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not first-rate at it she would let down her sex, perhaps adversely affecting future women composers. In any case, she declined to do anything less than first-rate. (Certainly her eventual decision to give up composing—if it was a conscious decision—was influenced by her being involved with two supremely gifted composers.) After her husband died Clara hardly wrote anything new, while her performing career skyrocketed. Everything suggests that Clara never felt as confident or happy in her composing as she did at the piano. As a result, she gravitated to what she knew she was good at and most loved, performing, and let go the thing she was not sure she was first-rate at or ever would be—composing. Her need to make a living for her family certainly reinforced that decision, but did not dictate it. With her genius and reputation it would certainly have been possible for Clara to find patrons and/or a second husband to provide for her and the children, and give her time to compose. There is no indication she ever considered that. In other words, Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms made opposite career choices for similar reasons: going toward their main strength and greatest fulfilment. To say that Clara made the wrong choice is not only to second-guess a supreme artist and professional, but also to presume that pianists are inferior to composers—a dubious presumption.

46. Brodbeck “Brahms-Joachim Counterpoint Exchange” 69.

47. Litzmann Life 109.

48. Burk 325.

49. Litzmann Life 110.

50. May 190.

51. Bickley Joachim Letters 6/23 and 25/1855.

52. E. Schumann 4.

53. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 6/25/1855.

54. Litzmann Life 113.

55. Burk 330 and Kalbeck I, 250.

56. Litzmann Life 113–4.

57. Burk 331–2.

58. Litzmann Life 86.

59. Litzmann Life 115–6.

60. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 8/12/1855.

61. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 8/19/1855.

CHAPTER SEVEN

1. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 8/20/1855.

2. Besides the neo-Baroque A minor suite there were some pieces in B minor, perhaps toward a suite in that key.

3. Kalbeck I, 239–40.

4. Litzmann Life 78.

5. Specht 45.

6. Ostwald Schumann 291.

7. Litzmann Life 117.

8. Litzmann Life 120.

9. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 11/3/1855.

10. Brodbeck “Brahms-Joachim Counterpoint Exchange” 33.

11. Litzmann Life 120 and May 195.

12. May 195.

13. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 11/20/1855.

14. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 11/25/1855.

15. May 196.

16. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 12/4/1855.

17. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 12/4/1855.

18. Bickley Joachim Letters 12/9/1855.

19. Litzmann Life 123.

20. May 199–200.

21. Horne 269.

22. Litzmann Life 123.

23. Litzmann Life 126.

24. Kalbeck I, 255–6.

25. May 201.

26. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 1/15/1856.

27. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 1/15/1856.

28. Stephenson 65.

29. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 2/12/1856, quoted on 66n.

30. MacDonald 95–8 and Appendix. MacDonald is convinced the work is authentic, Geiringer doubtful.

31. Bickley Joachim Letters 2/26/1856.

32. Brodbeck “Brahms-Joachim Counterpoint Exchange” 34n.

33. The information in this section is largely based on the study by Brodbeck in “The Brahms-Joachim Counterpoint Exchange.”

34. Joachim’s complaint about the Geistliches Lied is a response to spots such as the first beat of measure 59, where a double suspension produces a startling superimposition of E, F, G, A♭, and on the second beat the soprano leaps to a sharp dissonance, producing a harmony of F, G, A♭.

35. See Brodbeck “Exchange” 73–6. Brodbeck also surmises that Brahms encoded his own name in the piece, and thereby “sought nothing less than to identify himself with the role of Clara’s spouse”; but the encoding, if authentic at all, is obscure.

36. Ostwald Schumann 291–2. From the standard hospital procedures, Ostwald surmises that Schumann may have been tube-fed, but it was not enough to keep him alive.

37. Geiringer Brahms 49.

38. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 5/31/1856.

39. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms Letters 5/24/1856.

40. Litzmann Schumann/Brahms