat minor, Andante; 2. G minor. Andante; 3. A major, Moderato). Dedicated to Monsieur Robert Schumann.
- 1841· Am Strande. Song with text by Robert Burns. Published in Neue Zeitung für Musik, July 1841.
- 1841· 3 songs: Zwőlf Gedichte aus F. Rűckert's Liebesfrűling fűr Gesang und pianoforte von Robert und Clara Schumann, Op. 12: 2. Er ist gekommen in Sturm und Regen; 4. Liebst du um Schönheit; 11. Warum willst du and’re Fragen? (these were published as part of Robert Schumann's Gedichte aus Liebesfrühling, Op. 37)
- 1841· Die gute Nacht, die ich dir sage.
- 1842· Piano Sonata in G minor (1. Allegro; 2. Adagio con espressione e ben legato; 3. Scherzo; Trio; 4 Rondo).
- 1843· 6 songs: Sechs lieder mit begleitung des pianoforte, Op. 13: 1. Ihr Bildnis. Ich stand in dunklen Träumen; 2. Sie liebten sich beide; 3. Liebeszauber; 4. Der Mond kommt still gegangen; 5. Ich hab’in deinem Auge; 6. Die stille Lotusblume. Dedicated to Queen Caroline Amalie of Denmark.
- 1843· O weh des Scheidens, das er tat.
- 1844· Impromptu in E major (published in Album du gaulois, 1885).
- 1845· Scherzo No. 2 in C minor, Op. 14: Deuxième scherzo pour le pianoforte, Op. 14. Dedicated to Madame Tutein née Siboni.
- 1845· Quatre pièces fugitives, Op. 15 (1. F major, Larghetto; 2. A minor, In poco agitato; 3. D major, Andante espressivo; 4. G major, Scherzo). Dedicated to Marie Wieck. Scherzo originally composed for unpublished Sonatine.
- 1845· 3 Preludes and Fugues: III Praeludien und fugen für das pianoforte, Op. 16: (1. B flat major; 2. B flat major; 3. D minor).
- 1847· Piano Trio in G minor: Trio fur pianoforte, violine und violoncello, Op. 17: (1. Allegro moderato; 2. Scherzo. Tempo di menuetto; 3. Andante; 4. Allegretto). Some emendations on autograph seem to be by Robert Schumann.
- 1848· Mein Stern ("O du mein Stern"). Song with text by Friederike Serre.
- 1854· Variations on a Theme of Robert Schumann: Variationen für das pianoforte über ein thema von Robert Schumann, Op. 20. Dedicated to Robert Schumann.
- 1855· Drei romanzen für pianoforte, Op. 21. Dedicated to Johannes Brahms.
- 1855· Drei romanzen für pianoforte und violine, Op. 22. Dedicated to Joseph Joachim.
- 1855· Sechs lieder aus jucunde von Hermann Rollet, Op. 23 (1. Was weinst du, Blümein?; 2. An einem lichten Morgen; 3. Geheimes Flüstern; 4. Auf einem grünem Hügel; 5. Das ist ein tag; 6. O lust, O lust. Dedicated to Livia Frege.
- 1885· Impromptu. Published in Album du Galois.
- 1870· Cadenzas (2) for Beethoven Piano Concerto in G Major, op. 58.
- 1870· Cadenzas for Beethoven Piano Concerto in C Minor, op. 37.
- 1891· Cadenzas (2) for Mozart Piano Concerto in D Minor (K. 466).
- 1977· Romanze für Clavier. Published in Clara Schumann, Romantische Klaviermusik, vol. 2.
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