Schumann, Beethoven, and the “Distant Beloved”

Abstract

This chapter turns to Robert Schumann's Fantasie in C Major, op. 17, a piece that lies at the center of his innovative cluster of piano works from the 1830s and that was conceived in 1836 at the stressful nadir of his struggle for the hand of Clara Wieck, the brilliant young pianist who became his wife four years later. As originally conceived, the composition in question was an offering to Beethoven, who had died almost a decade earlier, in 1827. To better illustrate Schumann's approach to the piece, this chapter considers not only his compositional preoccupations and ongoing engagement with Beethoven's music but also Beethoven's own treatment of the theme of a distant beloved in several works—pieces that in turn became sources of inspiration for Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck during their difficult periods of separation in the later 1830s.

How Universal is Beethoven? Music, Culture, and Democracy

“…is rejected because [as Beethoven writes] 'it reminds us of our despair,' whereas the second 'is not better, but only somewhat more cheerful,' and the third 'is too tender,' too far removed from action." 27 It is interesting that the first three movements all begin with a falling perfect interval-a fifth in the first movement, an octave in the second and, after a short introduction, a falling fourth in the third movement. In contrast, the famous "Ode to Joy" theme from the fourth movement rises and falls in stepwise motion.…”

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“…Long an object of stony disapproval, Beethoven came to regard her as his greatest adversary and, rightly or wrongly, the wellspring of his misery. Even though their legal conflict over the custody of his nephew Karl had been formally resolved in Beethoven's favour in July 1820, Karl continued to see his mother surreptitiously and, in the composer's view, came to be depraved and corrupted by her malign influence [22].…”