A Book “The Complete Correspondence of Clara and Robert Schumann” 2/18/18

February 18, 2018

This is the book I have been wanting to read! There are 2 volumes and it is really a complete correspondence. Eva Weissweiler has edited and Hildegard Fritsch and Ronald Crawford have translated into English. Thanks to my university! They let me have this book for a long period of time. We learn so many things from their letters, not only their lives, but also the lives of musicians in 19th century. I enjoy reading several letters a day and imagine their lives! It will take me for a while to complete reading it!

I am little envious to Clara and Robert. They write everything in their letters. They don’t hide their struggles, negative feelings, and complaining. I suppose they did not need to hide their feelings and emotions in their relationship. They cry, they laugh, they make jokes, they love, they do everything together!

Because of their long separations (before their marriage) their letters were often like essays. They spoke each other in their letters, longing and yearning. In one letter Clara writes ” You will crown me with the most beautiful wreath, the myrtle wreath..” When Robert composed his song collection Op. 25 he named “Myrthen (Myrtle) and dedicated to Clara in the year they got married. (By the way I have been playing Davidsbundlertanze recently and I hear Widmung – the first piece in Myrthen – in No. 6 of Book II in Davidsbundlertanze!!) The myrtle wreath is a symbol of love and it is quite an amazing naming for a gift to a new bride, Clara! Clara and Robert used their compositions as their love letters as well. Their lives give me a never-ending fantasy!