On September 13, 2012 Google chose “Clara Schumann” to be featured on their search engine homepage. This coincides with what would have been the 193rd birth anniversary of Clara Schumann. If you are wondering who Clara Schumann were do not feel alone, today millions of people around the world will learn more about Clara Schumann and the legacy she left behind.
Who was Clara Schumann Wikipedia?
In our quest to learn more about the September 13, 2012 Google Doodle about Clara Schumann and her eight children we turned to Wikipedia. Clara Schumann was born on September 13, 2012 in Germany daughter of Friedrich and Marianne Wieck. Her maiden name was Clara Josephine Wieck.
Clara Schumann did not receive recognition for her composer work until well after her death in 20 May 1896. She was one of the first pianists to play music from memory and as a pianist she made an impression which lasts until today. She changed live performances for ever, being able to play music from memory and on request. Today Google have bestowed one of the greatest honors to her, by remembering her via there Google Doodle, adding to the living legacy of Clara Schumann.
Her father and teacher Friedrich Wieck trained her to play music from the ear and to memorize the music. According to Wikipedia she gave public performances since the age of thirteen and according to the experts was exceptional.
“She was also instrumental in changing the kind of programs expected of concert pianists. In her early career, before her marriage to Robert, she played what was then customary, mainly bravura pieces designed to showcase the artist’s technique, often in the form of arrangements or variations on popular themes from operas, written by virtuosos such as Thalberg, Herz, or Henselt. And, as it was also customary to play one’s own compositions, she included at least one of her own works in every program, works such as her Variations on a Theme by Bellini (Op. 8) and her popular Scherzo (Op. 10). However, after settling into married life, probably under the influence of Robert, her performances focused almost exclusively on more serious music by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Schumann.” – by
.
Clara Schumann’s influence has reached us as well through her teaching, which emphasized a singing tone and expression, with technique entirely subordinated to the intentions of the composer. One of her students, Mathilde Verne, carried her teaching to England where she taught, among others, Solomon; while another of her students, Carl Friedberg, carried the tradition to the Juilliard School in America, where his students included Malcolm Frager and Bruce Hungerford.
And, of course, Clara was instrumental in getting the works of Robert Schumann recognized, appreciated and added to the repertoire. She promoted him tirelessly, beginning when his music was unknown or disliked, when the only other important figure in music to play Clara Schumann occasionally was Liszt, and continuing until the end of her long career.
Quotations: Clara Schumann
“Clara has composed a series of small pieces, which show a musical and tender ingenuity such as she has never attained before. But to have children, and a husband who is always living in the realm of imagination, does not go together with composing. She cannot work at it regularly, and I am often disturbed to think how many profound ideas are lost because she cannot work them out.” – by Robert Schumann in the joint diary of Robert and Clara Schumann
“Composing gives me great pleasure…there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a world of sound.” – Clara Schumann
In 1839, Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck wrote a petition to the Court of Appeals to marry without the consent of Friedrich Wieck. They got married on September 12, a day before her 21st birthday.
Her family life was hit by tragedy. Four of her eight children and her husband predeceased her, and her husband and one of her sons ended their lives in insane asylums.
She herself became deaf in her later life. She often would need a wheelchair. Clara suffered a stroke on 26 March 1896, and died on May 20 at the age of 76.
