The Perseverance of Clara Schumann
Writing news & the number 1 way Clara inspires me...
Dear Clara fans,
For years, so many of you have waited so patiently for news about my book, and I finally finally have some tangible GOOD NEWS to share!
This being a newsletter about Clara Schumann, I’ll tie in my news with what I admire most about Clara—her perseverance. (If you could care less about my writing news, scroll down for that Clara content!)
As for me, after I don’t know how many rejections and a terrifying number of rewrites over a period of five years, I am overjoyed to announce that I have signed with a literary agent! Elias Altman at Massie & McQuilkin Literary has hopped on board #TeamClara and is all in with getting a new trade book about Clara Schumann into readers’ hands.
I can’t tell you what a relief it’s been to work with someone so capable and committed to telling the stories of creatives we should all know. (Elias represents other authors of forthcoming books which include Marian Anderson and Nina Simone…stay tuned for those!)
For the confused musicians, a literary agent is a little like a performer’s agent—just sub in publishers and editors for performance venues and conductors. With Elias’s help, my writing will reach a lot more people in the publishing industry and find a much better home for my Clara book. And thank god, Elias is also an excellent editor.
Trying to wrangle the enormous life and the gargantuan topic of Clara Schumann into a book which appeals to modern readers has, in some ways, been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Or it’s taken the most perseverance. Every time in the last five years when it seemed impossible, I thought of Clara and all the times she could’ve given up. . . and didn’t.
The Perseverance of Clara Schumann
There are lots of myths around Clara Schumann quitting performing, quitting composing, or in various ways giving up on herself. And the more I learn about Clara and what she was up against, the louder I want to scream, “Clara was not a quitter!”
She was the opposite.
Clara Schumann gave concert tours until the age of 69. She played her last concert at age 71, the same age she finally retired from teaching at the Frankfurt Hoch Conservatoire. She could have quit so many times before that. In every decade of her life, she had ample reason to retire to a quiet domestic life. But she refused over and over.
For those who say, “But she gave up on her composing” that’s a longer more convoluted topic. I’ll just quickly say, technically, Clara composed her last composition at age 58 and was still occasionally performing her work in the 1880s.
More to the point—Clara had so many opportunities to quit. So many people who loved her encouraged her to give up her career. Her life would’ve been far easier, more socially acceptable, and less dramatic if she’d settled down to just be a piano teacher, a wife and a mother at age 20.
Here’s a list of the big moments when any normal person would’ve said, “I think I’ll stop now,” but Clara Schumann kept going. . .
At age 19, when her father refused to tour with her anymore out of protest of her engagement to Robert, Clara could’ve quit. But she decided to tour by herself to Paris anyway—as a teenager!
At age 21, when Robert wanted her to give up touring and give one local concert per year—as was fitting of a traditional wife at the time—Clara side-stepped that over and over. She wanted to make money and refused to give up the career she’d worked so hard for. She compromised and toured less cuz… eight babies… *cries!* But contrary to popular myth, Clara did NOT quit performing or composing when she married.
At age 30, after she had four babies in five years, Clara really did almost quit. She had a disastrous tour to Vienna. Robert was getting sicker. She started referring to herself as old but… she couldn’t stop. After a five-year gap of no composing, she composed her opuses 20-23.
At age 34, when Robert went into the hospital, everyone tried to give Clara charity. There were many offers of monetary help. She refused them all, insulted. She insisted on earning the money to support her husband’s care and her children herself—i.e. she returned to the life of fulltime touring artist.
At age 38, after Robert died, her chamber music partner, composer violinist Josef Joachim presented the first of many opportunities for Clara to find a permanent position of employment (either a residency at a royal court or teaching piano at a school). Despite no small amount of encouragement from Johannes Brahms, each time Josef found her another job, Clara refused. She wanted her freedom to tour and travel as she chose. She would not perform and teach on a schedule with repertoire and students decided by employers. She demanded absolute control over her life.
At age 49, when Johannes Brahms suggested she “settle down” in Vienna with him, Clara got so mad. Though it was a very reasonable question at that time, Clara had no intention of stopping her concert tours and was thoroughly insulted by the suggestion.
At age 54, Clara gave no concerts for a full year because of pain in her arm. She truly worried her career was over during the crisis. She recovered, of course, and returned to touring on a reduced schedule with less variety in her repertoire. Still Clara was not stopping.
At age 59, Clara became a fulltime professor at the Frankfurt Hoch Conservatoire, but even then she refused to stop touring. She negotiated, as part of her teaching contract, time off to tour England each spring. She gave her last concert in London at age 69.
There are many ways to describe Clara Schumann but “quitter” is not one of them. She persevered over and over again. In fact, it was a defining characteristic of her personality. There is a companion topic to this—why should musicians have to perform and work until they die—and perhaps Clara’s persistence to keep performing may not have been good for her. BUT her 60-year career was the secret to her lasting influence on music history.
Anytime you’re in need of motivation to keep going in the face of adversity—Clara’s story is here to inspire you. She inspires me every day.
Some new content this month on the Clara Schumann Channel YouTube and blog:
YouTube: Clara Wieck’s epic prodigy years, the full story
Blog: Mozart’s Sister documentary & Clara Schumann’s cadenzas
Blog: The story of Clara’s heroism during the Dresden Revolution
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Congratulations! :-)