Perseverance in Love Wins in the End: The Famous Schumann Versus Wieck Battle

Perseverance in Love Wins in the End: The Famous Schumann Versus Wieck Battle
An 1847 lithograph of Robert and Clara Schumann. Public Domain
Michael Kurek
Updated:

Two extremes predominate in writing about the great composers: a tendency to romanticize and mythologize them into inspired demigods, and the current tendency to pull their statues down from their pedestals or perhaps their little composer busts from our pianos. This second view focuses on all of their human flaws, whether real or imagined on scant evidence. One thing is usually above guesswork, though, the concrete historical record in things such as birth certificates, deeds, and lawsuits.

An 1847 lithograph of Robert and Clara Schumann. (Public Domain)
An 1847 lithograph of Robert and Clara Schumann. Public Domain
Michael Kurek
Michael Kurek
Author
American composer Michael Kurek is the composer and producer of the Billboard No. 1 classical album, “The Sea Knows,” and a member of the Grammy Producers and Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy. He is Professor Emeritus of Composition at Vanderbilt University. The most recent of his many awards for composition was being named in March 2022 “Composer Laureate of the State of Tennessee” by the Tennessee State Legislature and governor. For more information and music, visit MichaelKurek.com
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