Clara Schumann Biography (Composer/Pianist) Best known as: The pianist wife of composer Robert Schumann Name at birth: Clara Josephine Wieck Clara Schumann was a noted pianist and composer of the 19th century, a star of German Romanticism famous for her interpretations of compositions by Frédéric Chopin and by those of her husband, Robert Schumann. Clara was a child prodigy and the daughter of piano teacher Friedrich Wieck. She began her professional career early, performing her first major concert at the age of 11 and publishing her first songs at the age of 12. Robert Schumann was nine years older and a student of her father's; by the time Clara returned from a successful concert tour in 1838, the romance that had blossomed with Robert had proceeded, despite her father's disapproval. Clara had to take legal action against her father to be allowed to marry, and she and Schumann were married in 1840. She toured Russia in 1844 without Robert, and she raised their eight children after he had a mental breakdown in 1854 (he was committed to an asylum after a suicide attempt).

Although she did little composing later in her career, Clara Schumann championed the career of Johannes Brahms and furthered her huband's legacy after his death in 1856. An influential concert performer, she also taught at the Frankfurt am Main Conservatory after 1878. Copyright © 1998-2017 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved. Robert Schumann | German composer | Britannica.com Robert Schumann Alternative Title: Robert Alexander Schumann Robert Schumann Carl Maria von Weber Robert Schumann, in full Robert Alexander Schumann (born June 8, 1810, Zwickau , Saxony [now in Germany]—died July 29, 1856, Endenich, near Bonn , Prussia [Germany]), German Romantic composer renowned particularly for his piano music , songs (lieder), and orchestral music. Many of his best-known piano pieces were written for his wife, the pianist Clara Schumann. Robert Schumann. © Photos.com/Thinkstock The early years Schumann’s father was a bookseller and publisher.

After four years at a private school, the boy entered the Zwickau Gymnasium (high school) in 1820 and remained there for eight years. He began his musical education at the age of six, studying the piano. In 1827 he came under the musical influence of the Austrian composer Franz Schubert and the literary influence of the German poet Jean Paul Richter , and in the same year he composed some songs. In 1828 Schumann left school and, under family pressure, reluctantly entered the University of Leipzig as a law student. But at Leipzig his time was devoted not to the law but to song composition , improvisation at the piano, and attempts to write novels. For a few months he studied the piano seriously with a celebrated teacher, Friedrich Wieck, and thus got to know Wieck’s nine-year-old daughter Clara, a brilliant pianist who was just then beginning a successful concert career. In the summer of 1829 he left Leipzig for Heidelberg .

There he composed waltzes in the style of Franz Schubert, afterward used in his piano cycle Papillons (Opus 2; 1829–31), and practiced industriously with a view to abandoning law and becoming a virtuoso pianist—with the result that his mother agreed to allow him to return to Leipzig in October 1830 to study for a trial period with Wieck, who thought highly of his talent but doubted his stability and capacity for hard work. Schumann’s Opus 1, the Abegg Variations for piano, was published in 1831. An accident to one of the fingers of his right hand, which put an end to his hopes of a career as a virtuoso, was perhaps not an unmitigated misfortune, since it confined him to composition. For Schumann, this was a period of prolific composition in piano pieces, which were published either at once or, in revised forms, later.

Among them were the piano cycles Papillons and Carnaval (composed 1833–35) and the Études symphoniques (1834–37; Symphonic Studies), another work consisting of a set of variations. In 1834 Schumann had become engaged to Ernestine von Fricken, but long before the engagement was formally broken off (Jan. 1, 1836) he had fallen in love with the then 16-year-old Clara Wieck. Clara returned his kisses but obeyed her father when he ordered her to break off the relationship. Schumann found himself abandoned for 16 months, during which he wrote the great Fantasy in C Major for piano and edited the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik ( New Journal for Music ), a periodical that he had helped to found in 1834 and of which he had been editor since early 1835. In 1837 Schumann formally asked Clara’s father for permission to marry her, but Wieck evaded his request. The couple were finally married in 1840 after Schumann had gone to court to set aside Wieck’s legal objection to the marriage.

Robert and Clara Schumann, lithograph by J. Hofelich The Bettmann Archive Dinosaur Eggs May Have Taken Six Months or More to Hatch Schumann had by now entered upon one of his most fertile creative periods, producing a series of imaginative works for piano. Among these are the Davidsbündlertänze (composed 1837), Phantasiestücke (1837), Kinderszenen (1838; Scenes from Childhood), Kreisleriana (1838), Arabeske (1838), Humoreske (1838), Novelletten (1838), and Faschingsschwank aus Wien (1839–40; Carnival Jest from Vienna). Schumann wrote most of Faschingsschwank while on a visit to Vienna , during which he unearthed a number of manuscripts by Franz Schubert, including that of the Symphony in C Major (The Great).

In 1840 Schumann returned to a field he had neglected for nearly 12 years, that of the solo song; in the space of 11 months (February–December 1840) he composed nearly all the songs on which much of his reputation rests: the cycles Myrthen (Myrtles), the two Liederkreise (Song-Cycles) on texts by Heinrich Heine and Joseph Eichendorff, Dichterliebe (Poet’s Love) and Frauenliebe und Leben (Woman’s Love and Life), and many separate songs. Music: Fact or Fiction? Clara had been pressing him to widen his scope, to launch out in other media—above all, the orchestra . Now in January–February 1841 he composed the Symphony No.

1 in B-flat Major, which was immediately performed under the composer Felix Mendelssohn at Leipzig; an Overture, Scherzo, and Finale (April–May); a Phantasie for piano and orchestra (May), which was expanded into the famous Piano Concerto in A Minor by the addition of two more movements in 1845; another symphony , in D minor (June–September); and sketches for an uncompleted third symphony, in C minor. After this the orchestral impulse was temporarily spent. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies In another new departure, Schumann in 1842 wrote several chamber works, the finest being the Piano Quintet in E-flat Major. The year 1843 was marked by Schumann’s most ambitious work so far, a “secular oratorio,” Das Paradies und die Peri (Paradise and the Peri). He made his debut as a conductor—a role in which he was invariably ineffective—with its first performance in December of that year.

During Schumann’s work on The Peri, the newly founded Leipzig Conservatory had been opened with Mendelssohn as director and Schumann as professor of “piano playing, composition, and playing from score”; again he had embarked on activities for which he was unsuited. The first few months of 1844 were spent on a concert tour of Russia with Clara, which depressed Schumann by making him conscious of his inferior role. On returning to Leipzig he resigned the editorship of the Neue Zeitschrift. In the autumn of 1844 his work was interrupted by a serious nervous collapse. From late 1844 to 1850 he and Clara lived in Dresden, where his health was gradually restored. In 1845 he began another symphony, No. 2 in C Major, but because of aural nerve trouble nearly 10 months passed before the score was finished. Schumann wrote the incidental music to Lord Byron’s drama Manfred in 1848–49. Robert Schumann and Clara Schumann at the piano.

© Photos.com/Thinkstock Schumann’s attempts to obtain posts in Leipzig and Vienna had also been abortive, and in the end he accepted the post of municipal director of music at Düsseldorf . At first things went tolerably well; in 1850–51 he composed the Cello Concerto in A Minor and the Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major (the Rhenish) and drastically rewrote the 10-year-old Symphony in D Minor, ultimately published as No. 4. He also conducted eight subscription concerts, but his shortcomings as a conductor became obvious, and in 1853 he lost his post as music director at Düsseldorf. Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest Schumann’s nervous constitution had never been strong. He had contemplated suicide on at least three occasions in the 1830s, and from the mid-1840s on he suffered periodic attacks of severe depression and nervous exhaustion. His musical powers had also declined by the late 1840s, though some of his works still display flashes of his former genius. By 1852 a general deterioration of his nervous system was becoming apparent. On Feb.

10, 1854, Schumann complained of a “very strong and painful” attack of the ear malady that had troubled him before; this was followed by aural hallucinations. On February 26 he asked to be taken to a lunatic asylum, and the next day he attempted suicide by drowning. On March 4 he was removed to a private asylum at Endenich, near Bonn, where he lived for nearly two and a half years, able to correspond for a time with Clara and his friends. He died there in 1856. Assessment As a composer Schumann was first and most naturally a miniaturist. Until after his marriage the great bulk of his work—including that by which he is best known—consisted of short piano pieces and songs, two genres so closely related in his case as to be hardly more than two facets of the same. The song accompaniments are often almost self-sufficient piano pieces, and the piano pieces often seem to have been melodically inspired by lyrical poems.

Even when the musical idea did not originate in literature but as a waltz, polonaise, or some other striking harmonic progression found at the piano by his improvising fingers, it was usually given a quasi-literary title or brought into relationship with some literary idea. Much of Schumann’s most characteristic work is introverted and tends to record precise moments and their moods. But another side of his complex personality is evident in the forthright approach and strongly rhythmic patterns of such works as the Toccata (1829–32) and the Piano Quintet. These two aspects are reflected in the two self-projections—the heroically aspiring Florestan and the dreamily introspective Eusebius—into which Schumann analyzed his own character and which he drew upon in an autobiographical novel, his critical writings, and much of his music. Trending Topics United States presidential election of 1860 Schumann’s early music—and much of the later—is full of enigmas , musical quotations (usually in subtle disguises), and veiled allusions .

In the field of the piano miniature and the pianistic song, he is a supreme master; in the simpler kind of lyrical inspiration and in the invention of musical aphorisms , he has seldom been surpassed. When Schumann embarked on more ambitious composition under Clara’s influence, his success was less assured. He was uncertain in writing for the orchestra and relied too often on safe routine procedures; his string writing was pianistic; and his most characteristic musical ideas, which he had hitherto been content to fit together in mosaics or remold plastically by variation, were seldom suited for development on a large scale. Nor in sustained musical thought did he find a satisfaction comparable with the smaller creations of his private dreamworld. Given such innate limitations, it is astonishing that Schumann was able to construct a symphony as firmly welded as the No. 4 in D Minor or a first movement as organic as that of the Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, and that he could conceive orchestral music of such gloomy power as the Manfred overture or the penultimate movement of the Symphony No. 3.

Some of his large-scale works, such as the Piano Concerto and the Piano Quintet, depend overmuch on the piano for their salvation, but the piano certainly saved them. Schumann did manage to create large musical forms that could communicate his own special brand of intimate poetry and unforced nobility. It was long customary to detect in the works of Schumann’s last years evidence of his approaching collapse. But he had been mentally unstable all his life, haunted by fears of insanity since the age of 18, and the change of style noticeable in the music of the early 1850s—the increasing angularity of his themes and complication of his harmony—may be attributed to other causes, including the influence of J.S. Bach. Schumann was rightly considered an advanced composer in his day, and he stands in the front rank of German Romantic musical figures. Even his critical writing, which is as fantastic, subjective, and lyrical as his early music, constitutes a valuable document of the trend and period. Yale University Library: Exhibits at the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library.

Robert Schumann: Composer, Critic, & Correspondent Continue to the image gallery On June 8, 2010, the world celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Robert Schumann. A central figure in the romantic movement in music, Schumann still ranks among the most frequently performed composers, thanks to his piano pieces, songs, symphonies, and piano concerto. Like Hector Berlioz and Virgil Thomson, he was as well known in his own day for his work as a music critic as for his compositions. His complex and sometimes troubled personality, his marriage to the pianist Clara Wieck , and their subsequent connections with Brahms make him one of the most vivid characters in the annals of music history. Schumann was born in Zwickau, Saxony, in 1810. His father was an author, translator, and book seller, and from an early age Robert evinced what proved to be a lifelong passion for literature. As a boy he studied piano, flute, and cello and began composing, though he was not initially committed to a musical career.

He attended the universities of Leipzig and Heidelberg, ostensibly working towards a degree in law, but he devoted himself instead to music, literature, and philosophy, as well as the more usual adolescent pursuits; his friends later reported that he skipped all his classes. In 1828 Schumann took his first lessons with the renowned piano teacher Friedrich Wieck, and in 1830 he persuaded his mother to let him try for a career as a keyboard virtuoso, and moved into Wieck’s house in Leipzig for a regime of daily instruction and intensive practice. Schumann’s pianistic ambitions were eventually thwarted by a myste­rious disorder with his right hand, but his time with Wieck proved fateful in another respect, as he came to know Wieck’s daughter Clara (1819–1896), who was already a piano prodigy. In 1835 they fell in love, but they had to wait five years before they could marry because of a long legal battle with her father, who considered Schumann an unfit husband for his daughter. Over the course of the 1830s Schumann became known as a creative and somewhat eccentric composer.

During this period he concentrated chiefly on piano music, especially short character pieces, many of them gathered into large sets, such as Papillons, Davidsbündlertänze, and Carnaval. These compositions are full of allusions and flights of fancy, and they often transform hackneyed popular genres into something intensely personal and poetic. In 1840, the year he married Clara, Schumann abruptly switched his focus to the voice, composing more than a hundred songs, including many enduring classics, such as the song cycle Dichterliebe . The next year, he turned his attention to the orchestra, with the composition of two symphonies and the first version of his piano concerto. He continued his exploration of genres in the following years, composing a variety of chamber works in 1842 and the oratorio Paradies und die Peri in 1843. These and later works—including more symphonies, concertos, and songs, as well as the opera Genoveva—helped cement Schumann’s reputation as one of the major composers of the century. Schumann was famous for more than just his compositions; he was also the most important German music critic of his generation.

He published his first article in 1831 (acclaiming the genius of the young Chopin), and in 1834 he founded an influential journal, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , which he edited until 1845. He had a vivid prose style, and his reviews often featured discussions between fictional characters who expressed different sides of his own multi-faceted personality. In 1844 the Schumanns left Leipzig for Dresden, and in 1850 they moved to Düsseldorf, where Robert became the music director. Unfortunately, his record as a conductor was not always successful, and after a number of disputes, he resigned in 1853. That same year Johannes Brahms visited Düsseldorf, and quickly became friends with both Robert and Clara. Profoundly impressed by the young man’s compositions, Robert wrote a celebrated article that hailed Brahms as a genius and proclaimed him heir to the legacy of Beethoven. Schumann suffered intermittently from psychiatric troubles throughout his adult life, and in 1854 he attempted suicide.

He was voluntarily confined to a hospital in Endenich, but his mental and physical condition deteriorated further, and he died there on July 29, 1856. During her marriage, Clara had cut back on her concert schedule because of the challenges of raising a large family as well as Robert’s anxiety about being in his wife’s shadow. After his death she resumed her career as a traveling virtuoso, and for the next four decades she was universally regarded as one of the world’s leading pianists. She was also an important advocate for her husband’s music (which she edited) as well as that of her friend Brahms. For most of the twentieth century she was remembered only as a brilliant pianist who had close ties to two great composers, but in recent years many of her own works have been revived with success. Our exhibit focuses particularly on Robert Schumann the composer, featuring the manuscript of the song “ Resignation ” (Op. 83, no. 1), sketches for the Études symphoniques , and the handwritten title page of Paradies und die Peri , as well as several early printed editions. Schumann the critic is represented by his famous articles about Chopin and Brahms .

The library holds numerous letters by each of the Schumanns, and from these we have selected three by Robert and two by Clara. Clara Schumann the composer is represented by a recently acquired manuscript of four piano studies , along with a published song. We are also proud to display the manuscript of an early version Brahms’s “Capriccio,” Op. 76, no. 1 , which he gave to Clara in 1871, as well as a sketch for Charles Ives’s setting of “Ich grolle nicht,” a poem made famous by Robert Schumann’s setting in Dichterliebe . --Richard Boursy, Archivist Continue to the image gallery Web design by Rémi Castonguay. Special thanks to: Suzanne Borsch, Rémi Castonguay, Emily Ferrigno, Eva Heater, Suzanne Lovejoy, Niloufer Moochhala, and Oliver Schowalter-Hay for their help with this exhibit.

Poster design by Niloufer Moochhala Clara Wieck Schumann | Biography & History | AllMusic Clara Wieck Schumann Biography by Robert Cummings Clara Wieck Schumann was a major female figure among the German Romantics as a pianist, composer, and muse to Schumann and Brahms. google+ Artist Biography by Robert Cummings Clara Wieck Schumann has often been misleadingly referred to as the wife of composer Robert Schumann , and as one of the leading pianists of her day, rather than as a composer in her own right. Beginning in the last quarter of the twentieth century however, her stature as a composer finally became recognized. Still, she cannot by any reasonable measure be ranked as a major composer, owing in great part to her relatively small output. She nonetheless wrote significant compositions in both the keyboard and vocal realms. Had she been able to devote more time to composition -- she was occupied by maternal matters much of the time, having given birth to eight children -- she might well have risen to the artistic heights of her husband. Some of her later works -- the Six Lieder, Op. 23, for instance -- demonstrate considerable subtlety and depth.

Clara Wieck was born on September 13, 1819, in Leipzig. She began studying the piano with her domineering and difficult father, whom her mother, a talented singer, later divorced. Mr. Wieck was a piano teacher of high repute. Clara gave her debut concert in Leipzig at the age of seven playing Kalkbrenner 's duet, Variations on a March from Moses, with him. In 1830, Robert Schumann began study with Wieck, at which time he first met Clara. At twelve Clara toured Europe with her father, achieving great success in Paris and throughout Germany. By 1837 she was recognized as one of the leading virtuosos in Europe, and her career as a composer was blossoming as well. Her first compositions date from 1830, but her 1836 Soirées musicales, Op. 6, already shows considerable sophistication. In 1837 she and Schumann became engaged, with boisterous objections from her father. Clara seems to have broken from her father's influence when she toured Paris alone in 1839.

The break was made complete the following year when she married Robert Schumann . They would have eight children, and Clara would slowly watch her sensitive husband lose his sanity. The couple at first lived in Leipzig, where both taught at the University. Clara did not write much in the early years of her marriage, though she did complete the Six Lieder, Op. 13 (1842-1843), and some piano pieces, including the Three Preludes and Fugue (1845). In 1853, the Schumanns moved to Düsseldorf, and Clara had a very productive summer, producing several significant works, including her Op. 20 Variations on a theme of Robert Schumann and the aforementioned Op. 23. In 1854, Robert Schumann suffered a mental collapse and attempted suicide, after which he was committed to an asylum where he lived for the rest of his life. He passed away in 1856. Johannes Brahms , who had been introduced to the Schumanns in 1853 through the violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim , became an increasingly important figure in Clara's life.

To this day, their exact relationship is unclear, but it is difficult to refute claims they had an affair. Brahms was 14 years Clara's junior, and possibly felt their age difference too great an obstacle for marriage. Clara composed little in the years following Robert 's death, even after her children were grown. She lived in Berlin from 1857 to 1863, at which time she moved to Baden-Baden. After briefly returning to Berlin in 1873, she took a teaching post at the Frankfurt Hoch Conservatory (1878). She continued to concertize until 1891. She died of a stroke on May 20, 1896. Clara Schumann Biography, Quick Facts, Introduction to Op. 37/12 Clara Josephine Wieck Schumann: Short Biography and Quick Facts (Summarized from New Grove and others) -Clara was born in Leipzig on September 13, 1819; died in Frankfurt on May 20, 1896.

-Robert Schumann was born in Zwickau on June 8, 1810; died in the asylum at Endenich near Bonn on July 29, 1856. -Clara's parents were Friedrich Wieck (1785-1873), a music teacher, and Marianne Tromlitz Wieck (Bargiel) (1797-1872), a soprano and student of Wieck; Clara's father had resolved before her birth that she would be a great musician and child prodigy. -Her first public appearance was in 1828 (age 9); first complete piano recital in 1830 (age 11); first extended tour in 1831. -She performed extensively and studied piano, voice, violin, instrumentation, score reading, counterpoint, composition; wrote and published several pieces for solo piano.

-Robert Schumann came to live and study with Wieck in 1830, and asked permission to marry Clara in 1837; Wieck objected, and did all he could to prevent the wedding before Clara's 21st birthday when she would be legally able without his consent; Robert and Clara filed a lawsuit, and won, but out of spite went ahead and married the day before her birthday, September 12, 1840. -They first lived in Leipzig where they both taught in the Conservatory there; they moved to Dresden in 1844, to Düsseldorf in 1850. -Their children were: Marie (1841-1929), Elise (1843-1928), Julie (1845-72), Emil (1846-47), Ludwig (1848-99), Ferdinand (1849-91), Eugenie (1851-1938), Felix (1854-79).

-Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) met the Schumanns in 1853, and remained a dear friend of both while they lived. -Robert's mental health was poor, and following a suicide attempt in 1854, he was committed to the asylum at Endenich; he is said to have suffered from manic depression and psychosis. -Clara moved to Berlin in 1857, where she performed, taught, and edited Robert's works and letters; she was known as a champion and interpreter of the music of Schumann and Brahms, and was a direct influence on their music. -Her playing was characterized by technical mastery, thoughtful interpretation, poetic spirit, depth of feeling, a singing tone, and strict observance of the composer's markings. -She travelled on 38 concert tours outside Germany. -All her compositions date from 1853 or before, including 29 songs, 3 partsongs, 4 pieces for piano and orchestra, 20 pieces for solo piano, and cadenzas for 3 piano concertos by Beethoven and Mozart; her works are numbered up to Op.

23, with 17 others without opus numbers. -She set poetry by: Heine, Rückert, H. Rollet, E. Geibel, Kerner, F. Serre, Goethe, Lyser, and Burns (translated by Gerhard). Chronology | Clara Calendar | Chronological Worklist | Genre Worklist | Bibliographies Spouses, Pianists, Composers A Biographical Introduction to Op. 37/12 Too often the music of women composers is condemned to particular concerts "For Women Composers Only". Rather than exalting their creativity, this practice gives the impression that women composers need special assistance, that their music is inferior, and that they require affirmative action. Instead, their music should be allowed to stand on its own, freely mingled with music of men composers, especially their colleagues: those with whom they interact and share influence. Only then will the discerning listener be able to objectively assess the imagination and craft of each composer, and praise the genius of those worthy. A fascinating comparison can be made of the music by Robert and Clara Schumann, who were both pianists and composers.

Though Clara's ambitions as a concert pianist and composer were hindered by the responsibilities of family life, Robert encouraged her to compose. Their musical interaction was intense, as they studied symphony scores together, shared reactions to performances, and read similar literature. On the day following their wedding, Robert gave a new diary to Clara for her birthday, recommending that they write and exchange the diary weekly, so that each could pen reflections on music they had heard, projects they were working on, people they had met and dined with, and any personal notes to the other that spoken words could not express. They continued this diary for several years. Today it serves as an intimate narrative of the lives of two artists, and in its recent English translation, provides us with a detailed chronicle of their creative offspring. Around the same time, during the year of his most productive songwriting (he wrote over 300), Robert suggested that Clara join him in composing a group of songs and publish them intermingled. She began by writing Am Strande, and gave it to him as a gift for Christmas, 1840.

Later, they chose poems to set to music from the collection Liebesfrühling (Love's Springtime) by Friedrich Rückert; Clara's were written in June 1841, while she was 6 months pregnant with their first child, Marie. Robert secretly had the 12 songs printed in two volumes and presented them to Clara on their first anniversary, September 12, 1841. Robert's songs were assigned to his Opus 37, and Clara's three contributions comprise her Opus 12, numbers 2, 4, and 11. The resultant list of songs looks confusing: 37:1, 12:2, 37:3, 12:4, 37:5-10, 12:11, and 37:12. Robert's songs show tremendous variety in shape and quality, and seem more experimental, especially in his response to the words. Clara's songs in this set are either simple and heartfelt, or dramatic displays of piano virtuosity. Her expression of text is direct but full of nuance. Robert and Clara selected quite distinct poems for their songs.

Clara chose poems of devotion and passion uniquely from a woman's perspective; Robert preferred poetry full of metaphor, vivid imagery, and classical themes, but likewise revealing a man's viewpoint. As they alternate, the songs reflect the conversation found in the diary itself, an intimate and touching dialogue of two loving and creative souls. Robert Schumann, Composer Robert Schumann ©Johann Anton Völlner, Hamburg Robert Schumann, Composer Born: 1810 | Died: 1856 Robert Alexander Schumann was born in Zwickau. He was one of the most famous composers of the Romantic era in the nineteenth century. Schumann decided early on to pursue a musical profession first as a pianist in Leipzig and then as a composer. In 1840 he married Clara Wieck, the daughter of his piano teacher. She was a gifted piano player and performed many of her husband’s compositions. Schumann was also a famous music critic who recognized Wagner's and Brahms' talents. Schumann's music reflects his deeply personal romantic nature. His early compositions were an attempt to break free from the restraints of classical forms. Much of the appreciation for his work came after his lifetime.

Today Schumann's music is regarded as ground breaking, innovative and authentic in harmony, rhythm and form. Schumann's most famous works include "Papillons (op.2)," "Toccata in C," "Symphony Etudes," "Carnaval (op.9)," "Fantasiestücke," "Warum," "In der Nacht," "Faschingschwank aus Wien," "Kinderszenen" and "Träumerei." In February of 1852, Schumann attempted suicide by trying to drown himself in the Rhine River. Rescued at the last minute, it was determined that he was insane and by his own request he was placed in an asylum where he died several years later. Clara Wieck Schumann Biography - Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline Musicians Clara Wieck Schumann Biography Clara Wieck Schumann was a distinguished German musician and composer of the Romantic era. This biography of Clara Wieck Schumann provides detailed information about her childhood, life, achievements, works & timeline.

Quick Facts Emil, Marie, Elise, Julie, Ludwig, Ferdinand, Eugenie, Felix Image Credit Clara Wieck Schumann was a distinguished German musician and composer of the Romantic era. She lived during a time when female musicians of her caliber were extremely rare to find and despite being one of the few women in a male-dominated field, she enjoyed a productive career that spanned six decades. An accomplished pianist, she changed the format and repertoire of the piano over the course of her long career and left behind an important body of compositions. Born to a highly ambitious musically inclined father, she was trained for success from a young age. Her father had decided even before her birth that he would make his child a performing artist of the highest rank. As a little girl she received training in piano, violin, singing, theory, harmony, composition, and counterpoint, and started performing at the age of eight under her fatherâs watchful eyes. She fell in love with one of her fatherâs students, Robert Schumann, and married him despite her fatherâs disapproval. She continued her career as a performing artist and composer after marriage and skillfully juggled her responsibilities as a professional, wife, and mother.

She played a major role in getting the works of her husband recognized and herself produced a small, but significant body of musical compositions. Childhood & Early Life Clara Josephine Wieck was born on 13 September 1819 into a middle-class family in Leipzig, Germany. Her father Friedrich Wieck was a piano teacher and music dealer and her mother Marianne was a concert pianist. Her father had lofty ambitions for Clara and ensured that she received training in piano, violin, singing, theory, harmony, composition, and counterpoint from the time she was a little girl. She was influenced by both of her musically inclined parents and proved to be a child prodigy. Her parents separated when Clara was around five years old and she went to live with her father. She received an extraordinary music education along with her regular schooling. She received training in theory and composition from Christian Theodore Weinlig, Cantor of St. Thomas Church, and Heinrich Dorn, director of the Leipzig Opera. She gave her first solo concert at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1830, at the age of 11.

Her program included bravura works by Kalkbrenner, Herz, and Czerny, and two of her own compositions. Her performance earned considerable praise from the critics. Delighted by the attention his young daughter was getting, Friedrich Wieck took her on several performing tours over the next few years. She also began composing by the early 1830s, and by 1835, Clara was famous throughout Europe. Career As a child prodigy, Clara Wieck Schumann had become quite a sensation in Europe by the time she reached her mid-teens. She travelled extensively and performed before sold-out audiences and received extravagant praise from the critics. When she was 18, she performed a series of recitals in Vienna from December 1837 to April 1838. Meanwhile she had fallen in love with one of her fatherâs students and desperately wanted to marry him. However her father forbade her marriage as he felt that it would curb his daughterâs successful career. Nonetheless, the couple got married in 1840. She continued performing and composing even after her marriageâa rare feat for a woman living in mid-19th century Europe.

Motherhood followed soon after as she gave birth to eight children in quick succession between 1841 and 1854. She somehow juggled her domestic duties with her professional career though she did not receive much support from her husband. She went to England for the first time in 1856 and was invited to play in a London Philharmonic Society concert by conductor William Sterndale Bennett, a good friend of Robert's. She also played Robert's âPiano Concerto in A minorâ with the New Philharmonic Society. She would return to England many more times over the next few years. In 1857, she, along with her friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim, went on recital tour to Dresden, Leipzig, and Munich. By this time her husband had died and Clara resumed travelling and performing in order to earn money to support her family. She achieved great success as a performing pianist and earned a reputation as one of the elite musicians from Germany. She travelled along with Joachim and some other musicians to Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland, in early 1867.

Health problems forced her to slow down during the early 1870s though she continued travelling well up to the late 1880s. She accepted an appointment as a teacher of the piano at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt in 1878, and held this post until 1892. As a music teacher she contributed greatly to the improvement of modern piano playing technique. She played her last public concert in Frankfurt in 1891. Major Works Clara Wieck Schumann was more popular as a concert pianist than as a composer as she herself did not have much confidence in her ability to compose. Nonetheless, she left behind a significant body of compositions that include âQuatre Polonaises pour le pianoforteâ (1831), â4 PiÃ¨ces caractÃ©ristiques for pianoâ (1836), âPiano Trio in G minorâ (1846), and âDrei romanzen fÃ¼r pianoforte und violineâ (1855).

Awards & Achievements In March 1838, she was named a âKÃ¶nigliche und Kaiserliche Kammervirtuosinâ ("Royal and Imperial Chamber Virtuoso"), Austria's highest musical honor. Personal Life & Legacy She became acquainted with Robert Schumann, an aspiring musician, when he started taking musical lessons from her father. Robert was nine years her senior and despite the age difference, the two fell in love. Her father however disapproved of her marriage to Robert and the young couple went to the court where the judge permitted them to get married. They got married in 1840 when Clara was 21 years old. She gave birth to eight children in quick succession between 1841 and 1854. Her husband suffered from severe mental issues and attempted suicide in 1854. He then had to be committed to an asylum due to his deteriorating mental and physical health. He died of syphilis in 1856. Clara Wieck Schumann had a long and productive career but her personal life was plagued with numerous tragedies. Even though she gave birth to eight children, four of them predeceased her.

In addition to raising her own large family, she was also saddled with the responsibility of raising some of her grandchildren. She suffered a debilitating stroke in March 1896 and died after a few weeks on 20 May 1896, aged 76. Translate this page to Spanish, French, Hindi, Portuguese Pictures of Clara Wieck Schumann Also Listed In

Question: Which composer married the celebrated pianist Clara Wieck in 1840 ?
Answer: ROBERT SCHUMANN