Clara Schumann (1819-1896) was a piano virtuoso and composer, at a time when women rarely performed or wrote their own work. Collaborations with her husband resulted in one of the most fruitful musical partnerships of the early nineteenth century.
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Hello, from Wonder Media Network I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today’s musician was a piano virtuoso and composer, at a time when women rarely performed or wrote their own work. Although many of her compositions remain unknown, her collaborations with her husband resulted in one of the most fruitful musical partnerships of the early nineteenth century.
Let’s talk about Clara Schumann.
Clara Josephine Wieck was born in 1819 in Leipzig, Germany. Her father, Fredrich Wiek, was a sought after piano instructor. Fredrich married one of his students, Marianne, and together they had five children: Clara and her four brothers. When Clara was five, her parents divorced. Clara and her brothers became the legal property of their father. Clara’s mother remarried and moved to Berlin, which limited contact between them to letters and periodic visits.
Fredrich recognized Clara’s early musical talents and dedicated himself to her musical education. Under his tutelage she studied violin, piano, music theory and business. Fredrich even sent Clara around Germany to study with some of the finest composition teachers in Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin.
In 1829, at the age of 11, Clara made her performance debut in the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Clara began touring in Germany, France and Austria. She was one of the few pianists of her time who played by memory and she performed not only her own compositions, but also those that were more well known by Johann Sebastian Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Robert Schumann.
Robert Schumann, due to a self-inflicted injury to his right hand, was the only composer among his contemporaries who did not play his own work. Clara, took on this work for him. In 1931, at the age of 12, she gave her first performance of his piano composition, Papillons.
Over the course of the next five years, Clara became wildly infatuated with Robert Schumann. The match made her father very concerned. At this point, Clara was already a famous and successful performer. Robert was a relatively unknown composer. Fredrich saw the match as beneath Clara, and so, at the age of seventeen, Clara’s father sent her to Dresden in hopes of severing ties between the two.
But, as is the case with many famed love stories, parental intervention didn’t go as planned. Despite Clara’s demanding performing and touring schedule, Clara and Robert wrote to each other in secret over many months, using an intermediary to deliver their letters.
When the two decided to wed they faced strong resistance from Clara’s father. In 19th century Germany, a woman could not marry without her father’s consent, and Fredrich refused to give it. Robert took Fredrich to court over his refusal and Fredrich countered with charges against Robert. After nearly a year of legal battles, the court finally sanctioned the marriage.
The couple married in September of 1840, one day before Clara’s 21st birthday, and settled in Leipzig. Four years later, Robert suffered a severe breakdown and the couple relocated to Dresden at the recommendation of Robert’s doctors.
Over the course of their marriage, Clara was pregnant ten times and had eight children. Despite having such a large family, Clara continued to perform, compose, teach piano and support Robert in his career. Despite Clara’s existing professional success, it was Robert’s career that was prioritized in the marriage. Nevertheless, Clara used the arrangement to her advantage. She performed her own arrangements of Robert’s pieces during her concert tours and Robert, in-kind, would insert phrases from Clara’s compositions into his pieces.
Over the next several years, Robert’s long battle with mental illness grew increasingly troubled. In 1865, Robert attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Rhine river. Nearby fisherman pulled him out of the icy water, saving his life. As a result, he was placed in a sanatorium and, because doctors considered him dangerous, Clara was forbidden to visit him for the two and half years he was there. Clara was permitted to see Robert just days before he passed away in July of 1856. Leaving Clara a widow at the age of 37.
Following Robert’s death, Clara resumed her concert tours but stopped composing. In 1878, she became the principal piano teacher at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. She made her final public performance in 1891 but continued to teach until her death in May of 1896, at the age of 77.
In an era in which women rarely performed in public or composed their own works, Clara Schumann did both. Her own compositions remained largely unknown until the latter half of the twentieth century. Still today, many of Clara’s compositions are kept by private collectors, so the full breadth of her musical achievement remains lost to the public.
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Talk to you tomorrow!