The Department of Music is pleased to announce the publication of Clara Schumann Studies, edited by Dr Joe Davies, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellow (jointly affiliated with Maynooth University and the University of California, Irvine). The work is dedicated to the late Nancy B. Reich as a tribute to her pioneering scholarship on Clara Schumann.
Since the 1980s, when her life and work re-emerged from the margins into a more central position in music studies, Clara Schumann (1819–1896) has exerted an enduring fascination on the scholarly and popular imagination. Revisionist biographical studies, the uncovering of primary sources (diaries, letters, memorabilia), and filmic and literary depictions of Schumann have all brought into sharper focus the details and reception of her life, while simultaneously drawing attention to how much there is still to learn about her creativity.
This book – the first in the Cambridge Composer Studies series to address a female composer – brings together a team of leading scholars to reappraise Clara Schumann in three particular respects: first, by focusing more deeply on her social and musical contexts; secondly, by offering fresh analytical perspectives on her songs and instrumental music; and thirdly, by reconsidering her legacy as a pianist and teacher. In doing so, the book contributes to an inclusive understanding of Clara Schumann’s creativity within the cultural climate of her time.
Further details can be found at cambridge.org