New Book on Clara Schumann Published for the Cambridge University Press Composer Studies Series

The Department of Music is pleased to announce the publication of Clara Schumann Studies edited by Dr. Joe Davies and featuring a chapter by Professor Nicole Grimes. The volume is dedicated to the late Nancy B. Reich as a tribute to her pioneering scholarship on Clara Schumann.

Since the 1980s, when she re-emerged from the peripheries into a more central position in music studies, Clara Schumann (1819–1896) has exerted an enduring fascination over the scholarly and popular imagination. Revisionist biographies, 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 delving deeper into 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 a holistic and gender-aware understanding of Clara Schumann’s creativity vis-à-vis the cultural climate of her time.

Dr. Davies writes that “it has been an honor to work on this book with scholars from across Europe, Canada, the UK, and the USA. I look forward to continuing the conversations about Clara Schumann’s life and art that the essays have set in motion and hope that the material will offer new ways of thinking about women in music more generally.”

Further details can be found here.