AS YOU PREPARE FOR CLASS TODAY…

• Think of questions related to Homework

Assignment #3
• Think of questions for Group Oral Report work

You are listening to solo piano music of

Clara Schumann

https://towson-naxosmusiclibrary-com.proxy-tu.researc
hport.umd.edu/catalogue/item.asp?cid=8.553501

Source: www.rediscoveringculture.com
 CLARA SCHUMANN’S EARLY
LIFE AND TRAINING

February 27, 2020

Class #10
www.imagequest.com
 TODAY’S TOPICS

• Group Oral Presentation

final preparation
• Final thoughts about Fanny
Hensel
• Early life and training of
Clara Wieck Schumann

Image: www.imagequest.com
 GROUP ORAL PRESENTATIONS

• Next class, Groups 1 – 4 – in this order

• Carreño
• Chaminade
• Smyth
• Price
• Be sure to email slides to me BEFORE you present
(either that morning or early afternoon by the latest)
 WHAT GETS TURNED IN

• Slides emailed to me BEFORE your presentation

• Print out of slide show in handout format – six slides per
page
• Group Oral Presentation Summary Page – signed by all
group members with Works Cited included
• Homework Assignment #3
 SLIDE TIPS

• Bullet points only – don’t fill slide with text

• Incorporate text and images
• Clip art does not need a citation on slide
OTHER IMAGES NEED CITATION

• Incorporate a text box at bottom

of page
• Include URL of images
downloaded from web
• May begin with words “source”
or “image”
• No need to include in Works
Cited slide

Image: https://www.schumann-portal.de/id-1850.html
 MLA CITATION FOR WORKS
CITED

• In electronic resources, use “Cite” link and look at

recommended citation
• Compare it to example on Citation Guide passed out today
and make adjustments
• For books and sources without cite links, use guide and
follow pattern to create citations
• Do your best to be thorough
 FINAL PREPARATIONS

• Be sure to practice and time presentation

• Use notecards as reminder, but look up at audience
• Be sure your musical example opens and plays from
slide or web
• Minimum 10 minutes – maximum 12 minutes
• One minute warning
• Minute or two for questions from class
 FANNY HENSEL

What will you

remember about
Fanny’s life and
works?

Image: www.imagequest.com
Clara Wieck Schumann
(1819–1896)
Virtuoso Performer
Composer
Professional Musician

Source: Franz Hanfstaengl-Hulton Archive/Getty Images

• Clara Schumann’s narrative has been subject to significant
alteration over time

• She was long cast as a performer who gave up her art during her
marriage, making her fit a socially expected role

• In truth, she performed throughout her marriage, even

throughout the ten-year period during which eight children were
born to the family

• By the end of her career, Clara Schumann had performed 38

extensive foreign tours and regularly toured Germany
 CLARA WIECK SCHUMANN – A LIFE IN
THE PUBLIC SPHERE

• Born in Leipzig in 1819

• Piano Prodigy – Debut at 9
• Professional roles:
• Acclaimed Pianist
• Composer
• Teacher
• Editor of Robert’s
published musical works
Photo: www.geneva.edu/~dksmith/clara/gallhall.html
 CLARA’S COMPOSITIONS

•Small musical forms (feminine sphere/private setting)

•29 lieder
•chamber music
•20 pieces for solo piano
•improvisations
•Large musical form (masculine sphere/public setting)
•piano concerto
•Suffered from psychosocial issue: anxiety of authorship
 CLARA’S SHELTERED WORLD

• Friedrich Wieck: respected teacher and piano dealer

• Trains his daughter as a child prodigy
• Creates documentation (diaries, tour books, concert
artifacts)
• Limits Clara’s exposure to others and life choices

• Clara meets Robert at age 9

• Supportive of each other’s musical endeavors and swapped
compositions
• Secret courtship – father brings lawsuit - 1838
• Marry in 1840
 https://musicalics.com/en/place/Friedrich-Wieck-Stra%C3%9Fe-10-Dresden-Loschwitz

http:https://www.fortepiano-collection.net/friedrich-wieck-piano-by-
schelle-1835
https://www.alamy.com/clara-schumann-with-her-father-friedrich-wieck-teaching-her-the-
piano-image155402363.html
 NOT SO HAPPILY AFTER

• 1840 - marries Robert

Schumann
• 14 year marriage – 8
children
• Robert committed to
asylum in 1854 – dies there
in 1856
• 4 of 8 children predecease
Clara
Photo: www.coindumusicien.com/Lecoin/schumann.html
 CLARA’S PUBLIC SPHERE
ACHIEVEMENTS

• Celebrated concert pianist -

large scale musical forms
• Composer – published under
her own name
• Interpreter, editor, champion
of Robert Schumann’s works
• Respected teacher at Hoch
Conservatory
Photo: www.eiu.edu/~wsminor/
 POLONAISE IN E FLAT MAJOR

• Clara’s Opus 1, no 1
• Composed in 1829 (10 years old)
• Polonaise = stately Polish dance in a triple meter
• Published 1831
• Form: Rondo (ABACADA)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWQvK3HFmVg
 IMPROPMPTU, “LE SABBAT”

• Composed 1835, Op. 5, no. 1

• Published 1836
• First in a set of four pieces
• Form: Ternary A – B - A
• Character piece: subject = witches’ dance
• Triple dance meter
• Tempo marking: Allegro furioso
 “LIEBST DU UM SCHÖNHEIT” (IF
YOU LOVE FOR BEAUTY”)

• Genre: Lieder
• Text by Friedrich Rückert
• Composed in 1841 a year after marriage to
Robert
• Included in an anthology of joint
compositions
• 3 of 12 songs by Clara

• From: Strophic
• Subject: love

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_u_Clara_Schumann_1847.jpg
 FOR NEXT TIME …

• Group presentations –
part 1

https://www.schumann-portal.de/Fortepiano_from_Stein_Vienna.html