Analysis Of Clara Schumann

A Look into Clara Schumann’s

Liebst du um Schönheit

A peer to such keyboard greats - such as Rubenstein, Thalberg, and Liszt - Clara Schumann (1819-1896) was a brilliant pianist and composer. Carrying a career which extended over sixty years, Schumann contributed a great deal of repertoire to the world of Lieder. Much like her performing technique, her compositions were famous for carrying a beautiful tone and poetic temperament. In analyzing Clara Schumann’s Liebst du um Schönheit, one can cultivate an understanding of Schumann’s compositional techniques, as they are implemented in the style of German lieder.

Liebst du um Schönheit was a number in part of project entitled Twelve Songs from F. Ruckert’s “Springtime of Love”. The text is drawn from Friedrich Ruckert’s Liebesfruhling. Of this work, nine of the compositions were written by Robert Schumann (Clara Schumann’s husband) and three were written by Clara Schumann. To accentuate that this collection of twelve songs was a compilation by two individuals, it is listed as two opus numbers. On the title page, it appears as “Opus 37/12”, with the first number being Robert’s and the second being Clara’s.

Clara Schumann’s Liebst du um Schönheit, directly translated to “If you love for beauty” sets a four-couplet poem to a very effective accompaniment.

Liebst du um Schönheit is set, musically, in a modified strophic form: Introduction (mm. 1-2), A (mm. 3-10), A’ (mm. 11-18), A (mm. 19-26), A’’ (mm. 27-36), and Coda (mm. 37-41). Each section of the strophe can best be described as a contrasting period. The A section always cadences with a half cadence on F, as though to move to the fifth scale degree (B-flat). However, the line always modulates back to the key of D-flat ...

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...ece most definitely appealed to the public, as it contains a simple strophic structure, which is easy to follow and relate to. In addition, it’s melody -which floats effortlessly above the warm accompaniment- is simple both textually and in contour, and maintains conjunct until the end of each line. This piece - composed by a great - is as lovely as the topic it discusses.

Citations:

Boyd, Melinda. "Gendered Voices: The "Liebesfrühling" Lieder of Robert and Clara Schumann."

19th-century music23.2 (1999): 145-162. Print.

Nancy B. Reich. "Schumann, Clara." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online.

Oxford University Press. Web. 5 May. 2014.

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Wright, Craig M., and Bryan R. Simms. "The Romantic Period." Music in western civilization.

Belmont, CA: Thomson/Schirmer, 2006. 742-589. Print.