| Abstract |
Put in this way, this may sound like a statement that is so self-evidently true as to be meaningless--like the Earth is round or spring follows winter. Of course Clara Schumann is her own composer, just as every composer is his or her own composer, just as every person is unique. Yet as the author suggested in the last chapter, she has not been treated that way. She has typically been placed in the shadow of her more famous husband, and not just placed in his shadow but tethered to him, so that her achievements as a composer are not only obscured by his but also measured against his. This is of course a plight suffered by other female composers (Fanny Hensel, Louise Reichardt, and Alma Mahler are but three examples). But the situation with Clara Schumann is particularly acute for three reasons: she wrote almost all of her music during the years in which she was married, Robert stressed the similarity of their styles, and scholars continue to echo this view. The claim of stylistic similarity is tied up with the way Clara Schumann's songs were initially received, and it continues to influence how they are understood today. |
