A Papeer Aal

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Perhaps the most infamous of all music love triangles is that of Robert Schumann, Clara
Schumann, and Johannes Brahms. No one knows for certain what did or did not happen between
Johannes and Clara, either in the time period while Robert was living with Clara or after he had
moved out. This paper delves into what is believed to have happened between Johannes and
Clara during their time in the Schumann house in Dsseldorf, as well as how the music and
writings of Robert, Clara, and Johannes were related to each other and how they became
intertwined into the love triangle they are famously known for having.
The love triangle cannot be understood without first giving a brief introduction to the
composers themselves. Let us begin with Robert Schumann, who we will refer to as R.
Schumann from this point forward. Born in 1810, he was the fifth child of August and Johanna
Christian Schumann, and was born into a family full of literacy and books. Since his father was
a book dealer, Schumann was able to read many of the classics of literature, and this early
literary start can be linked to the way he wrote his music and stories that influenced his art songs
from a young age. In 1820 at the age of ten, Robert and his brother Karl began to create their
own theater productions. This is when, in 1821, Robert made his first performance appearance
as a pianist. At the age of thirteen he began to write poems and other small literary works using
the pseudonym Sklander. At the age of eighteen, his father and nineteen-year-old sister Emilie
died, and he recorded his feelings in his diary which he had started a year before. As one can
see, literary works and writing were deeply rooted in Robert and carried all through his
adolescence and would continue to be very important throughout the rest of his life.
In 1828 Robert first meets Clara Wieck, the woman he will eventually marry after many
battles with her father, Fredrich Wieck. At this point in time, Robert is studying piano with
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Frederich, where he meets some of the musical elite of Leipzig as well as Clara, who is only nine
years old at this point in time, as compared to Robert who is eighteen, twice her age. Robert
moved in with the Wiecks in 1830 and practiced piano practically nonstop every day. He was
not having the best of times in Leipzig, however, due to the fact that Fredrichs main priority was
to promote his daughters career. While in Leipzig, Robert began studying under conductor
Heinrich Dorn, who taught him theory and counterpoint. At this point in time, Robert had a new
diary entitled Leipziger Lebensbuch, in which he recorded the following statement on June 8,
1831: It sometimes seems as if my objective self wanted to separate itself completely from
my subjective self, or as if I stood between my appearance and my actual being, between form
and shadow.
This is the beginning of what seems to be the degradation of Roberts mental

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state, and one should also note that Robert gave nicknames to many of the people in his life.
Fredrich Wieck became Meister Raro, and Clara became Cilia or Chiara. However, that was
only the beginning. These characters appeared in Die Wunderkinder (meaning child progidies),
joined by the likes of Paganini and Hummel, and as well by a person called Florestan the
Improviser. Florestan was, to put it simply, a personality of Robert, as was Eusebius. The
Florestan personality embodied Roberts inner virtuoso, the embellishing and pompous side,
while Eusebius resembled Roberts calm side, the thoughtful and laid back personality. One can
clearly hear the difference between Florestan and Eusebius, two small pieces from his Carnaval,
appropriately titled Florestan and Eusebius.

John Daverio and Eric Sams. "Schumann, Robert." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford
1
University Press, accessed November 30, 2013, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/
grove/music/40704pg4.
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We will now fully turn our attention to Roberts battle for Clara, starting with the year
1835. Robert and Clara openly flirted with each other, and as one thing led to another Robert
eventually declared his love to Clara. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse. Claras
father learned of their encounters and forbid Clara to see him ever again. That did not stop
Robert from composing and writing about Clara, of which he did much in the months to come.
Eventually Robert and Clara took their marriage request to the legal system, having plaintiffs
grant their permission to marry. Much to Fredrichs despise, they were successful in court and
married in 1840. A year later in September, their first child, Marie, was born. Schumann
continued to produce piano works, as well as Lieder and other forms of music, and his mental
state continued to decline through the years.
In 1854, he was sent to a private asylum in Endenich, a suburb of Bonn. The director of
this asylum was Dr Franz Richarz, who guided his patients on a no restraint method, meaning
he believed that direct contact with the patients relatives would hinder progress of the patients.
Due to this, Clara was not allowed to see Robert for almost two and a half years, and when she
did finally see Robert it was what would be two days before his death. Although highly
psychotic when first admitted, he gradually became better and was allowed to write to Brahms
and Clara, Brahms at the time living with Clara in Dsseldorf. During this time in the asylum,
Clara had given birth to a baby boy, whom she named Felix, after Felix Mendelssohn.
Richarz
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kept diaries for all of his patients; it is because of this that we have so many details of Roberts
time spent at the asylum. Robert was allowed to travel to Bonn to view the Beethoven

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monument when he became healthier, he played the Lipp piano in the room next to him at the
asylum, wrote and received letters from friends such as Joachim and Brahms, and friends visiting
were allowed to see Robert through a small aperture in the wall of his room. Robert even
managed to continue work on his unfinished Paganini harmonizations which he began in
Dsseldorf. Richarzs diary also held the most probable cause of Roberts death, writing of how
Robert had been writing down many different things, mostly melancholy in nature, with one
particular writing saying In 1832 I contracted syphilis and was cured with arsenic.
The
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source of this disease is believed to be most likely be from a woman who Robert referred to only
as Christel or Charitas, whom Robert was seeing in 1831 and 1832. Richarz recorded different
behavioral changes as Roberts neurological state began to wither away, consisting of
hallucinations, convulsive fits, gradual speech loss, delusional ideas (including that he was being
poisoned)1 aggressive behavior, and long periods of screaming. Clara had no idea that Roberts
mental state was so terrible, but when she heard that he had not left his bed for weeks, she
decided to go and visit for herself. Robert was practically consumed with pneumonia but
managed to find the strength to embrace her. Two days later on July 29, Robert died, and was
buried in a cemetery in Bonn.

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Clara Wieck was born in 1819 in Leipzig, Germany. Her father, Fredrich Wieck, taught
piano and was known as an excellent piano teacher. Claras formal school education was not
anything special, but her musical education was amazing. She studied under her father,
specifically piano, theory, harmony, counterpoint and other topics. Clara played in the Leipzig
Gewandhaus at only nine years of age, had her first formal solo debut at eleven, and began
touring in Germany, Austria and France at nineteen. Needless to say, Clara was a very gifted
pianist and much of her talent was brought out by her fathers teachings and hard work to
promote his daughters career and make her as well-known as possible. Ironically enough, at the
point in time when Clara and Robert married, Robert was not a well-known composer, while in
comparison, Clara was already internationally recognized as an excellent pianist and performer
during a time when it was more difficult for women to have such fruitful careers. Before Clara
and Robert married, Fredrich often and freely criticized Robert and his music; he despised the
fact that he and Clara claimed to love each other and forbid them to see each other. Clara wrote
about this later on in life, saying My father had to put up with being called a tyrant; however, I
still thank him for it every day; I have him to thank for the freshness that has remained with me
in my old age (at least in my art). It was also a blessing for me that he was exceedingly strict,
that he reprimanded me when I deserved it and in so doing, prevented me from becoming
arrogant from the praise the world showered on me. At times the rebuke was bitter, but it was
still good for me!
After Roberts passing, Clara decided to make up for the years of lost
5

Nancy B. Reich. "Schumann, Clara." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University
5
Press, accessed December 1, 2013, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/
25152.
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musical expedition due to raising and caring for the family, and toured and presented her works,
as well as Roberts, making him moreover well-known postmortem than while he was alive.
Having examined Robert and Claras lives, it is necessary to study the last point of this
love triangle, Johannes Brahms. Brahms was born in 1833 in Hamburg, making him twenty-
three years younger than Robert and fourteen years younger than Clara. Brahms was given
lessons on not only the piano, but the cello and horn as well. From seven years of age he studied
piano with Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel. After a few years of lessons Brahms was accepted
by Eduard Marxsen, one of Hamburgs best teachers, for instruction in music theory and piano.
Marxsen highly favored Bach and the Viennese Classical composers, and this was known to
Brahms. His first piano performance that is documented took place in a chamber concert in
1843, playing an tude by Henri Herz, a Mozart piano quintet, and Beethovens Wind Quintet op.
16.
After Brahms left his schooling, he began giving piano lessons to help with his familys
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income, as well as playing popular music at private gatherings and restaurants and accompanying
in the theater. Brahms threw himself into poetry and literary works, especially the works of Jean
Paul, E.T.A. Hoffmann, and J.F. Eichendorff. Bach and Beethoven highly influenced Brahms
musical style as well. Brahms also developed a love of folklore, including folk music and tales,
during his early years.
In 1853, Brahms collaborated with Remnyi with a January recital and had a concert tour
around northern Germany lasting from April to June. During this tour, Brahms met Joseph
Joachin in Gttingen as well as Liszt in Weimar, who sight-read Brahmss Scherzo, Op. 4.

George S. Bozarth and Walter Frisch. "Brahms, Johannes." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online.
6
Oxford University Press, accessed December 1, 2013, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/
article/grove/music/51879pg1.
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During the summer of the same year, Brahms returned to Gttingen to spend the summer
with Joachim, who highly encouraged Brahms to meet Robert and Clara Schumann. On
September 30, 1853, Brahms did just that, and thus began his stay with the Schumanns in
Dsseldorf.
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Now that we have an overview of all of the composers of this triangle of forbidden love,
let us take a look at the time period in which Brahms moved in with the Schumanns, examining
the Schumanns life situation at this point, and most importantly, analyzing music of Robert,
Clara, and Johannes that links them to one another and the emotions their works evoke. We will
also discuss letters between Johannes and Clara.
It would be difficult to claim there was a love triangle of sorts without having any
evidence to link Clara and Brahms together. After all, had Brahms not moved in there would be
no love triangle at all.
In 1871, Brahms made a manuscript that had Claras name with a tempo indication and
the style in which to be played, unruhig bewegt, at the top of the page. This piece was written on
decorated music paper, featured pedal indications, dynamic markings, specific fingerings, and
was almost free of notational error.
Because of its legibility, the precision of instructions for

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performance and the paper on which it was written, it is said that this was a finished composition
that he presented to Clara. Brahms is said to have presented it in honor of Clara and Robert

George S. Bozarth and Walter Frisch. "Brahms, Johannes." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online.
7
Oxford University Press, accessed December 1, 2013, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/
article/grove/music/51879pg1.

Paul Berry. Old Love: Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann, and the Poetics of Musical Memory. The
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journal of musicology: A quarterly review of music history, criticism, analysis, and performance practice,
accessed November 26, 2013.
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Schumanns 31st wedding anniversary on September 12, 1871, and Claras 52nd birthday on
September 13. However, at this point in time Robert had been deceased for fifteen years, so
speculation can be made that it was written nearly entirely for Clara, and his claim that it was for
the Schumanns anniversary could have been a safety net if he was afraid of rejection if he
presented the manuscript purely on the idea of it being for Clara.
Indicated by Claras diary, Brahms was one of many of her old friends who came to her
house on September 13 of 1871, and this is when he hand-delivered the piece to Clara. It is
believed that Clara kept the piece to herself, perhaps a sign of high regard for what Brahms had
written for her, or possibly an attempt to keep the public from making assumptions about Brahms
and Claras relationship. In 1878, Brahms had completed his Klavierstcke and played three
pieces from this set of music, including the piece he gifted to Clara. The piece had now come to
be known as Capriccio, and had undergone modifications in comparison to the original
manuscript Brahms presented to Clara. Clara has written three letters about Capriccio that allow
us to see her thoughts on the gift, as well as her opinion on his modifications of the piece.

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In Claras first letter, she describes Brahms as charming as never before.
Brahmss
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presentation of his original and unpublished composition helped Clara have high regard for him
and was an excellent birthday gift. In her second letter from July 6, 1877, she writes of still
enjoying playing the piece, which is still called Unruhig bewegt during this time, and she
describes it as very difficult but wonderful, tender and melancholy, and says she felt joy and

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sadness at the same time. The last letter contains Claras thoughts of Brahmss revision of the
piece he had originally presented to her, in which she stated that she was highly against the
revisions he made. This letter shows Claras personal attachment with the piece and how she
believed it was perfect as it was originally. Clara went into detail about specific sections Brahms
had revised and why she believed the original version was better, whether it was due to sound or
the fingerings of the keys she had come to know throughout her time of playing the piece.

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After reading the article I have been referencing from above, I have come up with two
theories about Brahmss affection for Clara. It is possible that Brahms revised his Capriccio
with the intention of seeing Claras reaction and hoping she would give him some sort of hint as
to her liking of it and having a personal attachment to it, which she did in a long letter she sent
him. This would allow Brahms to keep his desires for Clara alive in the sense that he felt he
might someday finally have her as his own. The fact that Brahms released his revisions seven
years after the original manuscript was presented to Clara could have been a purposeful act.
Brahms was presenting the world with his Klavierstcke, of which Capriccio was a part, but that
didnt mean Brahms could not have released his revisions to the public years earlier, had they
been done, and had it as a stand-alone piece until he finished his Klavierstcke. My second
theory is that Brahms really did not like his Capriccio as it was when presented to Clara in 1871,
and did truly want to revise it and make it better in his eyes. The fact that Clara sent him a
detailed letter on why she enjoyed the original much better and was unhappy with his revisions
did not convince him to refer back to the original version and include it in his Klavierstcke, a

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sign that while Clara mattered a lot to him and he very much respected her opinion, he wanted
Capriccio to become his own, if you will. This would mean that Capriccio was at first solely
Claras, the way she saw it, and when Brahms made his revisions, it also became even more so
his own work. After all, he did write the piece in the first place. Capriccio created what can be
abstractly interpreted as a relationship between Brahms and Clara through a piece of music. Her
high regard and many compliments for the piece can be seen as the high point in the musical
relationship, and her complaints about the revision can be seen as a quarrel between the two
musical geniuses. The fact that Brahms did not go back and use the version he presented to
Clara in his Klavierstcke can be viewed as Brahms taking control of this relationship through
music. This idea is highly abstract, but in Brahmss mind this could very possibly be how he
viewed the piece.
Capriccio is not the only example of Brahms showing his love for Clara. There are many
others, including the art songs Alte Liebe and Unberwindlich, in which Brahms sets Goethes
text to music. Here is an excerpt of the art song translated in English: I must have sworn a
thousand times Never again to trust that bottle; Still its like Im born anew When my innkeeper
lets me see it. Everything about it beckons, Crystal glass and purple wine; Once the corks been
popped, the bottles Empty, and Im not myself. I must have sworn a thousand times Never to
trust that lying woman, And yet Im still born anew When she lets my eye meet hers. Even if she
treats me falsely As befell the strongest man: Put your scissors in my hair, My beloved Delilah!
This song describes a man who cannot resist the desires of his old romance, and he turns to
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r

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alcohol to escape the pain of not having the woman he desires and loves as his own. The piano
postlude in Alte Liebe has links to the sound of Capriccio, a purposeful tie by Brahms. Clara
played Alte Liebe herself and noticed the correlations, bringing back her many memories of the
Capriccio, much to Brahmss liking. This distinct link between Capriccio and Alte Liebe set the
light in which Clara views the pieces, now seeing that Brahms is trying to tell her something.
While she most likely already knew that he was in love with her, she did not openly return the
same kind of affections for him as he presented for her.
There are many letters and more music examples between Clara and Brahms that show
Brahmss desire for Clara, and it is ironic that even though Brahms wanted Clara so badly, he
still went to visit Robert in the asylum, at a time when Robert was in no position to be able to
fight for Clara and keep her as his own. It will most likely never be known for a fact that
anything did or did not happen between Clara and Brahms in a romantic setting, but Claras
letters to Brahms, while affectionate in some cases, did not reciprocate the emotions that Brahms
felt for Clara.
Due to the amount of material and knowledge on Brahms and Claras relations, as well as
the musical works between the two of them and their letters, we can come to the conclusion (and
somewhat of a speculation in a sense) that Brahms never did have Clara as his own, as his lover,
but rather she stayed a very close friend and faithful to her husband Robert through his last of
days spent in the asylum, and even after his passing, throughout the rest of her widowed life.
Brahms visiting Robert in the asylum shows of a deep friendship between the two, and a high
respect of Robert on Brahmss part. Clara being able to visit Robert after nearly two and a half
years of not seeing him at all and taking advantage of that opportunity shows her deep love for
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Robert. While there may have been a love triangle, it seems that the majority of the romantic
love was posed by Brahms towards Clara, and while she did not outrightly reject him, she did not
talk and write to him in the same romantically affectionate way as he did to her. Thus we see
that the love triangle was more of a figment of Brahmss innermost desires than an actual reality,
in which Clara loved both Robert and Johannes in the same way, even after Roberts passing.
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Bibliography
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Nancy B. Reich. "Schumann, Clara." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford
University Press, accessed December 1, 2013, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/
article/grove/music/25152.
#
John Daverio and Eric Sams. "Schumann, Robert." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online.
Oxford University Press, accessed November 30, 2013, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/
subscriber/article/grove/music/40704pg4.
#
George S. Bozarth and Walter Frisch. "Brahms, Johannes." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music
Online. Oxford University Press, accessed December 1, 2013, http://
www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/51879pg1.
#
Paul Berry. Old Love: Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann, and the Poetics of Musical Memory.
The journal of musicology: A quarterly review of music history, criticism, analysis, and
performance practice, accessed November 26, 2013.
#

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Castle 1

This is the beginning of what seems to be the degradation of Roberts mental

Because of its legibility, the precision of instructions for

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