The Girlhood Of Clara Schumann

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THE GITiLflOOD OF CLARA SCHUMANN CLARA WIECK AND HER TIME BY FLORENCE MAY AT7THOR OF THE LIFE OF JOHANNES BRAHMS WITH PORTRAIT LONDON EDWABD ABNOLD 1912 All rights reserved. PREFACE TN placing before English-speaking readers an account of the --girlhood of the famous pianist whose art and personality are vividly remembered by the older generation of the music lovers of to-day, I can in no wise claim that I am able to offer any hitherto unpublished particulars of biographical interest. For the main facts of that portion of my work which deals with the personal events of Clara Wiecks life I am indebted to the first volume of Berthold Litzmanns Clara Schumann, ein Kunstlerleben three volumes, which, founded on the diary and correspondence of the great artist, is, from the purely biographical point of view, exhaustive. There is, however, another standpoint from which Fran Schumanns early career may be studied one that has been left unconsidered by Litz mann and that was, perhaps, necessarily excluded from the scope of his work by the mere bulk of the personal material at his command, yet of great interest to music-lovers the stand point of musical history. The years covered by Clara Wiecks activity an a pianist coincide with a clearly-defined period in the progress both of creative and executive art, with the de velopments of which her achievement stood in distinctive and important relation. To show precisely what that relation was is one of the main purposes of the following pages. This part of the subject has not, so far as I am aware, been discussed in any previously published work, and its treatment has involved considerable search in original records. vi PREFACE The presentation, sideby side with Claras story, of an account of Robert Schumanns youthful aims and advancing successes, of the circumstances under which he produced the works for pianoforte solo completed at the date of his marriage which include practically all those that have made his name famous in this domain and their brief characterisation have seemed to me to belong essentially to my subject as a whole. For matters of fact in this connection I have made use of Clara Schumanns Jugendbriefe von Robert Schumann, Gustav Janserfs Robert Schumanns Briefe Neuo Folge, zweite Ausgabe and Die Davidsbiindler, and Wasielewskis Robert Schumann, Eine Biographic vierte Ausgabe. That Fricdrich Wieck, generally remembered chiefly as the tyrannical father who opposed his daughters marriage, appears in these pages as an enlightened musician of his time and the creator of his daughters great career would, I believe, have been approved by Fran Schumann herself, and that I have ventured to think there is something to be said from Wiccks point of view as to the exigencies of his position aw Claras father during the earlier years of her attachment, may, perhaps, be held justified in the opinion of impartial readers of my work. I have brought nay narrative to a close with the date of Claras marriage because the distinctively historical character of Frau Schumanns career, which has been but little recog nised up to the present time, was definitely established during her girlhood. The progress of her maturity served, indeed, to emphasise and develop, but not to change, the most essential feature of her early artistic activity whilst in her cane, as in others, a detailed account of the successes of the mature, executive artistcould scarcely fail to produce on the mind of the reader the impression of repetition. 4 1 must say with pain that my father has never been recognised as he deserved. 1 Lifczuiann, iii. 434 see also ibid, 802. PREFACE Vll I am indebted for much valuable information to Alfred Dorffels Geschichte der Gewandhauskonzerte in Leipzig, compiled from the original records preserved in the societys archives...