Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T12:49:59.132Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Clara and Robert Schumann’s Circles in Dresden

‘I take the liberty to request from you an invitation … to your musical matinée’1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2021

Joe Davies
Affiliation:
Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

Clara and Robert Schumann moved to Dresden in 1844, and resided there until 1850. Little is known about their social life in Dresden, although Schumann scholars have refuted both the notion of Dresden as a culturally underdeveloped town and the perception that Clara and Robert lacked artistic innovation during their residency there. Indeed, they initiated and participated in a number of spontaneous private visits, meals, soirées, organized musical circles, matinees and trios in their own or friends’ homes; walks and outings in the countryside; sociable visits to restaurants and coffee houses; and public events. All these served the shared purpose, albeit in different forms, of communication about and through music. By illuminating facets of the Schumanns’ private and semi-public life in Dresden from the perspective of interpersonal communication, this chapter offers insights into how Clara and Robert Schumann communicated with their contemporaries through physical meetings, letters, visual components (such as drawings and lines of poetry) in album leaves, and musical material, together with a discussion of how these communications influenced their artistic outlook. In doing so, the chapter sheds light on the blurred boundaries between private, semi-private and public domains, especially as these levels of communication were merged in the Schumanns’ lives.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×